Back in the winter of 2020, a great man took me to brunch to ask me to join the youth leader volunteers at our church. At the time, I didn’t think I had much to offer a group of middle schoolers navigating through one of the toughest times in their lives. I don’t remember much about the conversation itself, but I distinctly remember the feeling that he was willing to take a chance having me on the team. If he could take that chance, I supposed I could also and I accepted.
Truthfully he was just the catalyst for something that had been orchestrated for a long time. I’ll never forget over ten years ago when one of my mentors bluntly told me she thought I should be teaching. I didn’t laugh then and there, she was like my second mom after all. I did tell her though she was mistaken. And yet, here I am years later and she was definitely right. I’m sure God has a sense of humor and He is laughing at my inability to accept reality.
Looking back on all of it, I absolutely don’t regret putting myself in a place where I can mentor youth between grades 3 to 8 on a regular cadence. Additionally, any chance to teach is an amazing opportunity. Is it scary? Yes. Is it daunting not knowing how you’ll be perceived, received, or possibly overwhelmed? Yes. Was any of that ever in my control before? No. See the thing is I remember middle school, and they still haven’t really invented a fool proof way to navigate that path. That’s where we come in as those who’ve gone before.
The idea of mentoring others doesn’t just apply to volunteering with youth though. I have found the same effects occur in all areas of my life as with teaching the middle schoolers. The most potent effect is that I learn more through teaching than the ones being taught. I’ve adopted this as a philosophy and approach to teaching that helps keep me humble and able to listen while I teach.
How important could it be though to expect to learn when teaching? I know all of us have sat in some kind of training, even if you have to go back to high school. Think back on your favorite teachers either in school or later in life. Did they listen to you, or did they merely impress you with their utter genius? Anecdotally of course, I tend to believe the teachers who listen and care make the best examples. This leads me to three conclusions (you always have to have three): We learn through teaching, everyone is a learner, some are just further in the process, and learners just want to be heard and understood.
I’m a complete layman in the teaching game, so my approach has always been that I have much to learn about it. In fact I have the honor of volunteering alongside people who are actual elementary education graduates with jobs teaching in schools in the area. What nonsense would it be if I engaged in conversation with them assuming I know more than they do? So my teach to learn philosophy guided me to ask them for advice. You know what they often say? Be a good listener.
But hang on, you ask, aren’t you the one standing up in front of the kids doing all the talking? Yes, but you need to build rapport, you need to connect with your audience. Remember your favorite teachers in your life. They listened to you and were open minded about what you had to say. This is my approach, I am ready to learn through teaching.
In my time over the past few years doing this I have learned more about myself. I learned how to grow my own study habits in lesson planning. I learned what behaviors are easy for me to address in a classroom setting, and which are more difficult. I learned that I need a lot of aid to remember names and which faces they go with. I learned that time in the classroom is probably not when the most memorable learning occurs, but rather it happens in the relationship building outside the classroom at youth activities or as you are living life alongside each other.
Throughout I hope the thread of humility is abounding in what I’m saying, because we are all learners. Not a single one of us on this planet has achieved a level of learning so beyond everyone else that we can claim to have “made it.” So we are all learners, but some of us are further along in the process. Humility is the entry point to start at, and I like to think the teachers farther along have grown in patience and wisdom. That is why I am always asking them for advice!
If you’re going to teach someone else, anyone else, knowledge you have obtained, you’re not going to relate it well unless you can be humble, patient, and good at listening. This is why I said learners just want to be heard and understood. You see you may have a willing audience, or you may have a few in your midst that don’t want to learn. Maybe they had a bad day, a bad month, maybe a bad life. They brought that with them, and until they met you it is possible they didn’t have a role model.
Yes you could be the one chance some people have at a good teacher. Isn’t that scary? I did say it was, can’t say I didn’t warn you. If you think the best option is to impress them with how smart you are, guess what, everyone else already tried that.
I have a friend who teaches special needs kids in high school, and he has a great mentality about everyone who crosses the threshold of his classroom. He builds an agreement with his students that they must stay engaged in learning while with him. In return, he will listen to them, pour into them and try to help them every way he can. If they try to disrupt that, they effectually break their contract with him and he no longer needs to hold up his end.
On the face that sounds unfair, but to the kids in his class who still want to learn, it isn’t. And he says that in most cases where he applies this philosophy, the ones who come not wanting to learn eventually see the benefit to keeping the contract since any other effort on their part is a waste of their own time. Kids are smarter than we often give them credit for aren’t they?
This same methodology can apply in a lot of life, and that’s why we depend so much on contracts in business and legal matters. My good friend himself has often admitted that he has a lot to learn, and he’s not done thoroughly developing his methodology. What a true servant though to take on some of the toughest students and seek the best way to help them learn! He is further along on the journey than many I have met, and yet he’s not done either.
My personal hope is to one day come back to this post and have a whole new perspective. Though much changes in life, I see that one of the most fulfilling ways I spend my time is in teaching others. I would be a fool to stop doing that, and a fool to ever think I’ve “made it.” I’ll continue learning, teaching, and growing in wisdom, and surely I’ll come back here someday and think how differently I might write this post.
What’s your perspective? Add your thoughts in the comments below!
