Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
In my first year of teaching I developed one particular skill that is invaluable to any teacher; the ability to improvise. So as I returned for my second year behind the wheel of the educational apparatus, I walked in a little too confidently perhaps. Sure, I still planned things, but it was with the idea of meeting the bare minimum requirements. This mentality made sense last year when I was just trying to figure things out and the bare minimum meant a whole lot of work. This year, however, the bare minimum meant I was being lazy. Before long I began to be convicted.
I've had a year to assess the situation and to figure things out. Now it was time to really step up and discover what I could do to make things better. There are far too many teachers out there just trying to pay the bills and make it to retirement. I don't want to be one of them. I got into this work for the kids, so why wouldn't I really apply myself to it? (Maybe because I'm inherently selfish. Darn that sin nature.) What is more, God makes it clear that teachers had better be doing their diligence.
"Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness" (James 3:1).
Sure, James was probably referring more to the teaching of spiritual things, but there is no such thing as purely secular education. All education is sacred in that it is delivered in devotion to something just as every person lives a life of worship toward something. The teaching may be devoted toward the security of the almighty dollar (good job, good home, lots of possessions, padded bank account), or devoted to control (lawyer, judge, politician, CEO), or devoted to the humanist idea (artist, poet, historian, educator, scientist), or simply to the defamation of God himself (evolutionary science, Historical Jesus, leaders of false religions). Though there is nothing inherently wrong with the occupations of the first three groups, there is a great deal wrong with such motivations and devotions. And it can be safely inferred that each and every educator teaches with a sacred and worshipful devotion to something.
I would hope and pray that my teaching would be performed out of devotion to my God and Father. I would hope and pray that out of my devotion and love for God I would love and care for my students. I would hope and pray that out of that love and care for my students I would labor to give them the best education I could offer--while still maintaining a balanced life and not allowing education itself to become the object of my devotion. Both my teaching and my preparation to teach ought to be acts of devotion to God, and God deserves my best; not my bare minimum.
Do I still improvise? Every day. That's just part of the territory when it comes to teaching in my subject area. But I am also planning a lot more. I am trying to find more and more creative ways to teach the subjects I have. In my "free time" I am working to develop myself in the areas that I teach so that I might be able to teach more effectively and with greater integrity.
Is it a lot of work? Oh, yes. But it comes with a lot of joy as I work in the service of my Lord and as I share the fruit of my labor with my students. (Even if they still don't care. That's their loss.)
