So we are entering a new school year. And while I may be biased for teachers, being married to one, I have also been a student for a very long time as well as having raised four children. I really appreciate and value education.
Teachers, at all levels, face serious challenges from different directions. It’s hard enough to get students to engage and do the work required to master material. In addition, there are the institutional battles such as getting tenure, specifically in the universities, keeping track and pace with mandated curriculums, and working within school policies. As if all of this weren’t enough to drive an educator out of the field, parents bring their own special obstacles to the equation. How many times has a parent blamed a teacher for their son/daughter’s short comings.
The last couple of years have seen a roller coaster ride for educators across the country. At the beginning of the pandemic, teachers specifically, and educators as a whole, had to reinvent how they shared their knowledge and engaged students remotely. Many of them did not have the technological skills for this endeavor, and yet they worked hard, learned, and overcame so many challenges. People everywhere were singing their praises, painting Superman s’s on their chests, and tying capes around the necks of teachers from kindergarten up to university professors. They were heroes. (For the record, they still are!)
However, the page has turned, and politics has intervened to vilify so many dedicated and loving teachers. They have been accused of indoctrinating children into sexual behaviors, manipulating them for political purposes, and more and worse. Books that have been taught for generations are being pulled from libraries at the request of a single parent for reasons such as teaching the brutality of the Holocaust, the reality of slavery in America, and the plight of Native Americans. Other books have been yanked for addressing LGBTQ+ issues, racial issues, and sexual material. Ironically, these same people are perfectly happy to have the Bible taught. Have you read all the sex and violence in our Bible?
I was observing a school board meeting in another state where a teacher, who happened to be gay, was addressing the board. She pointed out that while she was indeed gay, and was being forced out, that here whole goal had been to teach math. She also pointed out her success rate. As a side note, she added that while she was being painted as one who was indoctrinating children into a different life style, she simply did not have the time for that. This is not an isolated story.
Now, let’s take a change here. Jesus did a lot of things during his ministry. Among them, and at the forefront of it all, He taught. He taught us how to love, how to interpret Divine Law or Torah, how to live in community, and so much more. He has been called the greatest of teachers. Was he indoctrinating his followers? I think one could make that accusation. And yet, in all of it, he taught, and called us, in the Great Commission, to teach.
Now, as we all know, in order to teach, we must know, and thus we must study and learn. I would argue that teaching is not just a gift, but a Divine art.
As the new school year gets underway, let us embrace, encourage, and lift up our students of all ages, the teachers and professors who are building the future, and the staffs who provide the environment for the construction of lives to exist. Yes, let us pray for them, but let us also help all of them by becoming teachers/tutors, by donating supplies, and by encouraging through words and gifts when challenges arise.
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