Who is Teaching You Today?

According to the National School Boards Association, the United States is currently embattled in a nationwide shortage of teachers. While some might cite the effects of COVID-19 and the most recent election cycles as culprits, the NSCA asserts that the shortages were decades in the making. Don’t tune out. This isn’t really a post about public education, policy, or solutions.

Do consider the greatest teachers in your own life. Who was your favorite teacher in grade school? What made him or her so special? What desire for knowledge was fanned into flame by the ways that they taught lessons or presented material? How about your favorite teacher in middle school? Was he or she number one because of the particular subject they governed and your prior affinity or did they make even the most mundane more interesting? What about college, continuing education, or post-graduate studies? What teachers inspired you most? What are the characteristics that each of your preferences had in common with one another and which ones stood out for a trait unique only to them?

Don’t spend nearly as much time on the reverse, but do take a moment to recall any similarities you can note between the teachers you’d prefer to forget. Even through no particular fault of their own, what specific attributes were typically less appetizing or inspiring to you?

There is a difference between a shortage of actual teachers [warm bodies in a room degreed enough to manage a particular subject for a particular type of classroom] and a shortage of good teachers [those who actually inspire, instruct, and illuminate].

Whether you are still in school or not, you are learning something from somewhere and someone. People are not static. As much as one might be set in his ways, people are movable clay always being poured, pushed, and pressed into new shapes. Steve Jobs said, “Learn continually. There is always one more thing to learn.” Jobs was and remains correct. There is, indeed, always one more thing to learn and never a shortage of teachers, both good and bad, willing to impress it upon us. The writer of Proverbs offered, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is stupid.” Perhaps there is nothing quite so stupid as the belief that one has nothing left to learn and then living out in practice a refusal to accept wisdom and knowledge. Enter discipleship. That’s what Jesus commanded in the Great Commission. “Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” [Matthew 28:20]

So, how do you find worthy teachers? Who do you grant the keys to your education and your personal discipleship growth? What vetted credentials does one need to employ? Consider the following instructions this fall. As people of all ages go back to school for another semester of formal education, who will you strategically sit under for this next season of growth?

1. In addition to the Bible, read books from dead people and those about saints who have gone before you. John Piper writes, “Christian biography is the means by which the body life of the church cuts across the centuries.” Paul offered Old Testament stories as living examples of what to do and not do in order to be faithful. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 11, simply in list form, stated a powerful case for the work of Christian biography. It’s how we find ourselves in a greater story and avoid the trap of contemporary “chronological snobbery” [as C.S. Lewis put it]. Regardless of any advancements, we are not better than nor no longer in need of teachers from the past. Those who have gone before us, in their words and in their examples, have a great deal left to teach us.

2. In addition to those who are like you, be taught by those who are different. Male readers: read and follow female leaders, authors, Bible teachers and influences. Majority culture readers: read, follow, and learn from a deep bench of BIPOC voices and cross-cultural influences. Artist Danielle Coke [known as Oh Happy Dani] displays in a piece titled, “The Journey of Life-Long Learning: Being a Perpetual Student of Life,” the wisdom to study, grow, and change perspectives. Literally putting oneself in another person’s story from another vantage point is humbling, an absolute essential in both learning and also in expressing faith.

3. In addition to further mastery on a skill you desire to deepen, take up something completely new, one that utilizes a different side of your brain. Use everyday hobbies and activities to stimulate development. If creative activities, typically associated with the right brain, are your preference, take time to explore opportunities more keenly connected to your left brain. If you like to draw or paint, do a cross-word puzzle or a Sudoku. If you enjoy math and problem solving, carve out time for creative writing or even sketching. Studies reveal that people who have strong left-brain right-brain connectivity are able to function better at a wide variety of tasks, so determine which side needs more attention, and spend some time developing that part of your brain.

4. Finally, choose wise mentors wisely. Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” [1 Corinthians 11:1] Experiences, books, podcasts, curricula, and daily habits all offer an unending list of possible teachers in life, some better than others. Don’t undervalue or underestimate the potential for any of those as part of your course load this fall. However, don’t substitute any one of those or a combination of those for an actual relational mentor. None can be adequate substitutes for in-person coaching, mentoring, and instruction. While there may truly be a shortage of professional educators filling classrooms across America, there is truly no shortage of great teachers for you in the world. Who you are learning from is likely more important than what you are learning from and also what you are learning about. So, choose well and learn all you can.

Just like any good guidance counselor or faculty advisor will propose, choose a schedule you can manage and one that takes you further toward the goal. In high school and college, that means meeting the requirements toward graduation. In discipleship, that means whatever makes you more like Christ. If Jesus instructed his disciples to teach others, it’s clear we need instructors today. Who is teaching you? What are you learning? It’s an essential part of who you are becoming.