With the recent beginning of a new school year, I’m thinking about my three favorite teachers. These three teachers just happen to be in my family. I’ve been around them either all my life or their life.
My oldest sibling is nine years older than me. I remember when she left for college. I also remember four years later when she did her student teaching her senior year of college. Before she graduated with her degree, the school she did her student teaching in hired her to be a teacher for its corporation.
She ended up being an elementary teacher in the same building for 48 years. Needless to say, she loved it and she loved children. She retired at the age of 70. Quite a record.
She never had any children of her own but she had thousands whom she thought of as her own. Today, when she looks back at the impact her former students have made on society in a positive way, she is so proud of them.
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Truck drivers, aid workers, judges, government officials, missionaries, attorneys, store clerks, doctors, policemen, pastors, and, yes, teachers. On and on and on the list goes.
Sibling number five in my family was a speech pathologist in private practice for many years. During that time, he was also a college professor.
I remember how important it was to him that his students learn the material he taught. He wanted each of them to do the very best they could possibly do in the field of their expertise. No doubt, he was tough but he was also fair, thorough and top notch.
He was in the military for two years during the Vietnam era, but also managed to achieve a doctorate by the time he was 29. He loved teaching but he loved and cared about his students even more.
With students who really wanted to learn, he went out of his way to help in any way he could by giving them extra time, energy and resources. To me, he was just a regular guy who knew and used a bunch of big words.
Lastly, my youngest daughter became a teacher in 2007. Growing up, she always enjoyed babysitting and she was good at it, too. She has a natural love for children. Always has. So, we were not surprised when she told Dave and me that teaching was the profession she wanted to go into.
We were surprised, though, when she chose the age group of junior high to work with, but we knew she would be able to handle it very well. There’s just something about this age group she resonates with, and she finds satisfaction in making an impact on them.
Now, as a stay-at-home mother of three very young children, my daughter is taking a break away from teaching in the classroom so she can be at home with her family.
I, as a grandmother, enjoy watching Ashly as she teaches these precious children about sharing, being kind and caring of others and about Jesus. What could be more important than this?
As I look back at a few of the common threads that run through the three teachers in my family, it is easy for me to see that they each love people of all ages, aimed to make a positive impact on them, and wanted their enjoyment of teaching to be felt and apparent to all.
An additional thread I see in each is that, years later, many of their former students have made a special effort to come back to tell them how they impacted their lives in a positive way.
This, to me, would be one of the greatest blessings and encouragements a teacher could ever receive. Just hearing this would make all those years of having extra patience, effort, energy and hard work have been worth it all.
I’m curious.
Who, as you look back over your school years, would you say were your favorite teachers and why? Who was it that made the greatest impact on your life and how did they influence you in a positive way? Have you taken the time to go back to them to tell them so?
I would like to encourage you to do this. I can assure you that this would be an encouragement to them.
Much is said in Scripture about teaching and teachers. Look it up and you will see how important this is to God.
Nita Evans of Columbus is owner of Confidential Christian Counseling, focusing her work especially with ministry leaders and their families. She also is a Columbus Police Department chaplain and a national retreat and conference speaker. Her devotional book, “Legacy of Faith: Walking With Jesus Come What May” is now available at facebook.com/speacialspeaker to benefit the local Clarity. She can be reached at 812-614-7838 or by visiting specialspeaker.com. All opinions expressed in Faith & Community columns are those of the writer.
