Catholic school teachers have a lot going on. First and foremost, you are people. You have families, relationships, good times, struggles, hobbies, and a life. If you’re anything like me, a good portion of your life is intertwined with your professional life and your identity as a Catholic school teacher. I have found this to be unavoidable and, I think, as it should be because we answer a call to a vocation, not just a career. When the driving force of both your personal life and your professional life is belief in Jesus, pursuit of relationship with Him, and sharing Him with others, distinctions between a personal and professional life might not apply.
Most of us got into this particular form of ministry in the Church because we love teaching. There are many ministries in the Church, but the Catholic School teacher combines the opportunity to spread the Gospel and to give witness to a life in Christ with the incredible excitement of helping to form student’s minds as well as their hearts and souls.
On a recent trip to the Port-O-Call Hotel in Ocean City for a meeting with principals, I couldn’t help but stare at a series of photos decorating the hallways that look like they had been taken in the 1920s or 1930s of several hundred people synchronously performing what looked like calisthenics on the beach. I was fascinated at first because the beach looks much different now than it did in those photos. But the longer I looked at them, the more my mind wandered to what a great history unit could be developed based primarily on these photographs: What’s happening in them? Who are the people? What was life like at that time, and what were the social forces driving to the beach for exercise with hundreds of other people? Think of the ELA and writing connections!
Maybe those photos wouldn’t have inspired you, but every teacher can relate to the inspiration to help students experience, appreciate, and understand the richness of the world. This excitement can seem buried in the midst of our personal and professional responsibilities, the care and attention we give outside of the classroom to our students’ formation, and especially the additional responsibilities that every Catholic school teacher steps up to take on.
I encourage you to take some time this month to remember and let yourself experience the joy of teaching, the thrill of helping content come alive for students, and the amazing feeling when they learn something new and recognize its significance for their lives because of your careful guidance of their experience. You are the standard bearers of the rigorous curriculum Catholic schools promote. Catholic school teachers are able to respond to this awesome responsibility because of the depth of your call to teaching as a vocation. I am grateful for each lesson you plan, each paper you grade, each student you expertly draw into conversation, each simple nudge you give that helps a student grow, both in their understanding of the content you teach and on their journey in relationship with our Lord.