WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER?

By Teddy Copeland

A little boy came home from school one day and announced to his parents that his Sunday school teacher was the grandmother of Jesus. "What makes you think that?" his dad asked. "Because," the young fellow replied, "she talks about Him all the time!"

A love for Jesus – and enthusiasm when talking about Him – definitely is a key ingredient for success in the classroom. Another essential is to use good basic material that you can trust to be faithful to God's Word. (With Lambert products, that's a given.) But there are three other essentials as well, all found in a passage in the Old Testament.

In Ezra 7:10 we read: "For Ezra prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statues and judgments." Ezra would have made a good employee for Campbell's Soup because he was great at condensing things. In this passage he condenses the principal components of a good teacher.

First of all, we see that a good teacher studies the law of the Lord. A good illustration of this comes from the physical world in the way our bodies draw in and release air. Our exhaling is in proportion to our inhaling. So it is with Bible study. We must fill up our reservoir with God's truth before we can release it to others. Our need for and dependence upon God's Word should be like that of an infant, constantly requiring and demanding nourishment (1 Peter 2:2). A converted Indian once described the battle between good and evil that goes on within us. "I have two dogs living in me," he said, "a good dog and a mean dog. They are always fighting. The mean dog wants me to do bad things and the good dog wants me to do good things. Do you know which dog wins? The one I feed the most!" Teachers should "feed their good dogs" with a regular study of God's Word.

Secondly, a teacher not only studies the Word of God, but does it. Before we teach it is so important that our students can see us living God's Word in our lives. It's not a coincidence that in one of our children's favorite activities at school – Show and Tell – the showing comes first. Children learn much more by being shown something than by merely being told! A missionary once spoke to a group of Hindu women. Right in the middle of his message, one of the women got up and walked out of the building. Soon, however, she returned and listened even more intently than before. "Why did you leave?" the missionary asked her at the end of the service. "I was so interested in the wonderful things that you were saying that I went to ask the woman who washes clothes at your house if you live like you teach. She said you do, so I came back to hear more!"

Thirdly, after studying God's Word and putting it into action, one is ready to teach. Ezra himself followed this formula and, as a result of his teaching, there was a great reformation in the lives of the Israelites. One of the great factors in Ezra's teaching, I believe, was the love he had for his people. 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that without love, nothing worthwhile can be accomplished. Here is a version of that famous chapter, adapted for teachers.

If I have read all the books that men have written about teaching, but have not a love for teaching, I am only making a loud sound. And if I have a magna jector and understand the use of all visual aids and if I have all energy as to make a new poster every week, but have not a love for teaching, I am not a teacher.

If I use all that I have and give all my time to decorating my classroom, but have not a love for teaching, my students have profited nothing. When I was a child, I spoke and understood and thought like a child. When I became a teacher, I put away childish things, but I did not forget what it was like to be a child. And now abideth the teacher's knowledge, the teacher's aids, and the teacher's love; the greatest of these is the teacher's love.