I heard someone say that we don’t teach subjects, we teach people. The Truth is we don’t teach subjects or people.
According to Miriam Webster, the definition of a teacher is: (one whose occupation is to instruct). For the first 16-18 years of our lives we are programmed. We are programmed to go to school, get an education, and get a good job. For many people they spend their entire school experience trying to get out of school. Making excuses for lack of performance. Excuses for being late and doing homework. They get up everyday dreading to go to school. They start a count down from the day they start school until the day they finish. They never truly learn anything, except making excuses. The teachers are being held accountable for the successes and the failures of their students.
In 2018 there is a coach, speaker, preacher, and teacher on every corner. With the growth of social media platform such as; Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Instagram and the list goes on an on. There is an overwhelming amount of people that are putting themselves in the role of a teacher. There is one thing that they all have in common, they truly believe that they have something worth teaching. They are labeled as subject matter experts, with the ability to duplicate a program or system they believe can change someone’s life.
The problem with that theory is, they are missing the key concepts of teaching. A teacher is not one who teach a subject, neither one who teaches a person. A teacher is one who duplicate themselves. From the beginning of time, there have always been a person that is passing information along to someone else. The bible commands us to: ‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. ‘
The things that they are passing down, is not just information, they are passing down their experiences. Wisdom comes from experience. ‘Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Teachers pass down their experiences. Whether they are good, or they are bad. We are duplicating ourselves. Every time we teach, we are giving up a piece of ourselves, that is used to mold the character of our students. All of us at one point or the other step into the role of a teacher. Parents have a lifetime role of a teacher. The lessons that are being taught by our parents, help to shape the student that we will become. Life is a life long Journey and we are lifelong teachers and students.
Fake it until you make it
There are a lot of teachers that are fixated on the subjects that they are teaching, that they don’t realize what they a duplicating. The word of God states that: (By their fruits you shall know them). Look at your students, now look at the fruits that you are producing. Never neglect the position of a teacher. I often tell my students, it’s okay to fake it until you make it. However, at some point, we must stop faking it, and start making it.
We must be a product of what we teach. We often tell our students that they can be the best, they are the greatest and we ourselves are under performing. We motivate our students to dominate our market places and we are struggling. We coach our students to a successful profitable business, and we a struggling to launch or grow our own business. We teach people how to submit and follow the word of God, and we are not living the words ourselves.
Successful Teachers make Successful Student
There is a problem with the mindsets that needs to be addressed, before we can truly teach with passion, and bring forth successful students. every great have a mentor (Teacher) that they credit for their success. The good teacher that empowered them, or the underperforming teacher that couldn’t see the greatness in them, that mold them to become the person that they are today. The reality is, that person gave up a piece of their selve, and poured it into that person. They are the person that the student wants to become. The word of God says (Speak those things that are, not as though they were). You have the power to mold the future of your students.
Trust the Process
If you are teaching and you don’t feel like you are full filling your purpose you need to do a self-evaluation. Look at yourself. Look at your intent, look at your results. If you are not living or performing at your full capacity, you cannot, and will not produce the students that are performing at their full capacity.
You will be duplicating underperforming students. There will be students that will require you to step back and reevaluate your purpose and your passion. What you need to remember is there was a teacher that was under performing whether at home or at an institution that didn’t mold the right ingredient into that student. You must ask yourself is it worth it.
The cost
If you decide that it’s worth it, you must break the mold and start over again. That means, you must identify where they went wrong, and reteach those lessons to your students. Every I can’t, have to be changed to I can. Every rejection, to positive affirmation. Throughout my life I heard that teachers don’t make any money. Ask yourself one question, why is it that teaching is the lowest paying position and it is our foundation?
The minute we realized that all the other professionals, that makes more than teachers make, is walking around with a piece of their teacher inside of them. You must be willing to let go of a piece of you to be an effective teacher.
Resource
‘Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. ‘
Proverbs 22:6
‘Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. ‘
Proverbs 4:7
‘ Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? ‘
Matthew 7:16
‘(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. ‘
Romans 4:17
