The Best Teachers

The Best Teachers

A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Randy K. Hammer – June 2, 2019

James 3:1-5a GNT; Reading from Wendell Berry’s “Elegy”

The best teachers teach more than they know.  By their deaths they teach most.

They lead us beyond what we know, and what they knew. ~Wendell Berry

I have great admiration for teachers.  And I have decided that the teaching profession must be one of the most challenging professions there is.  And teaching school, from what I gather, is getting more challenging all the time due to increased paperwork, greater restrictions, tighter budgets, red tape, difficult and irate parents, the growth in threats of gun violence, and so on.  Being a teacher certainly is not what it was when most of us were young, and not what it was when some of the school teachers in our congregation started out a few decades ago.

Some years ago – in the early 1990s – I did some adjunct evening teaching at a local community college.  For a couple of years, I taught freshman composition writing and sophomore English literature.  The enrollment in the classes I taught was a mixture of 18-year-olds right out of high school, and students in their late thirties and forties who had not attended college and had been in the workforce for several years.  For various reasons they had returned to school to pursue an associate’s degree in order to better their station in life.  Some of these adult students had been strongly encouraged by their employer to improve their skills by seeking a degree.  Others (primarily females) had gone through a divorce and had no skills to draw on to support themselves.  Can you guess which group of students – the 18-year-olds just out of high school or the near middle-age adults – proved to be the better students? 

I loved teaching the older students who had returned and were chomping at the bit to learn as much as they could.  They sat on the front row wanting to absorb as much learning and information possible.  But I found many of the youngest students to be a real challenge in the classroom.  It was quite common for a group of the youngest in the class to congregate in one corner of the classroom and carry on their own conversation while I was trying to teach.  They had no interest in learning whatsoever.  Some of them, I surmised, were there only because parents insisted that they be there.  Such can make teaching quite challenging.

And the after-hours preparation and grading of papers was another thing.  Showing up for class was only about 1/3 of the time involved.  I would sit at our kitchen table for hours reading and planning the upcoming class sessions and correcting and grading exams, compositions, and essays.  But I am not telling teachers anything they don’t already know.  After a couple of years, I, like naturalist Henry David Thoreau, who tried his hand at public school teaching for a time and declared himself to be a failure in that regard, decided that I was not suited to be a full-time teacher either.  So to repeat, I have the greatest respect for those who have chosen to make teaching their life’s profession.

The New Testament writer James makes a surprising statement when he says, “My friends, not many of you should become teachers” (James 3:1 GNT).  Why in the world would James say such a thing?  It seems that the more teachers the better, especially when it comes to religious teachers and the desire to teach and spread the Christian message as much as possible.  But perhaps James also realized that not everyone is cut out to be a teacher, especially when it comes to full-time teaching or as a profession.  It takes a special personality – perhaps a special calling – to be a full-time teacher, especially an effective teacher.

One of the things James reminds us of is the power of words that a would-be teacher might use.  In the course of my ministry, I have been reminded a few times of just how powerful the words that are spoken while teaching or preaching can be.  Sometimes words have power that the speaker is not even aware of until the words are let loose.  One ill-chosen word, or one loaded word or phrase, can sabotage an entire sermon or take it where the preacher never intended for it to go.  There have been a few times when people have approached me after a sermon or sent a scathing email, because a word or phrase which I had not given much thought to was a volatile or loaded word or phrase for them that set them off.  So as religious teachers, we learn to choose our words carefully and wisely.  I still may slip up every now and then, but I do try to be careful and not choose words or phrases carelessly that I know might start a firestorm, to draw on James’ imagery.

But the other side of the coin is we shouldn’t shy away from teaching or subbing in Sunday school, for instance, because of the fear that we might say something wrong.  We have some excellent Sunday school teachers and subs here at the United Church, but we certainly could use more.  Suzanne doesn’t have to worry about an over-abundance of teachers and subs, or anyone getting their feelings hurt because they volunteered to teach but someone else beat them to the classroom J.  Teaching our kids in Sunday school is such a very important part of what our church’s mission and what we endeavor to do.  An effective Sunday School is vital to the well-being, stability and growth of our congregation.  If we want to attract and keep young families, we have to have an excellent Sunday school for children.  And we are always in need of more teachers who will devote time to this important endeavor.  So if you have even slightly considered, or you have never considered teaching or subbing in Sunday school before today, we hope you will seriously consider it.

Teaching Sunday school is totally different than it was when most of us were children, back in the days of telling a Bible story with a flannel graph board and paper doll-type biblical figures in order to tell a story and instill facts and doctrine.  Our teachers still share Bible stories, but not to indoctrinate, but in order to try to understand those ancient stories intelligently and to seek to bridge the truth at the heart of those stories in relation to contemporary life.  And our Sunday school teachers allow for and welcome discussion and questions from our kids, and teachers learn from our kids as well.

What is it that makes for a good teacher? we might ask.  Could it be a sense of enthusiasm, creativity (willing to think outside the traditional box), dedication, openness to the ideas of children, a willingness to learn from them as well as to teach them, and a love for children and satisfaction from spending time with them?  Come to think of it, Jesus exhibited many of these characteristics of a good teacher, and Jesus is considered to have been a master teacher.

Poet Wendell Berry, in speaking of a significant influence in his life, talks about teachers and what makes for the best teacher.  Berry contends, “The best teachers teach more than they know. . .  They lead us beyond what we know, and what they knew.”  It would be nice to be able to sit down with Berry and explore everything he means by that.  But the best teachers are not just fact dispensers or indoctrinators.  The best teachers spark the imagination, inspire us to dream and envision, enable us to discover our own unique strengths and resources, and encourage us to think outside the traditional box so as to scale new heights of thinking and actions.

So today is the Sunday we set aside each year to recognize our Sunday School teachers and nursery attendants, and I would add our public school teachers, who demonstrate many of the qualities mentioned above that make for an outstanding teacher.  Our teachers are dedicated, creative, enthusiastic, flexible, willing to learn as well as to teach, and above all, loving.  So we recognize our teachers and we express our sincerest gratitude for them.  To draw on the thought of Wendell Berry, our teachers are simply the best.  Amen.