the greatest teachers
September 16, 2018
Isaiah 50:4-9
Almost fifteen years ago I came across a YouTube video of a choral group known as the PS22 Chorus and I was floored by what I was seeing. This video I was watching showed these elementary age children singing and swaying in their auditorium chairs and they sounded great. After I watched one video I watched another, then another and another. I even started sharing the videos with family and friends because I was so moved by this chorus. Here these young boys and girls were singing and moving in ways that I longed to in my own life because as I watched and listened there was this overwhelming sense of freedom coming through, both in their signing voice and in the movements of those choosing to move while singing. Then to top it all off, the artist of the songs they were signing appeared in the video and sang with them.
Well this PS22 Chorus is actually the 5th grade chorus class from Public School 22 located in Staten Island, NY. You see, all public schools in New York are named PS followed by a #, and this one happens to be PS22. “The PS22 chorus was founded in 2000 by the school's music teacher, Gregg Breinberg, who led his 2001-2002 PS 22 Chorus to live TV in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In September of 2006 he started blogging about the Chorus… [and] shared some of his videos. Since then the chorus has become an Internet phenomenon and in 2009 New York magazine called it “the best-known elementary-school chorus on the planet.”[1]
So, this entire chorus, this idea for a chorus that has become internationally known started with this man answering the call to teach. Just thinking about the positive impact that he has had on the lives of countless children over the past eighteen years reminds me that answering the call to teach is quite extraordinary. I’m fairly certain that all of us could name some of the great teachers in our own lives, right? In fact, go ahead and say those names out loud if you don’t mind.
My own list includes my Dad - my Mom - my Pop - my Mema - my Nanny Knight and all those who love me and have been part of my family since my birth. Then I’m blessed beyond measure to add Amy, her parents, her grandparents, and all of those who love me and became part of my family when I married into theirs. And don’t even get me started on my kids. They have taught me things that only children can teach their parents, but as my list expands I think about people like Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. J, my eighth grade English teacher at Mendenhall middle school, who had a love of the theater and saw something in me and encouraged me to try out for a role in the stage production of Li’l Abner and in doing so helped me claim a singing voice (at least at that time) which I always knew I had, but had not shared with the world to that point in my life. Then there is Coach Zack Osborne, my high school English teacher and head soccer coach who always believed in me and knew I could achieve anything I set my mind on. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Dr. Chalmers Brumbaugh and Dr. Laura Roselle, two of my political science professors at Elon College, who opened my eyes and allowed my mind to expand beyond that of an eighteen-year-old and they did it in the most loving way possible.
There is one thing though that all of these great teachers we have just named have in common… Before they were great teachers, they were great learners. You see, every great educator knows there is nothing to teach that wasn’t first learned and learned well, and if it is up to me I would add one more thing to what it means to be a great teacher… after they became great teachers, they remained great learners. You see, the greatest teachers never seek to separate themselves, or place themselves on a high pedestal that keeps them away from their students. The greatest teachers know they will always be students and that knowing allows them to be compassionate. That knowing allows them to speak the right words when life leaves their students tired and weary.
Now, I know when I’m at my best I embody the qualities of a teacher. I love a teachable moment and I know I am energized by it. There is something quite special about imparting the things that I have learned as a student in ways that others can learn and benefit. Some might even say that this role of preacher incorporates aspects of a teacher and like all other roles in my life where I have been called upon to teach I take the teaching function of being a preacher very seriously. The thing is, I also recognize that I’m always a student and in that way I don’t ever want to set myself apart from the community as a whole. The greatest teachers I know have never made me feel like I was beneath them, or lower than them or not as good as them. They never used shame as a way of teaching anything, because shame has never actually worked as a justifiable method of teaching. Now shame has always been a wonderful tool for asserting power over another person or another group of people. Any student of history can point to any number of instances where people in power have shamed others and justified it by claiming they were only trying to teach. Just consider all the times someone was parading someone else in front of others before whipping them on their back so fiercely that they could no longer stand. That is a public form of shame and it has been used way too many times throughout history and was typically accompanied by the explanation that the victim just needed to learn how to act. By making it such a public affair, those in power were also teaching others how they should act or else they will be next.
There is another way of shaming that is not physical but is shaming, nonetheless – This type of shaming occurs when someone opens their mouth to let hateful, oppressive words, or spit or both fly out of their mouth. As one theologian writes, “[T]hese forms of shaming are easy to perform and easy to get away with. They direct verbal and physical expressions of rejection and disgust to the person who has violated [someone else’s ideas] of the acceptable social norms and [someone else’s] values. Spit sticks. So do words. Being assaulted by these expressions of disgust and rejection can trigger the desire to hide, to become invisible.”[2] But unlike those great teachers, those who shame others are never really teaching anything. They are instead terrifying the student, and maybe others who are witnessing their acts of terror which most often leads to a tired and weary life for all. These instillers of fear only seek to serve themselves, or only act this way because of their own fear of people in power over them and in this way these instillers of fear are never truly living the life of a servant.
