I hate not teaching
I’m in one of those educational slack times. Since I teach adult students, there’s no summer break, per se, but I have a lull in my schedule until the first week of August. I hate it.
While I never perceived myself as a teacher, God’s great mercy and incredible sense of humor have put me in the classroom, but now, on the wrong side of the desk. I often equate being a teacher to adults as equal parts of the following:
- Pastor
- Counselor
- Sage
- Old Testament Prophet
- Coach
- Mediator
- Stand-up Comic
I have learned that it is no small feat to keep a class engaged in the material for 4-hours at a time. Do that for the five to seven weeks of the course, assign meaningful papers, give feedback promptly, and learn to critique in a constructive, redemptive way, and you get some idea of what it means to lead a classroom full of adult students. At this point in my life, it is my most difficult leadership challenge.
Hard work? Oh, yes. But I love it.
I can hardly wait until August.