This post is a tribute to all teachers, but is in special honour of my sister-in-law who has just survived a week of school inspection.
Many people have the job title ‘teacher’ but many more of us have a role in teaching. Teaching is not about telling, but about creating the right environment for someone to learn for themselves. It’s about encouraging an open mind, helping someone explore possibilities, and giving them positive reinforcement.
For me these two quotes on my journal pages are a great definition of teaching. Teaching is hard work and is a gift that not everyone has.
Jesus was a great teacher. He taught by example, he taught through stories and parables and he taught by pointing his disciples in the right direction and allowing them to experiment for themselves. The people of his day recognised his teaching ability and those of us who follow him today still recognise his ability to teach us 2000 years on.
Psalm 25:9 “He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.”
A great teacher stands out. I bet you can remember your favourite teachers, or those who didn’t have the title of ‘teacher’ but from whom you still learned lots.
And to be teachable is also a great skill. Often we can get to a point in our lives where we might think no-one has anything new to teach us. That’s just not true. There is always more to learn. But to be truly teachable we need to have humility, an open mind and a generous heart.
So here’s to all teachers everywhere, those with the job title and those unofficial teachers. Yours is a gift and an art. Thank you for all you are and all you do.
The artwork…
These pages are from my altered book art journal. I’ve mentioned it before. It’s a book of fairy tales and you can see the text peeking through.
I used white gesso to give coverage over the text, then I made my own heart stamp and stamped with red acrylic. I have some very old music which I cut into heart shapes and I stencilled on the alphabet and numbers with those stencil sets we used to have at school – remember them?
The rest is finished with Gold and black sharpies.
janelydialoves 