Teaching Tuesday (Holy Week Part II)

Jesús spent the the day on parables and prophecies. He taught on every taboo topic he could think of.

If Sunday was about Jesus and Empire

Monday was about Jesus and Economics

Tuesday is about Jesus and Education.

I do not necessarily believe that knowledge is power, but I do think that it is a key component. I have the spirit of Sid the Science Kid, in that I, too, want to know everything about everything. So I love this picture of Jesus, holding court in the public square, taking questions from the peanut gallery, and refusing to shy away from the hard topics.

I usually take this time to focus on what our churches are teaching, but as a proponent of public education, I want to take this time to think about education in general. I believe that that a well-informed electorate is the cornerstone of a functional democracy…and for some reason, there are people in power who want to keep us as uninformed or as ill-informed as possible. They attack education at every turn, decreasing funding for research, deriding teachers and making it extremely difficult for them to do their jobs.

Jesus taught so that his disciples would be prepared for what’s to come. So yes, even in the Bible, he was teaching to the test. But there has to be more to education than making sure the kids can color in the right circles or punch the right buttons. One of my favorite preachers often tells his congregation that his job is not to make them think what he’s thinking, but to make sure that they are, indeed thinking.

So my Teaching Tuesday questions are:

My church covenant says that I’m supposed to religiously educate my children. Does yours? What does that look like today?

What do you think about the state of education nationally, locally, and personally?

Does the church play a role in public education? Should it?

And last, but certainly not least:

Have you thanked a teacher recently? You should absolutely do that if you haven’t.

Jesus was an amazing teacher, but there are good teachers in schools all over the world. They are a gift, and we should treat them as such.