I suggest that you learn the practice of "reflective notetaking" rather than mechanical notetaking.  In order to grasp what I mean by "reflective notetaking," it will be helpful if you have a clear understanding of the roles which you and I should play in the classroom.

My role as prof is not merely to tell you what is true.  Rather, it is to guide you through learning experiences.  These learning experiences will include lecture, to be sure, but will also include other types of more direct experiences which are geared to (1) help you discover truth on your own, and (2) help you appreciate truth when you do hear it told.

I will not treat you as a passive receptacle of truth -- a grinning waste basket waiting to store up the latest revision of my notes.  Rather, I will treat you as an active intellect ready, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to wrestle with the important issues before us.

If these topics and issues were simple with easy answers, I would mail you a pamphlet with each issue neatly defined and solved in a paragraph or two.  However, many of the topics we will deal with in this class are complex (compare 2 Peter 3:16) and require mental sweat (compare 2 Timothy 2:15).  Thus, the amount and quality of think-work you devote to this course is one of the largest factors in determining what you get out of the course.  The more personal preparation you make on each topic, the more the class lectures and discussions will make sense to you.

As you work at thinking, I hope you will not fall into one of the extremes of being either closeminded or being too openminded.
 
 

I expect you neither to quickly believe everything said in class, nor to quickly dismiss anything said in class.  This applies equally to what I say as well as what your fellow class members say.   So I expect you to listen carefully and critically.  Further, your own ideas on each subject are very important, not only to you but to me and the rest of the class as well.  Thus, you should "sound off" whenever you have any serious comment or question.

The above concept of the roles of the prof and the student parallel the roles of the writer and the reader as explained in the following quotation (from Louis Cassels, Haircuts and Holiness, New York: Family Library, 1972, pp. 9-10):

Some people are content to base their religious decisions on information, attitudes, and viewpoints spoonfed to them in sermons and Sunday school lessons.  If they find the diet palatable, they keep coming back for more.  If they can't swallow what's set before them in the church they happen to attend, they reject the whole religious enterprise, never bothering to inquire whether it was real Christianity or a pathetic caricature which put them off.

If you are satisfied with such a passive-reactive approach . . . you may as well return this book right now and get your money back.  For my sole purpose will be to encourage, challenge, stimulate, or irritate you into doing your own thinking . . . .

I have been wrestling with these questions for a great many years and have arrived at certain convictions which I intend to share with you as honestly and forthrightly as possible.  I'll also quote other people whose opinions make sense to me.  But I neither want nor expect you to accept these views unless, after thoughtful consideration, you find they make sense to you too.

To avoid monotonous repetition, I shan't preface every sentence with "in my opinion," or "I believe," or "it seems to me."  But I hope you'll consider these disavowals of omniscience to be implicit in all my statements, even those which may sound a mite positive.

A wise editor once told me that a writer should strive not to make up but to shake up the minds of readers.  This seems to me particularly necessary in dealing with religious questions, for no one can be said really to believe something until he has doubted it enough to subject it to serious questioning.

So I repeat, if you want your brain washed, you'll have to go elsewhere.  All we're peddling at this stand is provocation.

The key to effective notetaking is not faster writing, nor is it tape recording.  The key is reflective listening.  Listen and evaluate both what I say and what your classmates say.  Then write down only those ideas that are new to you, and write them in your own words.