What is the name of a teacher who had a large impact in your life?
My dad had a life changing teacher in junior high school. Over forty years later, standing in an airport my dad heard two people talking behind him. Without seeing either person, my dad recognized the one voice as that influential teacher. The man was working as a volunteer at the airport information desk. My dad went to him, introduced himself, and then told his former teacher what a great influence he had been in his life. That story is one of my favorites because I think it is incredible my dad recognized the voice of a teacher he had not heard in over forty years.
I have had some great teachers over many years of schooling, and two professors at Virginia Tech, Professor Ed Falco and Dr. J.W. Tubbs, had a life long influence. Yet the personal story I will share here is from my freshman year at Virginia Tech. The university was still on the quarter system, and the general education requirement for all students, besides engineering and math students who had even more advanced freshman math classes, included a quarter of Algebra, a quarter of Trigonometry, and a quarter of Calculus. Not being a math person, they were hard for me. (General education requirements are different at Tech these days.) For those three classes, and a required entry level English class, Tech used graduate students as teachers. My teacher for Calculus for the spring quarter was a graduate student from Tennessee. That man turned out to be one of the best teachers I have ever had. A Calculus expert, he would go through an equation problem on the chalk board at a nice pace for our sake. Each step was explained! Then he would ask if everyone in the class understood how he carried out the equation. If only one person in the class did not understand, he would do it over again. A few times he even went over a tricky step three times. His patience was epic.
One day around noon I was in the dining hall as usual. Normally I sat with friends, but none of my friends were around that day. Sitting alone at a large round table, I saw the Calculus teacher. After he got a milk, he came over to my table and asked if he could sit with me. I was honored to have my teacher sit with me and I enjoyed talking with him during lunch. No other teacher had done that before, and none has done it since.
We all have different gifts, and each of us prefer some subjects to others. Whatever the subject, if your teacher was great, I speculate he or she has a passion for that subject. And if your teacher was life changing, I speculate he or she cared about you.
The last point Jesus instructed in the “Great Commission” is for followers of Jesus to teach everything He commanded. Just as most of us have been aided by others in our Bible education, Jesus wants us disciples to be a part of the teaching process and assist in the education of others. First we must learn from Him. Preaching, teaching, and healing were grand aspects of the ministry of Jesus, and now His teachings are recorded in Scripture. I personally am always learning from daily Bible study. Second we must truly teach. I love teaching, and promoting discussions by asking questions and being open to questions are one mode of teaching I employ to keep folks engaged. Yet the call to teach is not only for those of us with a teaching gift. You parents teach your children simply by how you live your life. And if teaching is not your thing you can still foster Bible education by buying someone a Bible, treating your Sunday school teacher to lunch, or aiding the tuition of someone engaged in ministry studies.
For twenty-two years of my life, though I had some prime education experience, I did not know the Gospel, I could not have named the first five books of the Old or New Testament, I had only read a small bit of the Bible, and I had never taken a theology class. Boy has my life been radically different the past twenty-six years! May that encourage us both when I say that right now education is more widespread and accessible than ever in history due to technology, however Bible unfamiliarity is common. As education accessibility increases, Bible expertise seems to be diminishing. Possible reasons might include the fact information overload is common, and our culture is more complicated. Our duty remains, thus followers of Jesus need to keep learning from the Bible, and then share our knowledge in appropriate manners.
For those of you who are not followers of Jesus, I invite you to take the opportunity to learn what Jesus taught. His teaching can have even more than a “life time” influence; His teaching can have an eternal result. Jesus, God the Son, gave teachings which reveal the Way to eternal life.
Hunter Irvine
