By now, the new school year is in full swing. Students and teachers have begun the familiar routine of lessons, learning, guiding, and encouragement. The hope is a spark of interest is being nurtured in students to acquire new learning. This new learning will serve them well as they continue to grow and mature.
There’s nothing like bright eager faces turned upward, enthralled at learning new things. There’s also those students who come from places of neglect, places of abuse, places where no encouragement is ever given. Our teachers are tasked with a great charge to educate all in their classes.
It seems to me to be a monumental task we have set before our teachers. Yes, there are benchmarks the teachers will teach to. There are certain educational goals that must be reached by the students. There is organization and discipline which must be taught along the way. There are spats between students to be solved. There are runny noses and upset stomachs to be tended to. There are state mandated standards to be adhered to. Its enough to say, a teacher’s job is one of the most demanding and consequential in our society. We place a lot on the shoulders of those who teach our children.
If we want our children to grow into responsible, knowledgeable adults, we must support our teachers. They deserve our respect and admiration for all they do. When you break down the waking hours of our children, they spend more concentrated time with our teachers than they do with parents. The children are engaged in learning all day long. At home, its incumbent on parents and caregivers to support the teacher’s efforts. This is how learning and maturing works. One supports the other to the benefit of the child.
I don’t even pretend to understand the intricacies of teaching. Taking young minds and shaping and molding them. Helping them to acquire a thirst for knowledge. It is an amazing mystery to me how you teach someone to read. I know you start by learning the alphabet, the sound each letter makes. You begin to put letters together to form words. You begin to teach basic speech patterns. In my day, you began with the simple books about Fun with Dick and Jane. I marvel at the patience required in the teaching process. The patience, the steady mentorship, the ability to lovingly correct and redirect, all of these are skills and abilities of our great teachers.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I am in awe of teachers. Every profession, every job, every career, they all begin with teachers.
In Deuteronomy 32:2, we read…”Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” This is part of a song which Moses recited to the Hebrew children. He was being taught by God, and in turn he passes on that teaching to all of Israel. That’s how teaching works, isn’t it? One learns, and then in turn passes on what they have learned to others. There are all sorts of teaching and learning, but some of the best teaching comes from those who have dedicated their lives to the task.
We all have heard the words of the writer of Proverbs 22:6…”Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” Parents and teachers work hand in hand to guide young minds. They prepare them to be a part of the whole. They teach them how to conduct themselves, how to relate to others, how to work with others. Children are taught a great many things as they grow up. They soak up knowledge and experience. This is why when we are engaging with our children, we have to remember they are constantly learning from us and others. How we treat one another, they are watching and learning. If we are kind, they learn to be kind. If we are arrogant, they learn that lesson also. If we are severe in our discipline of them, they see and experience and internalize that teaching too.
We are all teachers of our children. What we do, what we say, how we act, every bit of it our children watch, see and absorb.
I pray for our teachers and students, that God will watch over them. May God well up in our children a desire and thirst for knowledge. May God guide and direct our teachers to have patience and understanding as they do the very best they can with their students. May God remind each of us that we are teachers too, giving us the ability to demonstrate to our children the lessons of humility, grace, mercy and love.
Your companion on the Way,
Pastor Tom