The importance of Right Teaching

Of course, all of us are teachers, at one time or another. Whether it is the profession at large, or the peer group at the lunch table, there is teaching and learning going on. Which way are you pointing?

Martin Luther had much to say about this role:

"Schoolmasters have learned to speak in school with their pupils; they know how the passages of Holy Scripture are properly to be handled and explained. I wish that no one would be elected preacher unless he had first been a schoolmaster. Now the young fellows want to become preachers instantly and flee schoolwork. But after a man has taught for about ten years, he may quit with a good conscience; for the work is too great and is little thought of. However, a schoolmaster is as important to a city as a preacher. We can dispense with burgomasters, princes, and noblemen; you cannot dispense with schools, for they must rule the world.

If I were not a preacher, I do not know of any position on earth that I would rather have than that of schoolmaster. But one must not look at how the world rewards and regards it but at how God will consider and praise it on that Day."

"I would briefly say that a diligent and pious schoolteacher or master or whoever the person is who faithfully trains and teaches boys can never be sufficiently rewarded and repaid with any money, as even the heathen Aristotle says (This Greek philosopher said: "Those who educate children well are more to be honored than those who produce them. For the latter give them only life; the former give them the art of living well."). Yet this work is shamefully despised among us as if it were nothing whatever. Still we want to be Christians. If I myself could or should be obliged to leave the office of the ministry and other duties, I would rather have the office of schoolmaster or teacher of boys than any other office. For I know that next to the ministry this work is the most useful, the greatest, and the best. In fact, I do not know which of the two is better; for it is hard to tame old dogs and to make old rascals pious. Yet this is the task at which the preacher must labor and often labor in vain. But one can bend and train young trees more easily even though some of them break in the process. My friend, let it be considered one of the greatest virtues on earth faithfully to train the children of other people. Very few people - in fact, practically none - do this for their own children."

"No calling pleases me as well as that of schoolmaster; nor would I more gladly accept any other calling." (Luther arrives at this thought by reflecting on the precious Old Testament texts which the Great Teacher must have explained to His disciples on the way to Emmaus)

"It takes persons of exceptional ability to teach and train children aright."

"What work is greater and more splendid than imparting real and true instruction? If, then, you are a teacher or the head of a school, what are you to do? You are faithfully to instruct, teach, discipline, and admonish the youth entrusted to you. You should do so expecting that some will do their duty and others will not. For he who wants to do good must expect that it is done in vain and that his good deed is poorly used, because the number of those who spurn good advice is always greater than the number of those who follow it. And we should be satisfied when the good we do has not been entirely lost. It is enough if one of the ten lepers returns to acknowledge the benefit (Luke 17:17). So it is enough if one of ten pupils takes correction and studies diligently; for thus the benefit is not altogether lost. And in imitation of the example which God gives us we are enjoined to do good to both the grateful and the ungrateful (Matt. 5:45)."

Others knew if this powerful influence also.

Adolf Hitler said: "Let me control the textbooks, and I will control the state."

Vladimir Lenin said: "Give me your four year olds, and in a generation I will build a socialist state."

These men used this powerful influence for destruction.

Even Martin Luther saw this possibility when he said:

"I am much afraid that the schools will prove to be the great gates to Hell unless they diligently labor in explaining the Scriptures, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God, must become corrupt."

May God raise up right minded teachers, which will form and fashion the next generations to come. Lord, help us.