Just think what it is like to invite 20 children to your house for a birthday party or fellowship. Are you not exhausted by the time you say goodbye to the last guest? Can you imagine being in charge of 20 children for 6 to 7 hours every weekday for 10 months? Among other duties, a teacher is responsible for organizing, teaching, disciplining, and counseling the students. Remember, too, that each family has a different way of doing things. One family may be very strict while another family may be very tolerant. While one family may want a teacher to clamp down, another may be asking the teacher to loosen up. The teacher is expected to cause each student to grow academically, socially, and spiritually—that is an awesome responsibility!
And what about all the breaks the teacher gets? During recess teachers can be observed working with individual students or straightening the classroom. Lunches are spent supervising meals or perhaps grading papers. And while the last class ends around 3 o’clock, a great deal of work remains for the teacher—helping load students into vehicles, picking up the classroom, grading papers, entering grades into the grade book, preparing the next day’s lessons, calling a parent, and working on the next week’s lesson plans. Teachers sacrifice regularly in order to teach.
So why do they do it? That’s simple. They love God, and they love your children. Please uphold our teachers in prayer and honor them by encouraging them as often as possible. Let us labor together to make a difference in your children’s lives by pointing them to Christ!