Excerpt from Isaiah 50: 4-9a

"The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word."

Reflection by Christina Villa

The current budget battles in many states have focused a lot of attention, much of it negative, on teachers. I have a theory about why people are so ready to jump all over teachers for being "glorified baby-sitters" who work "part-time" (out at 2:30!) and "take summers off."

Ironically, teachers may be singled out this way because they are not just glorified baby-sitters but instead crucially important figures in our lives.  Everyone reading this, no matter how old, can probably name a teacher they have never forgotten, one who opened up some new world to them, took them seriously, or just plain looked out for them.  Many of us are lucky and can name several.

But you don't turn into a saint just because you go into teaching, and there are also some bad teachers out there. With all the influence and power they have over the young, a bad teacher can do some serious human damage.  My theory is that a lot of the anti-teacher people in the budget debates aren't ready to forgive the really bad teacher who humiliated them or singled them out for abuse or turned them off to learning altogether.  And now they're getting their revenge.

It's too bad, because by some weird physics of education, one really good teacher can go a long way toward counteracting the effects of several bad ones.  A great teacher really does "sustain the weary with a word."  They are never boring, always enlivening, even in such subjects as, say, Geometry or Biology (thank you Mr. Beardsley and Mr. Nelson).  They stand up there and talk—it appears that’s all they do—but oh what a life-long difference it makes if it’s the right person standing up there talking.  

Prayer

Dear God, please bless all teachers, guide those who shouldn't be in the classroom to another profession, and give my regards to Mr. Beardsley and Mr. Nelson.  Amen.

About the Author Christina Villa is on the staff of the United Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio.

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