Why I Still Teach

I’m one of those rare people who actually enjoys his work. I don’t drag myself to work, even on Mondays. 

Why? I get to work with kids in their late teens, at that crucial point in their intellectual and spiritual formation when they’re working out their own answers to the most important questions they’ll ever consider.

“What should I do with my life?” 

“I know what I’ve been taught, but what do I actually believe?” 

“What really matters and should claim my attention, and what is inconsequential and can safely be ignored?”

I can’t answer all those questions for my students. I can’t find God’s call for their lives or tell them what they believe, but in our time together in my Bible classes I try to help them understand what kind of God has called them and how He’s spoken through His Word. 

Sometimes I like to take my seniors on an on-campus “field trip.” We walk down to the hallway where the class composites line the walls, and they can see my “trophy case,” the images of those hundreds of students who have sat where they sit now, in my classroom. They’re not only looking at their future, they’re looking at what I’ve done with the last 35 years of my life.

I know that most men my age who began in the classroom have moved on to other things by now: administration, industry, the corporate world. But 35 years after I started out with sophomore English and eighth grade Bible classes at the old Homewood campus, I’m still herding the kittens every weekday. 

And (most days) loving it.

I'm beginning to think more and more that teaching is a young man's game. So why have I stayed in it for such a long time? There are several reasons. Here are some:

3. There’s a buzz in a room full of teenagers. Sure, there are days when teens are annoying (I try not to show it), but most days I love the sheer energy of teen life. It both keeps me young and ages me prematurely, I’m sure.

2. As a Christian parent, my wife and I have appreciated all the help we have received in raising our three sons and one daughter. As a teacher, I am grateful for the opportunity to help Christian parents in that vital task that God has assigned to them, passing on their faith.  

1. And the Number One Reason: I’m pretty sure I have the best job in the world. I get to invest my professional energies in the two things that will survive the planet: people and God’s Word. A zillion years from now, when the universe has burned up and vanished, the results of what we did in that building on Washington Church Road will endure. The people who sat in those chairs will be thriving in God’s New Heaven and Earth. 

And I get to play a role in their intellectual and spiritual formation? 

Astonishing!