Teaching... Part 2

Well, I finally took up the mantel two years ago, and stepped into the classroom as the homeroom teacher in a small Christian school. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what teaching was. I had spent years actually watching and studying the things that teachers did, how they did it, what they didn’t do. I thought that I was ready.

Fortunately, I was wrong. Fortunately, I was wrong here, at this school, or I might have spent many years striking out without realizing it. I might have just kept on offering information and testing instead of trying to educate. I still feel the occasional pangs of guilt for having to learn such lessons at the expense of my class, but I suppose that teachers have to learn on someone.

You see, here at the Garden School, the concept of education we ascribe to is a more holistic approach. Sure, a student needs to know basic information… geography, math, spelling, etc… but we also value integrity, goodness, truth, faith, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines. We recognize that raising up leaders takes mentoring… not just information. We want to be a part of sculpting beautiful souls, and not just beautiful minds.

As teachers, we seek to impart a piece of our lives to our students… give of ourselves… something that might echo across generations. Class time might consist of a lecture, or a poignant story, or open discussion or a sermon-et… but it is always a lesson that holds some value… something that I hope will leave an impression on a young leader’s heart.

For me, this is inspired teaching. I am not sure that “teaching” is even the appropriate word for this… but it is the word we’ve got. In fact, maybe the word doesn’t matter and neither does a carefully parsed definition. This is a lifestyle; a heavy burden and a deep privilege. And it feels so, so good… to teach like this.

Teaching... Part 1

What is teaching? What does it mean “to teach?”

In some fashion, I have spent more than 20 years of my life trying to answer just these questions. That is, SO FAR, I have spent more than 20 years trying to figure this out.

The irony is that I have carried this burden since before I really, actually had any inkling of what was involved. When I was probably about 8 or 9, I began to feel that I wanted to be a teacher. Sure, I was a public school kid, and I had already experienced the classroom with several different teachers. However, this wasn’t just the feeling that “Gee, teachers sure are nice! That’s what I wanna be!”

Instead, as much as I can remember, it was natural. It just seemed like a shoe that fit. It was a sort of confident assumption, something that could not be reasoned but was surely true.

Years passed, many people in many ways reinforced this. Sometimes, I told them I wanted to be a teacher and they would say something like, “That fits you. I’ll bet you’ll be a good one.” Or at other times, people would listen to me or talk with me, and then suggest, “You know, you should be a teacher.”

My gifting and interests also reinforced this vocation. I have a quick mind, and I read well, with a strong memory. I am naturally confident in front of a group (or at least I can appear that way), and I can usually explain pretty complex things in a way most folks can chew on. It seems like the stuff of teaching, no?

So, yes, I am pretty sure that I am a teacher at heart. But this still doesn’t exactly answer our question… namely, what is teaching?

Great Expectations... The Conclusion

For one, I have to consider that My Heavenly Father made me to be... me. As Paul would write, he makes different vessels for different purposes. He crafts each person with their own blend of gifts and shortcomings, personalities and tastes. If I acknowledged this in theory, I had to be willing to see it in myself. I realized that I might be able to perform a great many jobs or duties, there were those things that I had a natural aptitude for, and other things which came with greater difficulty. Some things just seemed to "fit" better than others...

Now this may seem oh-so-obvious, but it may raise some concerns, as well. For instance, what if you find that you are gifted for a job that society may not glorify? What if your family doesn't value this profession? What if you have to settle for a shorter check in a culture gone mad with materialism? This isn't a slam dunk for everyone, and this is seldom actually discovered in any of the multitude of personality tests that experts want to offer...

So if the Lord made me, and he made me for a purpose, what then? Well, as I wed these two truths, I see that as I work at my vocation, I am fulfilling His purposes. It is, whether consciously or not, obedience. If I understand that I am only one piece of this enormous puzzle, with each piece being fitted for a specific place in the whole, then I begin to see that by obeying this fundamental calling, I am actually serving my fellow man.

Then, if I see that I am serving my fellow man, I also must see that my fellow man also serves me and my needs. The self-made, self-sufficient man may be the most absurd idol ever imagined. Truly it was said, "No man is an island." We are, all of us, interconnected in ways too deep to get our arms around. Instead of seeing some as servants to be pitied, and others as masters to be envied, I see that whether we fully see it or not, we are all servants. This should come as no surprise when we meditate on the Cross.

