Higher Than the Highest

“Higher than the highest human thought can reach is God’s ideal for His children.” (White, Education 18)  This is the avoidance of mediocrity; however it’s also more. Identifying one’s best, and making it better is the pursuit of excellence, and it’s what we as educators have been called to develop in ourselves as well as in our students.  This is the type of teacher that I want to be; I want to be a teacher that doesn’t just “toe the line,” but who, in everything he does, looks to give his students the very best education available.  This is all fine and good, but how am I going to do it?

To answer this question, I have to state my philosophy on education.  “To many, education means a knowledge of books, but ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;’ the true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. “ (White, Testimonies to the Church 8)  If I succeed in teaching my students all the works of great minds like Newton and Einstein, yet am unsuccessful at teaching them a love for God, and a passion for the Gospel, then I have failed.  Sure, I’m here to teach science, but the science is not of eternal value.  If I teach the science, but fail to teach the “fear of the Lord,” then I have given them something that is useful in the temporal life but have failed to equip them for their eternal life.  However, if I can help develop in them a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, then they will have all eternity to learn science directly from the Creator.  Deuteronomy 5:6, 7 tells us how this is to be done; it says, “These words which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  There are two key points in the text.  One, it’s to be a relationship.  It says, “[they] shall be on your heart.”  Two, they are to be taught in the course of everyday life.  The science is an opportunity to get into my students lives and show them the love of Christ.

The second purpose of my teaching is to pass on this pursuit of excellence to my students, to teach them to be motivated and to not only put forth their best, but to improve upon their best.  To do this I must teach them to seek learning for themselves.  As I was writing this, I received a text message from one of the students that I tutor at Collegedale Academy.  She told me, “I don’t need you tomorrow.”  At first, I joked with my roommate that the text message hurt my feelings, but he quickly corrected my view point.  He said, “But isn’t that what you’re trying to achieve?”  I realized that he was right.  I have achieved success as a teacher when my students no longer need me, when they can seek out the desired information on their own. 

            These two concepts of nurturing a relationship with the Savior and of encouraging a pursuit of excellence are the foundation of my career as a teacher.  “As [I] awaken a desire to reach God’s ideal, [I] present an education that is as high as heaven and as broad as the universe…an education that secures to the successful student his passport from the preparatory school of earth to the higher grade, the school above.” (White, Education 19)  And, in doing so, I will be a caring person, an informed facilitator of learning, a reflective decision-maker, and a committed professional.