The Faith of a Teacher

by Hugh Atkinson

When you’re an elementary teacher, each year is a new panorama of people and personalities. You have students who walk in confident and students who walk in unsure. You have students who walk in dressed to the nines and students who walk in wearing rags. However, on the first day, almost everyone walks in quiet and a little reserved.

Not so for Gary.

Gary spent the first six weeks of this year in the district’s alternative school for kids with behavior problems. When he returned to school and came into my class he was loud, mad at the world, and he let everyone know it. I instinctively sprang into Drill Sergeant mode.

“Son! You are NOT going to walk in my class like that ever again…is that clear?”

“Yea…”

“I said, is that clear?”

“Yes.”

“What was that?”

“Yes sir.”

And that was how our mornings began for the next 12 weeks.

Drill Sergeant is not a role that I enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, I play it well, but it’s very out of character for me. And one of my biggest fears is getting lost in that role. If you get lost in Drill Sergeant mode your teaching effectiveness and joy fly right out the window.

Because I needed my Drill Sergeant role to keep Gary in line, I started getting lost. Luckily I had enough students who didn’t need Drill Sergeant Hugh to help me see what was happening. I made a conscious effort to let go of that role and fight anger with kindness and acceptance.

It was sometime in late November when I got my first peek into Gary’s personality. He had been in my class about 10 weeks and I had never seen anything resembling a smile on his face. I walked up behind him, patted him on the back and made some kind of goofy remark. A huge grin spread across his face and he even laughed a little.

Over the next several months Gary and I bonded. I learned that if I used a calm voice and expressed my disappointment with his behavior, then drill sergeant Hugh usually wasn’t needed.

Gary is smart…really smart. However, his behavior usually gets in the way of his learning, so I don’t believe his previous teachers had been able to see it.

And changes were happening in me too. This boy who took every ounce of my strength and patience was chipping away at my heart. I learned that you can’t fight anger with kindness and acceptance without opening up your heart. When your heart is open - I mean wide open - you don’t get to choose the people you’re going to let in. If the door is open, all kinds of people - good and bad alike - come shuffling in.

One day, after a problem in the hallway, I pulled Gary aside and said, "Pal, I thought we had gotten past this kind of behavior. When you first came to my class this is how you acted. I want the new Gary back. New Gary has become one of my favorite students.”

I don’t think Gary had ever heard anything like that from a teacher. He sat down in the hallway and cried. He tried to talk, but his blubbering lips couldn’t form words. I put my arm around him and told him to walk to the restroom and pull himself together.

I walked back to class wiping tears from my eyes.

Gary was actually an overflow student from another school in my district. A few days later Gary’s mother formally requested a transfer to our school for his fifth grade year. She talked about all the positive changes she had seen in Gary and how happy both she and Gary were about finally having a good school year. I told the principal it would be a mistake not to give Gary the transfer.

Yep, when you’re an elementary teacher each year is a new panorama of people and personalities. You have students who walk in confident and students who walk in unsure. You have students who walk in dressed to the nines and students who walk in wearing rags.

And sometimes the most unexpected students can change your life.

How can teachers who follow Jesus appropriately demonstrate love and care in an environment increasingly hostile to their faith?
Can you recall a teacher who went above his or her call of duty for you personally?

Editor's Note: This piece was originally posted on The High Calling. The image above was found on this Flickr user's photostream.

Comments

Jason

1. i've taught in public and private school settings, and although portions of my teaching experience have included hostile environments, i didn't experience hostility toward my faith -- i think all too often the assumption is that public education settings are "hostile to faith." teaching in an urban school disctrict, i found the opposite to be true -- faith was welcomed, respected and encouraged.

2. my seventh grade teacher, Mrs. Stierwalt, saw that i enjoyed writing and used her own funds to purchase a book binding machine so that my classmates and i could publish our own short stories.

Penny king

Each year a new set of challenge presents itself in the form of first graders from varied walks of life. But I also see a new set of opportunities to reveal the heart of God to people ( parents included) who live in a fallen world. Although as a public school teacher I do not overtly preach the gospel I do, through my care, concern, advice and unconditional desire to understand each family, tell what God looks like. I am not afraid to allow Jesus to use me in my classroom. Being the hands and feet of Christ is what he calls us to be; as a first grader from a broken home a teacher showed me unconditional acceptance. I spent years searching for the why behind such a blatant response to a troubled little girl as that teacher maintained relationship with me. I found what my heart longed for in Jesus and that has made all the difference. All thanks to Mrs. Collins who dared to love like Jesus. I pray that as I model myself after her I bring some of the hope she shared with me into a few of the little hearts I am privileged to touch.

Kit

It might seem trite to say this, but Hugh has just become another case study for the saying, "People don't care what you know until they know you care!" Loving the unlovable not only puts us in great company (i.e.Jesus), but it also gives us the opportunity, as Hugh has discovered, to be the teacher we have always in our hearts hoped to be!

Brandon

I thought you might like this as the year begins. God bless you for what you do.

Bob Cannon

Teresa

I was very moved by your words and in particular your comments of having a wide open heart and how people, good and bad will come shuffling in...

You changed a life.

My husband and I aboriginal, we are Ojibwe. We work with Native communities in Northern Alberta Canada,some urban, some rural and some isolated. Our work with youth and children has at times been the most challenging and yet the most rewarding,

Like your approach with Gary, we too believe that an open heart can do so many things, offte so many outcomes, bring so many changes. I am reminded of when a person skips stones in a pond, the first ripple, creates more ripples and never ceases to end.

Thank you for your work with young people.

May God continue to bless you on your path.

Yours in unity,

Teresa

Bob Bednar

Leaders and teachers come in all forms. Leaders can be militaristic, commanding respect and specific behaviors. Leaders can be permissive, allowing great freedom of expression, hoping that effective decisions will be made. However, leaders can be shepherds, skillful at guiding followers to be effective decision makers. The Biblical model points toward the Shepherd model, wise in protecting a group from harm, yet leading by knowing individuals by name, watching carefully for those who might stray. Protecting, yet serving, thinking outside the box when the terrain and geography changes. I want to be a Shepherding Teacher / Counselor, wise in helping my students develop the skills for the future. I want to engage my students in the process. Being permissive will never work. Being militaristic has no lasting results.

Scott

I have the privilege of helping education majors contemplate what being a teacher and being on mission in the classroom can look like. This is our fifth project and we expect 18 future teachers to attend. I long for them to have the opportunity to be mentored by some of you! They need to know that they can boldly live out their faith and powerfully love the students they shepherd.

Hugh, your story brought tears to my eyes as I imagined Gary broken by the depth of love and caring you have modeled for him. May God continue to use you!

Mrs. Kuefeldt loved us, but most important to me, she loved me, cared about me and helped me begin to understand writing, math and a few other subjects. She was patient, trusting and firm. Though I didn't come to know Christ until years later, I sensed that there was something special about her. When I tried to seek her out after I trust Christ, I discovered that she was a Christ follower and unfortunately for me, she had passed away and I was unable to thank her for her investment in me.

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