Cassie Dixon, Director of Learning Enhancement
This Thursday, the Kuyper community will be celebrating World Teachers’ Day. Every year since I became an educator, this day has grown in popularity around the globe as an opportunity to show teachers appreciation for their work.
Teaching is not an easy job. When I tell people what I do for a living, it is a common response that it must be nice to work 9 to 3 and have so many holidays each year. (Thankfully, this is not the response from those in the Kuyper community!) However, the current teacher shortage in NSW suggests that these ‘benefits’ are not enough to compensate for the burden carried by teachers and others who work in schools.
The role of teachers is continually evolving, and I am conscious that even in the past five years, there have been significant challenges faced by those working in schools – COVID and the sudden need to move classrooms online, shifting cultural values, increasing requirements surrounding documentation, challenging behaviours, and a number of new syllabuses, to name a few.
Whilst teaching is not an easy job, it is certainly a rewarding one. We get to know our students and how they learn. We walk alongside them as they persevere through challenges, then experience the pure joy of conquering them and mastering new concepts and skills. We have the privilege of sharing our passions and insights as we teach them various subjects. More than that, at Kuyper, we continue building on the legacy of those who have come before us. As we bring a biblical perspective to our subject matter, we teach our students more about who God is and who He made them to be.
The ground for the necessity of Christian schools lies in this very thing, that no fact can be known unless it be known in its relationship to God. And once this point is clearly seen, the doubt as to the value of teaching arithmetic in Christian schools falls out of the picture. Of course arithmetic must be taught in a Christian school. It cannot be taught anywhere else.
– Douglas Wilson, The Case for Classical Christian Education
We get to partner with parents to see their children grow into the young men and women God created them to be. We share in our students’ joys, wipe away their tears, tend to their injuries, coach them through social difficulties, and help them understand the impact of their actions. We share with them the truth of the gospel and their need for redemption. We teach them about God’s plans for reconciliation. We teach them about the joy and the pain of living a life of obedience to Christ.
Helping people to know God and to be obedient to him is perhaps the greatest gift we can bestow. Understood in this way, Christian education can be one of the most compassionate ministries of the church.
– Perry G. Downs
As schools around our state celebrate World Teachers’ Day this week, please take a moment to thank God for those involved in your children’s education. Thank Him for their dedication to Christian education and desire for your children to know and love the Lord. Join me in asking the Lord to richly bless them as they seek to serve Him in their ministry. Please continue to uphold our school community before the Lord as the Board seeks to resolve our staffing needs for the future.
To my colleagues and friends, thank you for everything you do for our school.