After a few years of not teaching NFP classes, Sheila and I taught our first class of a revised NFP course for our new organization, NFP International. It was fun.
The preparation for teaching was something less than fun. A teaching couple had sent us a PowerPoint presentation, but we didn’t have a projector. We ordered one, but its shipment was delayed, so it was scheduled to arrive late in the afternoon the day before the class. I can’t live with that sort of “iffy,” so we prepared to teach directly from a printout of our online manual, “Natural Family Planning: The Question-Answer Book.” We were teaching at the request of our pastor who had one couple under instruction for a summer wedding. We did no other publicity aside from that parish’s Sunday bulletin, so we knew we would have only one to three couples in attendance. We printed out a manual for them as well.
As it turned out, we taught only the one couple, and teaching from the manual was easy. We sat at a table facing the couple at their table. Sheila and I each had a manual, and the couple shared theirs. As usual, we split up the teaching every few minutes. It was simple: ask a question directly from the manual and answer it in our own words or sometimes directly from the text. We added a few practice charts, and before the break the couple had evaluated the temperature pattern on two different charts. We came back to these same charts for the evaluation of the mucus and cervix signs. For us it was an enjoyable experience.
We are currently making a few changes in the manual to make it even better for such purposes, and we may decide to keep teaching right from that manual when we have only one to three couples to instruct. The PowerPoint presentation will be better suited for larger groups. We will continue to teach from the manual for the second and third meetings of this course.
In retrospect, the late arrival of the projector was a blessing in disguise. If it had arrived earlier, we would have used the PowerPoint presentation and would not have had this no-tech experience. One advantage of this approach is that we were able to maintain face-to-face contact with the couple in a fully lit room. Another advantage of using just the manual without a projector is that this approach is well suited for poor areas of the world where electricity is either non-existent or irregular.
What makes teaching the NFPI program rewarding is that its teachers know that it is essentially the same program that they taught successfully over the years but with a revised approach.
NEXT WEEK: CCL now says the old was good.
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality (Ignatius)
Natural Family Planning: The Question-Answer Book
www.NFPandmore.org