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Jesus
said, “Do you understand
all these things?” They answered
“Yes.” And he replied, “Then
every
scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the
head of a
household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
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Armed
with ambitious lesson plans and scholarly ideals, beginning teacher
Erin
Gruwell came to
Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, California, only to discover
that she was thoroughly ill-equipped for a student body raised
according to the ethics of urban tribalism. Her students were
underprivileged black and Latino teenagers, whom many adults considered
"hopeless," so much so, that
anyone studying her situation would advise her to leave. Then she
discovered some motivation for her students: she discovered that their
plight was not unlike the plight of the Jewish people caught up in the
Holocaust. Giving her students an understanding of "The Diary of
Anne Frank," she brought to America and her classroom the person who
helped hide the Frank family. She then produced "The Freedom Writers
Diary,"
an anthology of journals and personal writings done by her class. The
memoirs convey the tension, danger, and sadness of the students' lives,
but they also served as the avenue for her students to learn about
themselves and even how to better who they were.
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The
most common title used for Jesus in Matthew's Gospel is "teacher," a
term that the evangelist Matthew used to convey the comparison of Jesus
to Moses. To Matthew and his readers, Jesus was the perfect teacher, a
person who would use "old and new methods" to get his point across.
Jesus wanted his followers to understand the Kingdom of God, and in
order to do it well, he had to be the best of teachers, giving his
students not only what he wanted them to learn, but having a sincere
love for them as well.
Erin Gruwell may or may not have been a Christian, but she certainly was a teacher. She discovered that in order to bring a concept home to her students, she had to use both "new and old" methods. But subject matter was only part of the picture of the teacher--she knew that she had to love her students as well. She knew that if she really wanted to help her students learn, she had to appreciate their plight, get into their world, and with true love for them, bring them to understand life as it should be. For a Christian, whether a teacher or not, it is a fact that if you really want to help someone, you will figure out a way to do it. You will figure it out not only because you want to get a point across but because you care for them. The Christian will always look at others in light of what they need to learn and in light of who they are--fellow human beings who need love. |
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THOUGHT
What
are the characteristics of the best teachers you have experienced?
PRAYER Good
and gracious God, your Son was a perfect teacher, directing us to learn
the concept of the kingdom of heaven, and at the same time, truly
loving us. Give us the grace to learn not only his doctrine, but also
his method of teaching and caring about others. Be with us, we pray.
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©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |