CMP Review 2023-06-22

June 22, 2023

The homeschool parent lives a paradox. Few of us grew up thinking we would be teachers, but now we teach every day. Few of us spent time in school learning to teach, but now we take every spare moment to learn. Most of us had ambitions and dreams in the big world, but now we dwell on a little home’s dreams. We seem to lack many qualifications, but we have the most important one of all. It is reassuring for us to hear the words of Stephen Wise, spoken in New York in 1910: “The needs of the teacher are only two, but they mean so much—preparation and consecration.”

“Preparation is the never ceasing process of fitting oneself from day to day for the ever increasingly difficult task of teaching. Consecration is a sense of devotedness to the teacher’s calling arising from a realization of the sacredness of the teacher’s responsibility. Consecration may be reduced to simpler terms—love! Love for the child, love for the task! And love in its turn implies so much—respect, sympathy, forbearance. Love for the child!”

I spend time in preparation every day. Laying out lessons, choosing books, storing knowledge in myself. But that is only one of my needs as a teacher. The other is consecration.

In 1914 E. A. Phillips wrote, “‘For their sakes,’ for the children’s, ‘I consecrate myself daily.’” I may not have all the training. I may not have all the knowledge. I may not have all the answers. I may not have all the skills. But I have consecrated myself to the Supreme Educator. It is His work. And I know that He will get it done.

@artmiddlekauff