Where does a teacher get their inspiration from?

As most people know, I have not been a teacher all of my life, indeed, I got into it only fairly recently. My first teaching was about 7-8 yrs ago when I was working with Caritas in Olomouc with a Day Centre (for people with 'mental health' issues). I taught for once a week. Then I began to teach a small group (2-3 people) in Velka Bystrice...and so the snowball began to roll until I ended up in a full-time job (which I love) at the Slovanske Gymnazium.
I'm now into my 5th year of teaching - something that I never imagined that I'd be doing!! - and I've been thinking about which teachers have inspired me...a difficult question.

- Mr Clarke - when I was about 14-15 we were introduced to Mr Clarke in our English lessons at Castle Vale Comprehensive School in Birmingham. I remember that he got me interested in reading, writing, and thinking about life. I'm almost convinced that he was the only teacher who shared somethings about his 'private life', and he also gave us some advice about relationships. I enjoyed his lessons, but was sometimes afraid (as I was very shy then!) that he would get me to speak!

- Mrs Barnett - she was the wife of our strict headmaster, but she was the opposite to him! An elderly teacher, but she was kind & gracious - she was the first to tell me that I could write a good story :-) Indeed, under her tuition, I won a book in a competition!

But then there are some 'fictional characters' which have proved equally inspiring!

- John Keating (as played by Robin Williams) in Dead Poet's Society - a tremendous film & an inspirational character. Whenever I see this film, I can draw something from it & I guess that though I'll not be a 'Keating', I'll be myself...I shall suck the marrow out of life! :-)

- Mark Thackery (as played by Sidney Poitier) in To Sir With Love - I can relate a lot to this character...an engineer who ends up as a teacher (because he can't find anything else) & who becomes a success at it because he realises that the students need to be taught about life, and not what's in the textbooks. I never got a degree, finished studying when I was 16, and did all sorts of jobs...but eventually became drawn to working with needy people...and here I am, now over 50, and discovering that God has prepared me for this job...at this time! Amazing!

Of course, there were also some bad role models that served to warn me what I should not be like, but I prefer to focus on that which was good & which has helped me both to discover my (latent) gift, and hopefully to develop it. I really do believe that I could be even better :-)

What I think God is NOT like...

Many people ask the question, “If there is a God of love and he loves us, why is there so much suffering in the world?” Some might even wonder how I can put my trust in such a God when he has 'taken' my two sisters from me and the rest of my family...(One died aged 20 of a diabetes-related illness - the other died in her 40's of bowel cancer...)There are no easy answers, but to help frame a possible nudge in a good direction, I'm reminded of a sketch that I saw on TV, a long time ago...

There was a spoof on the old Channel 4 programme, ‘Right to Reply’, where viewers record a video clip relating to a programme that had been on TV, voicing their praise or criticism of what they had seen. In this sketch, someone was dressed up as God, complete with stereotypical long white hair and beard and flowing gowns. God was complaining about a programme that had defamed his character. As he was about to leave, he came back to the camera and said something which I think was very perceptive and insightful: “By the way – I’m sick and tired of all these whinging people who say, ‘If there’s a God of love up there, why does he allow so much suffering in the world?’ I’ll tell you why – because I’m a God – not a social worker! I can do what I want!”

There is a very substantial grain of truth in this, I believe... Isn’t that how many people perceive God to be (if he exists)? A sort of heavenly social worker; on-call to solve all of life’s problems and hassles, as and when needed. Kept in a very remote box until a crisis arises, and then we seek to manipulate him to look after our needs, and our needs alone; and usually forgetting to say ‘thank you’ if that cry for help is answered. For if everything works out fine…well, ‘we did rather well, didn’t we?’, we would say, with a self-congratulatory slap on the back. However, if everything goes wrong…well, God’s the one to blame!

Thought for the day - if there is a God, then he is a God – and NOT a social worker.

When life dumps on you...

The other week, I had a particularly busy day - one extra lesson with the WHOLE class (28 students) and then 2 lessons with the WHOLE class (of which I normally have half each)...I came home thinking that perhaps the deputies were dumping things on me - maybe taking advantage...Then I read this story in a book by Tony Campolo...

"A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, on the twins' birthday their father loaded the pessimist's room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist's room he loaded with horse manure.

That night the father passed by the pessimist's room and found him sitting amid his new gifts crying bitterly.

"Why are you crying?" the father asked.

"Because my friends will be jealous, I'll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I'll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken." answered the pessimist twin.

Passing the optimist twin's room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. "What are you so happy about?" he asked.

To which his optimist twin replied, "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!"

And from this I learnt an important lesson - even if it feels like life is sometimes dumping (manure) on us...our attitude & response to such situations is cruical...we can be pessimistic, or we can believe that somewhere there is a 'pony' for us - something good & better that will come. As a Christian, I can also remain confident that NOTHING comes to me without first coming through God - NOTHING takes Him by surprise... :-)

Audience participation

A group of my students recently went to Prague for a few days. One evening they went to the National Theatre where some well-known actors & actresses were performing 'Waiting for Godot'. One of the students needed to go to the toilet, so he clambered over his classmates & teachers to get there during the performance...on his way back, he decided not to disturb people & made his way about 6 rows back, got comfortable...and fell asleep...
For the next 10 minutes he proceeded to snore - very loudly! It was so loud that the cast improvised & used the snoring as part of the play! Fearing perhaps, for the good name of our school, the teachers got a couple of students to go and wake him up. They did so, and as soon as he stopped snoring, there was a tremendous round of applause! :-)
"And the prize for the best snorer goes to..." ;-) His secret is safe here...for now!