Investing Life in Teaching

A. Christian Van Gorder

March 20, 1997

 

I. Introduction

The world today gives us reason to be concerned. There is also cause for hope. God gives us the opportunity to go into this broken world with His Name and in His love.  In going, there is sacrifice. For sacrifice there must be commitment. In this, Jesus is our example. He told us to "Go into all the world." His sense of purpose came from His awareness of God's love for His creation and the needs of that creation to receive God's love.

My experiencing of that love has emblazoned in my heart a determination to express my devotion to Jesus in a lifetime of service. I hope that I can make some contribution of "overcome evil with good" (Romans 12:21). Some could dismiss this kind of reasoning as foolish idealism but "God has chosen the foolish to confound the wise; the weak to overcome the strong" (I Corinthians 1:27).  Purpose makes the difference. We must be patient and hopeful in the hard work of effecting change. 

II. Qualities of Teachers

Once Huston Peterson of Rutgers University had a student fall asleep in his class. A classmate roused the student who apologized to Dr. Peterson. Peterson replied, "It is I who should apologize to your - for not keeping you awake." This story illustrates how teaching relates to responsibility. 

Goals:  

  1. To be a "Perennial Scholar" and current in my field, ever working to improve my own education and nurture in myself an increasing capacity for analysis and synthesis. Intellectual maturity is best developed in students by teachers who teach how to approach problems, not to spit out answers.
  2. To work to fire the minds of my students with ideas and visions. Education is a dynamic, life-giving discipline. This may or may not be expressed emotionally but its results should always be transformational. To do this, I must live what I teach with zest.
  3. To be patient. It is natural to stumble with new ideas and concepts. It is normal to disagree with ideas that are new or unusual. I must be humble and serve in such a way that love is expressed through patience.
  4. To be congruent. The more I am prepared, the more able I will be to communicate ideas that need to be conveyed. The teacher, through organization, is doing much of the "work" for the student.
  5. To be engaging. Education is transmissional. Edward Kuhlmn emphasized that Jesus taught with enthusiasm. He loved to teach and comunicated in such a way that discoveries came to students when He taught. Jesus' engagement with His students was also personal in that they sensed that He cared for them and cared about his message.
  6. To be imaginative. I  must teach to the needs of those whom I am trying to teach. I am not saying that the teacher should be each student's close friend, but they must be sympathetic and aware of the students. Creativity must be employed to bring information in a way that is understandable and relevant.
  7. To be a person of vision. I need to know where I am going and why I am going there. Leadership in the classroom context must be focused by a sense of vision.
  8. To never lose the love to teach. That should be obvious but you and I have both known people whose hearts were not in the classrooms. For over a generations, Williams Lyon Phelps taught at Yale. Here are his ideas about the love of teaching:
    I do not know that I could make clear to others the pleasure that I have in teaching. In my mind, teaching is not merely a lifework, a profession, an occupation, a struggle; it is a passion. I love to teach. I love to teach as a painter loves to paint, as a musician loves to play, as a singer loves to sing.

My mother taught for thirty years at the High School and College levels. She stayed "young" and fresh in her vocation because she loved people and she loved to teach. She came alive and was young in spirit as she taught. Her subjects were English and German and Spanish for those years, but it was not the subject alone that she gave to her students. She gave of herself; she worked to inspire and motivate students with new ideas.  She did not teach subjects; she taught students. 

III. Motivation for Teachers

Motivation for teaching should be clearly reflected in the qualities of good teaching. To a degree they are synonymous. Although there is some overlap, I would like to list a few ideas that I have about why someone should be motivated work as an educator:

  1. Teaching can influence lives in a direct way that few other fields of service provides.
  2. Teaching can cultivate and develop in students the ability to learn and reason.
  3. Teaching can challenge people to cultivate holistic moral principles.
  4. Teaching can inspire students to seek for knowledge and make their own unique contribution to the store of human understanding.
  5. Teaching can influence people to consider directing their own lives in a way that serves others.
  6. Teaching provides the opportunity to work in an environment where the teachers own needs for continued study, individual research and the further development of her/his creativity will be encouraged.
  7. Teaching provides the opportunity to join a global community of scholars with like-minded commitments and giftings.
  8. The college context is a positive environment for raising children and flourishing relations with one's spouse by sharing with him/her ideas and friendships. 
  9. Teaching provides a degree of security and income with provides stability for further personal and familial development and enrichment.