Here are some six-word “essays”
that describe teachers:
“I
remember her fifty years later.”
“Teachers
hold the ladders students climb.”
“Destroy
chains. Shape wings. Inspire flight.”
“I
struggled; she never gave up.”
“All
thirty students raised their hand.”
“Selflessly
dedicated to someone else’s success.”
“Point
out the stars. Provide rockets.”
“Watch
them soar, then demand more.”
“They
doubted, you believed, I succeeded.”
The vocation of a teacher is a precious
thing. Many of us take it for granted, and few of us take the time to see its
grace in our lives. At SJI International, we’re surrounded by the power and
effect of great teachers every day. We’re surrounded by those who bring
knowledge to life, set fire to curiosity, and guide inquiry into ever deeper
dimensions. Add in wide experience, enthusiasm for learning, a sense of humor,
and a real appreciation and love for a wide range of young students - or simply
put, a love of kids - and what emerges is someone for whom giving is a habit
and mystery is a friend, someone who carries the responsibility lightly but
exercises it seriously, someone who knows how to hone the edges of young minds,
keep them on their toes, and fill their hungry souls.
Thomas Aquinas called teaching the most
generous of all cooperative arts. Like other cooperative arts such as farming,
teaching works with what is already there, working with the given soil of
individual personalities, backgrounds, learning styles, challenges, gifts, and
talents - those who sit staring in front of you at the beginning of each
lesson. It’s an art because teaching requires much that cannot be found in
books. The best lesson plans are never followed by the best teachers, because
lesson plans only set the jazz melody, not the performance. And teaching most
generous because it is almost all gift. No one other than students really see
it, and most of them forget the details of teachers but remember the power of
their effect. A few may return years later to express their gratitude, but
that’s about as frequent as children thanking their parents for their
upbringing. It’s not really expected either, because it was never done for the
thanks it might bring. Teaching, like good parenting, comes from a generous,
loving heart that pursues the good of those who have, in God’s Providence, been
confided to our care.
I would suggest that the greatest model one
might follow as a teacher is that of Jesus. He walked alongside his followers,
leading them by familiar roads to unfamiliar places through what he did and
said, and in that order. He knew the power and the responsibility of words,
their connection to what he did. He spoke to them in a language that others
understood, but he also spoke with “authority” - an integrity and wisdom that
engages the listener fully. He gave them new ways of thinking and of seeing
things, new ways of responding to situations around them, new ways of being in
the world. And what He finally gave them, of course, was himself, fully and
totally, profoundly and uniquely.
It is that gift of Jesus Christ, that gift
of Himself, which we live anew and celebrate at each Mass. It is that same gift
of self in our teachers that we celebrated for and among our teachers on Friday
morning, October 5th. They are a blessing to be acknowledged.
St. John Baptist de La Salle, our
inspiration and Founder, and the Catholic Church’s Patron Saint of All
Teachers, in a section of writings about the many miracles that Jesus
performed, says this, “You too can perform miracles by touching the hearts of
those confided to your care.” If that perspective and invitation is taken
seriously, we should realize that the vocation of the teacher is one that continues
to be boundless. Wonderful things yet lie ahead.
