Oh me of little faith.

We had a guest visitor -a missionary- in my primary class last week. He wanted to do a quick "object lesson" involving a rat trap.

So he first does a demo where he sets the rat trap and sticks a pencil in it which loudly snaps in two pieces.

Then, he resets the rat trap (unhooking the spring bars) and asks the kids who will stick their finger in it.

He told them that nothing would happen and they needed to have faith in him.
He told them that as a representative of our savoir he could not lie. (what? of course he COULD lie)
He proceeded to goad and peer pressure them to put their finger in the trap.

I was mortified! I was shaking my head and NOT encouraging the kids to "have faith" in him. I told him that "I have faith in the savoir and he never asks me to stick my finger in a rat trap." I was seriously worried that he was going to break one of the kids fingers in my class!

He spent a long time telling us that none of us had faith, ect.. it was awful!

It turns out that the trap was not set, I was pretty sure that he believed it was safe all along but I was not about to risk it!

He finally showed us that the trap was rigged not to go off. His object lesson was a complete failure.

I was still dumbfounded after he left the class. I told the kids they made the right choice. This was a better lesson in peer pressure. DON'T do something stupid just because someone tells you it is safe. I am not worried about my faith. I am a little worried about what the kids think of it all.