A Teacher's Faith

If you are not a religious person, please don't close this post yet.  While I am a person of deep Christian faith and would love to write about it all day long, that is not what this post is about.  The faith I am talking about here is the faith teachers have to possess in order to accomplish our jobs.  We set very long-term goals, and we sometimes don't see the payoff as quickly as we would like.  Sometimes, we don't ever see it because the student has moved out of our lives before the fruit grows from the tree we planted.

At the beginning of each year, it is always easy to think that this year's students are less mature and less skilled than last year's students, but it is rarely true.  The problem is that we are comparing students at the beginning of this year to the students at the end of last year, forgetting what it took to get them there.  We train them in procedures and then have to start over again the next year.  As an 8th-grade teacher, I turn 7th graders into high school students and then give them away, just to start all over again.  (Okay, I know why I am so tired now.)  But here is my point.  It takes faith to look at the kids in front of you and believe that they will become something different by the end of the year.

It has long been my contention that band teachers have the most faith of all people.  What comes out of instruments at the beginning of the school year is NOT music.  It is a cacophony that would make any other teacher crazy, but a band teacher hears potential because he's been here before and he has the skills to turn that discordant melee of noise into recognizable songs.  And they do - every year.  Other arts teachers have similar faith needs.  I've attended a number of play rehearsals over the years, and the most interesting one is the day they are required to be "off-book" for the first time.  Students affectionately and accurately refer to this as "crash and burn day."  As a brain enthusiast, I can explain why this is the most important rehearsal day of the year because it is the first time they are engaged in active retrieval practice. As a member of the future audience, I cringe every time I see it.  The theater teacher does not.  Just like the band teacher, she's been here before so she does not fear that the final production will be like this.  She has faith that continued practice will turn this stuttering, struggling mess into a play that will entertain ticket buyers.  

I could go on.  Early elementary teachers who listen while students sound words out know that someday they will read with great fluidity and acquire knowledge from what they read.  Math teachers whose students struggle with the concept of the number line know that, at some point, these students will internalize algebraic thinking enough to believe they aren't using it.  I would love for my PE teachers of the past to know what I am doing at the Y today because it doesn't seem possible that they would have imagined me attempting to lift heavier weights, but maybe they did have that kind of faith.

Teachers, it can be difficult for us not to see the results of our work right away, so here is my encouragement to you.  Build your faith by reflecting on the times you have seen results.  Build your faith by remembering the impact your own teachers had on you, and know that you are doing the same work.  Build your faith by keeping thank you emails or drawings from students in a box that you can return to when your faith is weak.  Even if you are not a Christian, you can take heart from this verse.  

 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone . . ." - Galatians 6:9-10a