The greatest teachers, on the other hand, know they exist to serve others. The greatest teachers know without a shadow of a doubt they are servants because teaching is really about serving. Those who shame and claim to be teaching, well at some point in time they too will become tired and weary.
*************************************
It is this idea of teacher as servant and student as servant that brings us to today’s text. This particular text is actually the third in a series of four songs, or poems, known as The Servant Songs which are found in the Book of Isaiah. From the very first line of this third Servant Song, we are told that YHWH God has given the servant the tongue of a teacher, or as my Jewish Study Bible translates it, YHWH God has given the servant a skilled tongue. And while the gift of a skilled tongue is pretty cool, this gift has a purpose. This gift is meant to be used. This gift is meant to be freely given away to all who find themselves weary, because on the tip of this teacher’s tongue is the word that weary souls need to hear. And this teacher, this servant knows what that word is, because this teacher is still a student. You see, this teacher rises every morning as a student, not a teacher. The greatest teachers are always students first. This is why the greatest teachers know the words to speak to the ears of the weary. You see, the greatest teachers know what its like to be weary. The greatest teachers have faced the instillers of fear who use shame and ridicule. The greatest teachers have given those instillers of fear their back. They have not run away from those who seek to shame. They have instead faced them and come through and yet they rise every morning as a student. Listening and learning so that they can help those facing shame and ridicule now because this teacher knows something about being weary and needing a word that sustains. This is the life of the greatest teachers, and their life… well their life is a gift to who are weary.
**************************************
Tomorrow night, Joshua and I will take our seats at Table # 47 on the Greensboro Coliseum Arena Floor for the 2018 Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony. We are able to go because my Grandfather, my Pop, was previously inducted into this Hall of Fame. I will be there to celebrate this year’s inductees, but I will also be there to celebrate one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever known. I’ll be there to celebrate the one whose life was dedicated to providing a word to sustain the weary… those same people who were once weary, but who to this day will tell you that my Grandfather’s belief in them, my Grandfather’s decision to include them on the team, forever changed the course of their life for the better.
That is what the greatest teachers do. That is what the PS22 Choral Director does, that is what all the teachers we named out loud did for us, and that is what we are all called to do.
Amen!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS22_Chorus#History
[2] Portier-Young, Anathea, workingpreacher.com, Commentary on Isaiah 50:4-9a
Isaiah 50:4-9
Almost fifteen years ago I came across a YouTube video of a choral group known as the PS22 Chorus and I was floored by what I was seeing. This video I was watching showed these elementary age children singing and swaying in their auditorium chairs and they sounded great. After I watched one video I watched another, then another and another. I even started sharing the videos with family and friends because I was so moved by this chorus. Here these young boys and girls were singing and moving in ways that I longed to in my own life because as I watched and listened there was this overwhelming sense of freedom coming through, both in their signing voice and in the movements of those choosing to move while singing. Then to top it all off, the artist of the songs they were signing appeared in the video and sang with them.
Well this PS22 Chorus is actually the 5th grade chorus class from Public School 22 located in Staten Island, NY. You see, all public schools in New York are named PS followed by a #, and this one happens to be PS22. “The PS22 chorus was founded in 2000 by the school's music teacher, Gregg Breinberg, who led his 2001-2002 PS 22 Chorus to live TV in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. In September of 2006 he started blogging about the Chorus… [and] shared some of his videos. Since then the chorus has become an Internet phenomenon and in 2009 New York magazine called it “the best-known elementary-school chorus on the planet.”[1]
So, this entire chorus, this idea for a chorus that has become internationally known started with this man answering the call to teach. Just thinking about the positive impact that he has had on the lives of countless children over the past eighteen years reminds me that answering the call to teach is quite extraordinary. I’m fairly certain that all of us could name some of the great teachers in our own lives, right? In fact, go ahead and say those names out loud if you don’t mind.
My own list includes my Dad - my Mom - my Pop - my Mema - my Nanny Knight and all those who love me and have been part of my family since my birth. Then I’m blessed beyond measure to add Amy, her parents, her grandparents, and all of those who love me and became part of my family when I married into theirs. And don’t even get me started on my kids. They have taught me things that only children can teach their parents, but as my list expands I think about people like Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. J, my eighth grade English teacher at Mendenhall middle school, who had a love of the theater and saw something in me and encouraged me to try out for a role in the stage production of Li’l Abner and in doing so helped me claim a singing voice (at least at that time) which I always knew I had, but had not shared with the world to that point in my life. Then there is Coach Zack Osborne, my high school English teacher and head soccer coach who always believed in me and knew I could achieve anything I set my mind on. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Dr. Chalmers Brumbaugh and Dr. Laura Roselle, two of my political science professors at Elon College, who opened my eyes and allowed my mind to expand beyond that of an eighteen-year-old and they did it in the most loving way possible.
