They Could Not Keep Their Eyes Open

During my morning readings a few days back, I came across this phrase.  It suddenly dawned upon me that Jesus' students encountered the very same struggles that students today face. 

At one of the most important times in their life, when they had been asked specifically by their teacher to stay alert, they were found falling asleep!  And we're not talking about one of the stragglers at the back of the class.  No, these were Jesus' three top students -- the inner circle -- the creme of the crop -- the "summa cum laude" guys -- who couldn't keep their eyes open!

So, if that was the case with Peter, James and John, this poor teacher should not be surprised nor offended when even some of his most diligent students occasionally can't seem to keep their eyes open during class.  Now, I try to provide some incentive for them to stay awake. 

Rather than standing in one place at the front of the classroom (which I have observed seems to be the norm among many of the local prof's here), I try to infuse some variety into the discussion by walking about through the aisles and even sometimes taking a place at the back of the room in order to challenge the students to adjust to a new posture in order to engage a new perspective. 

In addition to these peripatetic tendencies, I also take some pains to restrain my natural inclination to speak up and so try to lower my volume a bit.  As you might imagine, though, this strategy tends to have the opposite effect than the one I'm seeking.  So, those short periods of soft tones are usually followed by an abrupt exclamation or the invocation of some Latin maxim whether it is application to the legal issue under consideration or not. 

But you might be asking at this point, why is it that my students are having such a struggle to stay awake.  Am I that boring???  Well --- I’ll let you ask my students to answer that one.  I will only say that I'm trying to be ever interesting and engaging.  I'm trying to talk less and ask questions more -- to encourage dialogue and eliminate monologue.  That said, though, there is another possible cause. 

You see, students here are very conscientious about their studies that they will often stay up quite late diligently studying in preparation for the next day's classes.  They study so much, that when they come to class, the struggle to stay awake -- not because they're uninterested in the subject under discussion or just bored -- they're EXHAUSTED!

Since that is indeed most often the case, I just might start bringing a couple extra pillows to my classes and offer them as rewards (not to be used during lectures, however!) to the most diligent disciple who, like Peter, James & John, find that they "could not keep their eyes open."