So not only did He make me, and for a purpose, but he made me to be a servant to his other creatures. By exercising my gifts, the gifts he gave me, I glorify Him. If I apply myself to this calling with vigor, humility, and joy, I draw close to the heart of worship. As Eric Liddell, the olympic gold medal runner, said in Chariots of Fire, "God (also) made me fast, and when I run, I feel HIS pleasure." This kind of worship grants even the most menial of tasks with the deepest dignity...

Can you see that the man running the bulldozer can lay an offering on the altar as beautiful as the nun who ministers to the destitute in Calcutta? Isn't that... just amazing? What can your life be? What song can you sing with your life?

If we come full circle, I realize that I still carry a solemn charge, but it isn't quite the way I imagined it (and maybe not how my family understood it, either). It is not a matter so much of redeeming a family name, but redeeming my life by serving the Name Above All Names. It is not about trying to be anything but what I was made to be. It is no longer a matter of being honored among men, but being rewarded by the giver of every good and perfect gift.

And this is where the road has led me. As is often the case, despite the frustration of the young, experience has a way of lending more clarity to things. My prayer is that as I continue to grow in wisdom and years, I might gain an even deeper appreciation for this worship... that I might prove to be a worthy vessel for the rich gifts my Father has bestowed on me. Just by being... me.

Great Expectations... Pt. 3

As I began to work my way through these various trades and pay grades, I encountered something my precocious mind wasn't prepared for. Namely, I worked with a lot of really, really smart guys out there in blue collar jobs. Now, don't throw me under the bus for how dumb this sounds (as least finish reading first). Let me share a SMALL sampling of the people I encountered who shook my tree...

I worked for a painter who went to college for teaching, but got tired of the politics and short pay. He was a terrific man with a sharp mind and warm humor. I met a loader operator who had a full ride scholarship to a tech school, but declined it because he figured that rather than take all that time in a classroom, he would just read the books the teachers wrote (or the books that they read themselves)! Yeah, and he was actually reading these books, too. I worked with welders who understood Geometry and Trigonometry far better than, I suspect, some of the teachers that I had. I could go on and on, but I think that you get a glimpse...

None of these guys were miserable or unhappy in their work. That is not to say everyday was a celebration (it is a job, after all), but these were not galley slaves resigned to empty lives. To be frank, these guys seemed to have lives full of joy that I did not usually see mirrored in those who had the "white collar" jobs. They enjoyed the great outdoors, ate food that their own hands may have killed and butchered, sometimes worked right alongside their own sons, bragged about grandkids, watched over their elderly parents, etc, etc. Now, this is not saying that they were all of noble blood (jerks and dogs reside in every tier of society), but many lived what I might call "rich lives."

Maybe the most disarming of all, most of these men had a common-sense, clear-thinking way of seeing life that just cut right through the usual classroom theorizing. They had been raised on the meat and potatoes of Integrity, Work Ethic, and Family. They found the classroom (and the educational establishment), with its' abstract discussions and office-bound lifestyles, restricting and less than satisfying. What I had assumed was inability was actually a self-realization and wisdom that I myself did not possess...

Another discovery that I made was the truly profound joy of working with my hands (or maybe producing tangible results might be another way to say it). I was used to making calculations or writing a paper, and while these things served their purpose, it was nothing like solving real world problems and actually producing a day's work. It was mentally invigorating, AND physically exhausting. It was so... satisfying.

So what was I to say? How could I reconcile what I was seeing and feeling with that solemn charge so long ago? You know, that whole get a "good" job and "be somebody" thing we talked about back in part one. What did/does that really, actually mean anymore? As I look at my own rapidly growing son, what would I encourage him to do with his life? I think that the answer lies in my perceptions of worship, servanthood, vocation, and God as my Creator.

The Conclusion is next...