There is one thing though that all of these great teachers we have just named have in common… Before they were great teachers, they were great learners. You see, every great educator knows there is nothing to teach that wasn’t first learned and learned well, and if it is up to me I would add one more thing to what it means to be a great teacher… after they became great teachers, they remained great learners. You see, the greatest teachers never seek to separate themselves, or place themselves on a high pedestal that keeps them away from their students. The greatest teachers know they will always be students and that knowing allows them to be compassionate. That knowing allows them to speak the right words when life leaves their students tired and weary.
Now, I know when I’m at my best I embody the qualities of a teacher. I love a teachable moment and I know I am energized by it. There is something quite special about imparting the things that I have learned as a student in ways that others can learn and benefit. Some might even say that this role of preacher incorporates aspects of a teacher and like all other roles in my life where I have been called upon to teach I take the teaching function of being a preacher very seriously. The thing is, I also recognize that I’m always a student and in that way I don’t ever want to set myself apart from the community as a whole. The greatest teachers I know have never made me feel like I was beneath them, or lower than them or not as good as them. They never used shame as a way of teaching anything, because shame has never actually worked as a justifiable method of teaching. Now shame has always been a wonderful tool for asserting power over another person or another group of people. Any student of history can point to any number of instances where people in power have shamed others and justified it by claiming they were only trying to teach. Just consider all the times someone was parading someone else in front of others before whipping them on their back so fiercely that they could no longer stand. That is a public form of shame and it has been used way too many times throughout history and was typically accompanied by the explanation that the victim just needed to learn how to act. By making it such a public affair, those in power were also teaching others how they should act or else they will be next.
There is another way of shaming that is not physical but is shaming, nonetheless – This type of shaming occurs when someone opens their mouth to let hateful, oppressive words, or spit or both fly out of their mouth. As one theologian writes, “[T]hese forms of shaming are easy to perform and easy to get away with. They direct verbal and physical expressions of rejection and disgust to the person who has violated [someone else’s ideas] of the acceptable social norms and [someone else’s] values. Spit sticks. So do words. Being assaulted by these expressions of disgust and rejection can trigger the desire to hide, to become invisible.”[2] But unlike those great teachers, those who shame others are never really teaching anything. They are instead terrifying the student, and maybe others who are witnessing their acts of terror which most often leads to a tired and weary life for all. These instillers of fear only seek to serve themselves, or only act this way because of their own fear of people in power over them and in this way these instillers of fear are never truly living the life of a servant.
The greatest teachers, on the other hand, know they exist to serve others. The greatest teachers know without a shadow of a doubt they are servants because teaching is really about serving. Those who shame and claim to be teaching, well at some point in time they too will become tired and weary.
*************************************
It is this idea of teacher as servant and student as servant that brings us to today’s text. This particular text is actually the third in a series of four songs, or poems, known as The Servant Songs which are found in the Book of Isaiah. From the very first line of this third Servant Song, we are told that YHWH God has given the servant the tongue of a teacher, or as my Jewish Study Bible translates it, YHWH God has given the servant a skilled tongue. And while the gift of a skilled tongue is pretty cool, this gift has a purpose. This gift is meant to be used. This gift is meant to be freely given away to all who find themselves weary, because on the tip of this teacher’s tongue is the word that weary souls need to hear. And this teacher, this servant knows what that word is, because this teacher is still a student. You see, this teacher rises every morning as a student, not a teacher. The greatest teachers are always students first. This is why the greatest teachers know the words to speak to the ears of the weary. You see, the greatest teachers know what its like to be weary. The greatest teachers have faced the instillers of fear who use shame and ridicule. The greatest teachers have given those instillers of fear their back. They have not run away from those who seek to shame. They have instead faced them and come through and yet they rise every morning as a student. Listening and learning so that they can help those facing shame and ridicule now because this teacher knows something about being weary and needing a word that sustains. This is the life of the greatest teachers, and their life… well their life is a gift to who are weary.
**************************************
Tomorrow night, Joshua and I will take our seats at Table # 47 on the Greensboro Coliseum Arena Floor for the 2018 Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony. We are able to go because my Grandfather, my Pop, was previously inducted into this Hall of Fame. I will be there to celebrate this year’s inductees, but I will also be there to celebrate one of the greatest teachers I’ve ever known. I’ll be there to celebrate the one whose life was dedicated to providing a word to sustain the weary… those same people who were once weary, but who to this day will tell you that my Grandfather’s belief in them, my Grandfather’s decision to include them on the team, forever changed the course of their life for the better.
That is what the greatest teachers do. That is what the PS22 Choral Director does, that is what all the teachers we named out loud did for us, and that is what we are all called to do.
Amen!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PS22_Chorus#History
[2] Portier-Young, Anathea, workingpreacher.com, Commentary on Isaiah 50:4-9a