No Teacher?

I appreciate the value of group learning. I also highly value the role of teacher.

We’ve all experienced the vacuous attempts to learn something together as a group without an expert present. We’ve also experienced listening to someone teach who obviously didn’t know what they were talking about, even if they thought they did.

My most profound learning moments have been under the mentorship of a very good and wise teacher. These moments are life-changing and unforgettable. These teachers are with me in my mind to this day. I am forever thankful for them.

I think some people are delusional and misled when they insist or suggest that there shouldn’t be a teacher but that the whole group should teach themselves. Sometimes people react against a very bad and negative experience with an overbearing or inadequate teacher. Maybe they’ve never experienced the exhilaration and “ah-ha!” moments with a good teacher when you actually feel yourself transformed by the renewing of your mind.

One of the things I miss the most about professional ministry is being supported financially while I pray, study and contemplate. Now I spend all day at a job teaching English. By the time I get home I am exhausted. I draw a cartoon for the next day. Maybe do some art. Spend time with my family. Maybe see my on the weekend. But I find very little time to do some serious reading and even less time to do some serious study and thinking and writing. I can do it, but it is more sparse. It is possible, but compromised.

This is why we should value and financially support, even if partially, the role of teacher, pastor, minister, priest, imam, rabbi, etc., while at the same time insisting that they please study, contemplate and pray for us.

The image is a drawing of mine called “Study”… one of my Sophia series. You can get the original or a fine art print in my online gallery.