A Lutheran Educator’s Reflection on 2020
Written by Kelli L. Green
Why has teaching become so stressful? Am I trusting God enough? These are questions you may be asking yourself. Here’s my reflection.
Remembering Why.
Last month, as I opened a Special Education Task Force meeting, we took a moment to share how God called us into the teaching ministry. Over Zoom we took turns sharing our “Why.”
Some mentioned external factors, and others mentioned internal factors used by the Holy Spirit to guide them into education and to Martin Luther College, formerly known as Dr. Martin Luther College, as preparation. Thinking back on the original reasons for entering the teaching ministry, I became overwhelmingly aware that the purpose had evolved over time.
The first reason for me was that my preschool teacher at Grace Lutheran School in Phoenix was so beautiful because of how she loved each of us. Later in high school, the reason changed to wanting to inspire others the way I was inspired by my teachers at Nebraska Lutheran Evangelical High School.
Truly, there was nothing like first year teaching as I realized how much God had called me to love people no matter their differences, drawing me especially to those who struggled to learn through disabilities or despite emotional behavioral challenges, because God’s Word could speak life into each and every circumstance reaching into eternity—the ultimate purpose. For so many called into teaching, their reason is connected to compassion.
Pandemic Is Cause for Compassion.
That purpose is even clearer today. The coronavirus pandemic has forced each of us to adjust the way we interact with colleagues, students, and families. Some of our school environments have been moved online. Many have remained in-person while having quarantined or isolated students online. First, we educated in an emergency state, and then, after the summer, we gathered new tools and tried to be more planned in our efforts as educators.
We may have thought responding educationally to the pandemic was the worst of our worries, but it was not. Our family members became ill, and some recovered, while others did not. Rejoicing through tears of grief that our loved ones were now in heaven due to this virus was added to our challenges. Confusion over whether or not we should worry about getting the virus was added to our thoughts as many of our congregation and family members recovered from the illness.
Fear, grief, confusion, and overwhelm were a few of the uncomfortable emotions we felt and still feel as we look cautiously forward to immunizations that could put an eventual end to this chapter in the history of education.
Serving All with Compassion.
The pandemic is not the only concern in view. A long history of discrimination in our nation made its way to the forefront again to rightly demand our attention. Each and every one of us is faced with the introspective task of naming our part in the way we interact with people who are different from ourselves.
In the teaching ministry, we look long and hard at the mission statements of our schools and ask, “Who am I called to serve?” All people are deserving of the saving knowledge of the gospel.
After the riots near my home in St. Paul during the summer of 2020, I considered my role in making sure the higher education classroom was accessible to all of my students, especially those who come from diverse backgrounds. I asked myself, “What cultural barriers do I need to remove so that students in my classroom might prepare for a diverse teaching ministry?” This added to the emotions I felt as an educator, while compassion still resonates as the purpose for reflection and action.
Compassion During Times of Adversity.
The list of changes to education continues to grow exponentially at this time in history. Dr. Lori Desautels states in her most recent book, published in the fall of 2020, that the brain cannot handle three things:
- chronic unpredictability or adversity,
- isolation, and
- emotional or physical restraint (p. xi).
All three of these have been a part of our landscape over the past year in education. This is a time of chronic adversity for our Christian community as a whole. Each person in our community responds differently to these attacks on the brain state. As educators during this time in history, we need to do an internal check often to know how these adversities are being handled within our human body.
These are difficult times, and we can’t help but feel stressed. Uncomfortable emotions are a natural response to adversity. Don’t give up. God understands. He encourages, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
While you continue to stay connected to the Lord through his Word and prayer, there are some things you can do to help your brain function better in times of adversity. More on that in next month’s post, “Sustaining Compassion in Education, Part 2.”
Professor Kelli Green (MLC ’92) serves as a professor of education at Martin Luther College-New Ulm MN.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- FREE Virtual Conference. On February 15, 2021, Professor Green will present “Trauma-Informed Christian Schools,” a free virtual conference brought to you by MLC’s OpenLearning. This hour-long conference includes four parts: The Research Foundations, The Educator, The Students, The School Community. If you would like to attend this virtual conference, register here: mlc-wels.edu/openlearning/register/.
- Visit the WELS “Get Connected” webpages at welsrc.net/connect/.
REFERENCE
Desautels, L. L. (2020). Connections over compliance: rewiring our perceptions of discipline. Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing.