During the month of October Australia joins the rest of the world to celebrate “World Teachers’ Day”. The theme for World Teachers Day 2022 is, “The transformation of education begins with teachers”.

On Friday 28 October Australia celebrates World Teachers Day and this year they have invited Australians to take their “hats off” to acknowledge the outstanding work that they do and the great resilience that our teachers have needed to navigate the challenges of recent years.

As we approach this day we inevitably begin to think of those teachers that have had a particularly profound impact on us. It may have been their exceptional knowledge or passion for a subject, the way they related to students, or the energy they brought to the classroom.

Jesus was a great teacher and educator and as we look back over his life, we can begin to see how he clearly transformed the lives of so many. Mary and Martha, Zachhaeus, The Woman at the Well, The Blind Man, the figures on the road to Emmaus and the lives of the Disciples to name just a few.

The question underlying all of these encounters is, what did Jesus do to support this transformative response? On close inspection, there are three consistent elements which appear again and again across each encounter;
Jesus met them where they were at.
He didn’t leave them where he found them.
He took them to a place where they couldn’t have gone on their own.

Jesus truly knew the people he was encountering. He deeply listened and he had a sense of what he needed to do to help move them to a place they were seeking to go. For all working in the sphere of education today, it is a model which is so powerful and relevant.

As we acknowledge World Teachers’ Day this Friday we are all invited to reflect on those teachers who have had the greatest impact on our lives and to consider ways we might emulate the example of Jesus and these great teachers.