The Worst Thing About Teachers

The best thing about teachers is their humanity.

They have a remarkably personal ability to build a caring, one-on-one relationship with each individual student.

They can adapt the very same lesson to fit each student’s unique learning needs.

Teachers have an amazing capacity to give everything to their students

every single day.

Then, in evenings and on weekends, they keep giving more.

Teachers know their students’ feelings are fragile.

They also know their students need firm boundaries.

They can be gentle and tender-hearted one moment,

and no-nonsense firm two minutes later.

They’re always learning –

new strategies, new content and new insights about their students.

Teachers stretch themselves a little further,

give themselves a little more,

work a little harder

and persevere a little longer, 

hoping just a little more effort will make the difference for one of their students.

The worst thing about teachers is their humanity.

Teachers have a lot of patience...

but sometimes they run out.

They keep on giving...

but then they get exhausted.

Teachers take care of students, colleagues and parents...

but also need time to take care of themselves.

They’re always learning new ideas...

but there’s a lot they’ll never know. 

Teachers love each student...

but they have to work harder at loving some than others.

Teachers are professionals...

but they'll never be perfect.

Teachers' gift... and their limitation...is that they're only human.

If Feet Could Talk

“I’m not a caregiver.”

That’s what my cousin says when I jump onto my soap-box and talk about how the Church should welcome people with special needs.
My cousin can’t see himself as a Sunday School buddy to a child with autism. Actually, I can’t see it either.
But this cousin is my Go-To Guy in any computer crisis, and has been ever since I acquired my first computer 9 years ago. By taking care of my computer issues, he enables me to write to encourage you, and to develop curriculum and program materials for people with special needs.

In less than ten seconds, I think of a dozen people who take care of me and my stuff in other ways.
Recently, my Fix-it Brother** fixed my watch and my shredder.
My massage therapist regularly works on my neck and shoulders, relieving me of stiffness and pain.
And there’s a hundred others...

I hope you can quickly think of a bunch of people who help you, too.

One of my favourite Bible chapters compares our gifts and limitations to the parts of a human body.
“The body is not made up of one part but of many.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?
If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of hearing be?
God has arranged the parts in the body just as he wanted them to be.
The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’
And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” (1 Corinthians 12:14-21)

None of us is complete on our own, but we're complete when we serve each other.
How glad I am God figured that out before I did!

**Fix-it Brother describes his primary occupation. You can guess how my younger brother, Build-it Brother, makes his living. Truth be told, though – Fix-it Bro is mighty good at building, and Build-it Bro is very handy at fixing. I wish I had an ounce of the fixing or building skills either of them has in his baby finger. Which brings us full-circle...