Training to teach, training to live

It’s a great pleasure to welcome Daniel Churm as a Christians in Education guest blogger. He  is currently completing his PGCE in secondary RE, having first studied History and Philosophy at the University of York. Daniel grew up in the Midlands, in a Christian family and he is now an active member and worship leader in a Baptist church. You can find his personal blog at chatteringchurm.wordpress.com and follow him on Twitter @DanChurm

‘Trainee teacher’ is not a title I love.  It suggests a level of incompetence and inadequacy; the implication is that I am somewhere between non-teacher and ‘proper’ teacher and that my teaching is automatically substandard.  A teacher’s lessons are good, the lessons of a trainee teacher can’t be good enough.

Now, to some extend this is, of course, true.  I haven’t had as much experience as a ‘proper’ teacher, still have much to learn and still need much coaching and training.  However, most ‘proper’ teachers willingly acknowledge that they are not perfect.  Even qualified teachers make mistakes (shocking I know), face challenges and learn from their experiences.  All teachers are, in a sense, ‘in training’.  All teachers are learning ‘on the job’, reflecting on their practice, seeking to improve and in need of advice and support.  ‘Fully qualified’ teachers have told me that a teacher is never really ‘fully qualified’, but is always learning and always improving.

Here, there are parallels with life in general.  And as a Christian, I am especially aware of my own journey through life as one filled with learning.  We’re not living as ‘trainees’ as such, but we are constantly learning, constantly reflecting, constantly trying to improve.  Life is a journey with challenges, difficulties and learning curves.  We are all learners (even teachers) and we are all learning how to ‘do life’ just as much as all teachers are always learning how to ‘do teaching’.

As a Christian training to teach, I am experiencing life as a journey of constant learning very acutely.  I am learning how to teach young people, learning how to manage a classroom, learning how to track progress, learning how to differentiate… the list goes on.  I’m also finding the busyness and challenge of the PGCE course to be a learning curve in other ways; I’m learning how to better manage my time, learning how to maintain a healthy balance between work and the other aspects of life, learning when to stop.  I’ve also learnt so much about myself, and about God’s plan for me.

When we, as Christian teachers, properly acknowledge that we are learners too, we become better teachers and better disciples.  God wants us to be always learning, partly because we are so far from being perfect.  We never will be perfect in life, but we can be better. The book of Proverbs often exhorts the ‘wise man’ to keep learning: in chapter 1 verse 5, the writer says, “let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance”.   Learning from our experiences and  mistakes, and learning valuable lessons from others is all part of humbly realising who we are.  This realisation should not lead us to despair, but should encourage us.  It should hearten us to know that there are always lessons to learn and that our mistakes can be moved on from.

All teachers, ‘trainee’ and ‘qualified’ alike, are learning how to teach.  They are also, along with everyone else, learning how to live.  As teachers, we are expected to learn from our practice, reflect on what we do, and improve as a result.  In the steady trudge of life and the business of teaching it’s easy to forget to learn.  It’s easier to be so caught up in ‘doing’ that we forget to stop and reflect.  As Christians, we know that God has so much to teach us about how to best live in the way He wants.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to learn from Him, to take on board the lessons we learn, and let them change us.  Reading the Bible, listening to other Christians, spending time with God are all important if we are to learn from God and become the people that He wants us to be.  Meditation and action on the Word of God is especially important if we want to learn from God – Paul tells Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”  (2 Timothy 3:16)

We never stop learning and we will always be ‘trainees’ – we will never be perfect and will never be free from mistakes.  This is the case in our professional practice as teachers, in our personal lives as family members and friends, and in our role as disciples of Jesus.  We receiving training from our own reflections, from fellow teachers and disciples, and from God Himself.

So I’m going to embrace the title ‘trainee’ and remind myself that I will always be ‘in training’.