It’s back-to-school week here in Kingsport. Which, of course, conjures up a variety of emotions for all of us parents. But I wanted to offer something specifically for the teachers today.
You’ve got an impossible job.
On the one hand, our culture labors under the pretense that education alone is the pathway to human transformation. When something is wrong, some societal ill rears its head, education is the answer. We naturally assume, of course, the societal problem is ignorance. To continue on with the cliches, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks though. So we largely write that endeavor off focusing our best efforts instead on educating our youth. And so the weight falls on you, as the primary educators of our culture, to “mold young minds” and convey the finely crafted curriculum that’s been handed to you.
But as important as our respective curricula may be…and they may be a great deal less important than we make them out to be…perhaps the most important thing you have to teach the kids in your classrooms is that they matter.
For anyone who may misread what I’m trying to write: I’m a big believer in education. I love learning. But the kind of learning that is often presented in our broader society is of tangential importance to real human life.
I have a firm conviction that the most important thing in life is not what you do, it’s who you become. It’s why at funerals and in obituaries, we don’t read people’s resumes or transcripts. Ultimately, the only report card that matters is the kind of person that you were.
Which leads to the second complication: our culture has largely relinquished the responsibility for the meaningful moral development of our children. I think you feel this acutely. Too often this year, you’ll teach kids who come from family systems devoid of hope and crushed by chronic sin, addiction, and poor choices. Too many parents in our society abdicate their most important responsibilities with their children out of an obsession with self. Too many parents don’t give any thought to the emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual formation of their children.
More than most, you will see this every single day for the next 10 months.
So here we find ourselves at the start of another school year: there are impossible expectations placed upon you as educators. And the institutions that should, in theory, support you too often do the opposite. Rather than encouraging you and providing rest and relief where possible, they give you off-site in-service days with self-important speakers and conveniently underpay you.
Not surprisingly, I can’t fix any of that. I’ve already probably been over critical of a number of different people in this post. Most of the ridicule I’ve given is probably undeserved. But more than anything, I want you, the teacher, to remember that what you do really does matter. And it’s not for the reasons that you’re so often told.
Dallas Willard wrote that the first act of love is the giving of attention. What the kids in your classroom and school need more than anything this year is to be loved. And that can be really hard and really confusing when multitudinous needs are thrown at you. But in some ways, it’s also really simple (though not easy): just pay attention. Pay attention to those kids and it can change their life.
Almost all of us remember the teachers who paid attention. I had so many good ones growing up. There were so many who encouraged me to do things like read and write and explore and ask questions. Your attention and encouragement for those kids matters infinitely more than the surprise evaluations and the curricular precision that’s expected of you.
Just remember – it’s all the small stuff that doesn’t get rewarded by the institution that makes the biggest difference. The conversations after class, the encouraging words, the warm attention…that kind of stuff changes lives.
I’m praying for you as you start this year and I’m confident that you make a bigger difference than you’ll ever realize. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to let me know.
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