| November 1, 2021 -- Isaiah 50:4
The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.
James 3:1-12
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes.
I taught college-level for 40 years. It slowly came to me that, no matter what immortality we achieve in heaven after death, the only immortality here on earth is in the minds of one’s students. What one says in a classroom is remembered, and passed on, sometimes for many generations.
Whether one teaches mundane things, as I did, or teaches about religion, ethics, and morality, remember that you are leaving a legacy for future generations. Remember also that students are more impressed with what they see you do than with what they are told they should do. When both your words and your actions support each other, they have the most lasting impression. There is a danger in this, as the letter of James warns. The danger is that we may through inaccurate speaking or through
wrong actions or miscommunication leave wrong teaching in the minds of our students.
I have found that giving practical applications and hands-on experience with what I have tried to teach has been the most effective technique. The same applies to moral and ethical teaching. Don’t just tell people how they ought to behave or to act; explain to them WHY we should do certain things, such as sharing and helping. And also, why we should NOT do certain things. And then give them opportunities to practice what you teach.
We don’t have to be in a classroom to be cast in the role of a teacher. For most of us we also become teachers when we instruct our own children or grandchildren in proper ethics and morals. As we are told in Grange ritual, we must be careful to engraft in young minds only such truths as will be guide and teacher when our voices shall be silent on earth, and we have passed to another and a better world.
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