Great Expectations... Pt. 2

While I was in high school and since, as noted previously, I have assembled a very diverse resumé. I have been in management, and in the bottom of a hole with a shovel. I have worked alongside aspiring doctors and lawyers, welders, and laborers. I have spent much time in the seats of various classrooms, and recently, I have taken my place in the front of the classroom as the teacher. Maybe, in a small way, I have finally become "Mr. Koschak."

On my way to this humble distinction, I have wrestled with keeping that family trust granted me so long ago. Along the way, I encountered several fallacies in my thinking which I suspect are relatively common. I thought that I might take this chance to share the conclusions that I have come to and how they relate to these flawed assumptions.

For one, whether consciously or otherwise, I carried the assumption that I was somehow "above" or "better than" a blue-collar job. I suspect that several factors contributed to this rather stark assertion.

First, I think that I inherited it from my family. When a young boy listens to his own parents tell him that he needs to get a good job, one that is far more important and superior to their own jobs, it creates a simple equation. Namely, that the type of work they do is not to be sought after, and that they have such a job because they can't get a better one.

I am sharing this, not to lay blame at my parents' feet, but to offer a kind of warning. I would strongly discourage parents or other adults from making pronouncements like these to youth, as it robs certain vocations of their dignity. I believe that every job is important, and that not everyone has the gifts to excel at every job.

Second, I think that this bias is reinforced by society and media. How many times have we seen the blue collar worker portrayed as some beer drinking, basically ignorant, semi-belligerent fool? The idea is that these people are to be ridiculed and certainly not to be taken seriously. On the other hand, the upper class are portrayed as being basically more intelligent, more sophisticated, and mostly better groomed. As a thoughtful person looking for mental stimulation, which would a person choose?

Third, since blue collar jobs are often labor intensive, this bias suggests that jobs that require dirty hands and a sweaty brow are somehow inferior. The thought is that if you were smart, you would not have a bad back at 45. This encourages a person to look at the tradesman or laborer as though they are less than desirable. It feeds the ego to think that we are "above" or maybe "better than" certain jobs, which actually translates to being better than the people doing these jobs...

There are more reasons that I perceived these things this way... but these three are pretty big. However, in His truly infinite wisdom, the Lord has shook my tree with various experiences which He has ordained. And it was (and is) through these experiences that my Heavenly Father is molding my notion of vocation and work. I hope to share some of these humble insights to encourage others on this road with me...

Watch out for Part 3...

Great Expectations...?

When I was a young boy, it was evident to the majority of my family that I was a bright kid. Not necessarily Nobel material (cheap though the award may be these days), but smarter than your average bear, anyway. As I grew, my grades at school stayed strong, and it seemed that I was on the way to great things.

Before this begins to sound like a Charles Dickens novel, I want to offer a little bit of family history. I was born in Northern Minnesota, in a little town named Ely which is located near the Canadian border. It is a small town with a harsh climate, heavily reliant on the two harsh industries of logging and iron ore mining. It is a place that encourages endurance and determination in its’ residents: a legacy of which I am proud.

Like many in Ely, my ancestors only came to this country a few generations ago in search of work and land and opportunity. Half of my ancestors consisted of German lumberjacks who arrived in the north woods and began to apply their trade anew. The other half is a mix of English and Slavic blood. All of them in search of promise in the new world which they would pay for with sweat, aches, and even blood.

Given this hardscrabble existence, one can imagine what it meant to see such a promising young sapling spring up in the midst of the family. Here was a very, very smart young man who will do great things, who will redeem the family name in a way. Here is a boy who may one day be an "important" man with an "important" job. People will call him “Mr. Koschak.”

I remember hearing about how important it was for me to work hard in school, and to one day go to College. College, you see, being the great escape from the hardship of the blue collar life and living paycheck to paycheck. My grandfather, a retired county foreman, used to dig through trash cans to collect aluminum cans, so that he could sell them and give me the money for the college tuition I would have to pay more than a decade yet in the future. This was a serious responsibility and not to be wasted.

So, I grew up and grew older and carried this charge close to my heart. I got married and now I have children of my own. I have gone to College and have had many jobs over these years. In spite of these accomplishments, I still wonder whether or not I have been a faithful vessel for so much hope. Further, I have wondered whether this hope has been somewhat misplaced.... or whether I even understand it at all…

Part 2 coming soon…