One of the problems in education today is the high burnout rate for teachers, which is much higher than that of most other occupations. Good teaching requires a lot of work and strong commitment, and hence teachers need to believe that what they do is important, valued and appreciated. Today, there are many factors that hinder this: modest or low pay, discipline problems, a lack of parental or administrative support, students with troubling family situations, increasing amounts of time spent on paperwork, pressure for having good student performance on end of year exams, inadequate input on curriculum or educational issues, and few opportunities for using creative or individualistic approaches.

As a society I hope that we can address these issues, but I also think we should do everything we can individually to make teachers feel valuable. I have to admit to my own failing, since I only came to this realization after many years of teaching. I had trouble remembering specifics of my elementary school teachers, even though I was certain that I owed them a lot. I quickly saw, however, the ways that I had benefited from two of my high school math teachers and one of my English teachers. Unfortunately my English teacher had died, but I was able to find the math teachers and send them letters of gratitude. In each case they had retired, but both wrote me wonderful letters back.

I think, however, that there is another big factor contributing to burnout, one of which is intrinsic in the profession; much of the positive impact that a teacher has on a student comes years later without the teacher ever knowing it. Indeed, most of the time the student as an adult is not cognizant of their teachers’ contributions to their growth and development. Teachers need to believe in what they’re doing, without being able to see their results, since most will come to fruition only years later; that is, teachers need to operate on faith.

In Hebrew 11:1 we read “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”   Teachers give us secular examples of faith, but the author of Hebrews gives many Old Testament examples of faith. In Chapter 12 the author urges us to have the faith needed to run our race. Let your faith be strengthened by the knowledge that God loves YOU unconditionally.

Jim