Mountains and Valleys: Thoughts on the Journey of Christian Teaching and Education

                In every occupation there are highs and lows. In teaching there are days when students don’t listen, days when the cafeteria is flooded and it’s raining causing students to be cooped up without recess all day, and even days opening in one student vomiting and ending with another student having an accident on the floor. It is all worth it, though, on the days when the once nonverbal student with Asperger’s answers a question when the class is going over homework, when the troubled student with ADHD warms up to the teacher enough to allow her to help him clean out his desk, and on the days when twenty-some students jump out from their hiding places to surprise you with a party on your last day of aiding.

                Sometimes it can be discouraging to work in a school where most of the students are not raised with the hope of Christ and many have broken homes and where there are specific rules dictating our ability to share that word explicitly. What we are called to, though, is to be the hands, feet, and mouth of Christ in the places he calls us to children he loves so dearly.  For example, the classroom offers endless opportunities to practice forgiveness. Instead of grudging each minute a student spends off task or counting the number of verbal outbursts we are called to love and allow two, three, and even seventy-seven chances.

                Whether it is a day full of clear blessings or trying challenges it is important that we not lose heart and always work with a joyful heart “as working for God and not for man” (Col 3:23). I hope that this was evident in my attitude each day while at the school. At times the fatigue of school and activities was an obstacle to my participation in class, but being up and walking around the classroom, attentive to the needs of the students brought me back to where I needed to be.  

                The book Engaging God’s World, by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. notes, “Together, faculty, students, and staff [of a Christian college] can explore the world and its cultures before pretending to understand them; to understand them before presuming to appraise them; and to appraise them with an educated judgment gained from communion with Jesus Christ” (99). I cannot pretend to understand the complexity of each child, his or her situation, or the dynamic of the classroom, but teacher aiding opportunities such as the one I experienced this semester opened doors for growth and learning that will eventually prepare me to evaluate specific situations and make wise decisions regarding students in my care.