In preparation for this issue’s P@nel.Edu column, Christian Altena, Justin Cook, Rebecca DeSmith, and I (John Walcott) sat down together via video conference to discuss our thoughts about “when teaching gets tough.” I began by asking the panelists to give specific examples of difficult teaching situations and how they handled them.
What I did not know as we met together is that one of our group, Rebecca, along with her school, is in the middle of a situation that certainly fits the theme “when the teaching gets tough,” but that also goes much deeper than a bad day in the classroom or office. As our conversation continued, we were not sure where it might lead or whether we would end up sharing it with the CEJ readers.
Ultimately, however, we decided that this conversation should be shared. Our desire is that by sharing with our readers not only some specific examples and responses but also a glimpse at what it means to be in community, to share our joys and sorrows, to pursue right relationships, and to think deeply about how complex and tragic situations affect our lives, schools, and communities, we can grow in our understanding of who we are as educators and of the places God has called us to.
In response to my introduction, Rebecca initiated our conversation.
Rebecca: To begin, I just have to get this out there because Sioux Center Christian School has been dealing with a very difficult situation in the past few months. I know this is a sensitive issue, but I do want to share it with you.
The topic of this discussion is “When the Teaching Gets Tough,” and the teaching has been really tough at our school in the last couple of months. Maybe you’ve heard about it. We had a fifth-grade teacher at our school, one of those teachers whom students loved; he was the athletic director and a coach. About the middle of October, it was discovered that he had been abusing young boys in grades 5–8 for several years. We have documentation in the last four years of 146 accounts of abuse to boys in 5th through 8th grade. This was devastating to our school. He was fired immediately with the first allegation, but since the first student came forward, we’ve had additional students talk to abuse reporters and police officers about his inappropriate behavior.
This has devastated students, parents, teachers, and our whole school community. There are former students in high school who were abused by him who are trying to figure out how to deal with that abuse. The ripple effects are countless in our community right now. There has been a lot of publicity, as you can imagine.
Christian: From Chicago Christian, we offer you our sincerest prayers because we have gone through this as well. These kinds of tragedies cast a pall over the entire school that can last for a long time. So, our earnest prayers going your way as well.
Rebecca: Thank you.
Justin: Rebecca, we are heartbroken for you as well. And I would just add, I think it’s a Solzhenitsyn quote, that the line of good and evil runs through every human heart, so our dealing with suffering is constantly an internal and an external issue, and we certainly experience that deeply just like you are now.
John: Thank you for sharing that, Rebecca. You’ve shared a very real situation that not only makes teaching incredibly tough but that also tears at individuals and members of a community. It is incredibly difficult to even come to school in times like this, facing students and families, facing colleagues and just wondering what to say and how to react to it. This most certainly finds its way into our classrooms and schools. I can imagine that many, many conversations that go on in the school day have that as the backdrop for a long period of time. It is hard to feel normal.
So, how do we respond when we or our school is confronted by an issue that is public, is horrible, and has rippling effects beyond just a bad day? Are there things that your schools do or that you do as teachers that are positive responses or attempts at positive responses?
Christian: What we did at Chicago Christian was to very immediately meet as a whole community; we had a number of chapels and prayer times.
Rebecca: Our school has implemented some of the same procedures. We were also given statements to read to students so that they would all get the same information. We had counselors come in for students, for teachers, for parents; professional counselors have visited on multiple occasions. One hard thing is that many of the students who were abused over the years didn’t realize that what was going on was wrong, so they never told parents. So parents as well as teachers are feeling a great amount of guilt and anger, and that’s still coming out.
John: Let’s shift the conversation to more general advice. We all have stories of different things that challenge us in our teaching. So how do we respond in these situations? What is the mindset that we need to be able to develop to get through these tough times? Can we in some way prepare for the inevitable obstacles, bad days, and even tragic situations that we might face?[
Christian: I could offer an additional example that also speaks to general strategies for responding to challenges. I teach US history and that’s a minefield, particularly these days. At CCHS we have been blessed with increasing diversity over the years, but with that come disagreements and even arguments. Back in 2008 it pains me to say that the culture of our school did not make it easy or natural for our African American students to celebrate the election of Barack Obama. There certainly were legitimate political reasons for a student to be disappointed that Wednesday after the vote, but there was something other than strict partisanship lingering in the air that day.
These tensions will always be present to some degree, but if we focus on our being members of the same family in Christ and stress that that familial relationship is more important than any other allegiance we may have, we can have more beneficial discussions about any variety of charged topics.
Justin: In the spirit of what Christian is describing, some Ontario schools have overtly named the norms they would like to embody as professionals together. I can think of a school for instance that decided as a staff that they will respect diverse opinions, and they’ve also named a desire to work with passion and awe. Those are overt commitments they’ve made as a staff. And, by being intentional about the culture they’re trying to create together, they lay the ground rules for the type of relational culture that Christian describes as crucial not just for students but for us as professionals.
I would echo exactly what Christian has said again. In the midst of ongoing global uncertainty, I yearn for local intimacy that respects proper boundaries. More and more I want there to be this healthy sense that I’m allowed to be vulnerable but also that I have authority as a human being within the community just by being a human being—that my opinion matters, that my voice is heard, and that I will offer the other people in my community that same respect and opportunity.
Rebecca: I really like how both of you are focusing in on the relationship building piece because I think that’s so important—building positive and honest relationships with administration, with colleagues, with students, and with parents.
Also, when the teaching gets tough, I think teachers need to find the inner courage that they may not even know they have to move toward a solution. One important place to begin is to talk to another trusted colleague or someone who can give you an outside opinion on what you’re feeling and telling yourself. If you do need to talk to someone, whether it’s administration, colleagues, students, or parents, I think a face-to-face conversation is the best strategy to use, as opposed to writing an email or a text. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to meet with someone you have a disagreement with, but it eliminates a lot of, “What are they trying to say in this text?” or “What is the tone of this text?”
I also want to add that I’ve really been trying to pray diligently for people that I might not agree with, and sometimes this is really hard to do. At times I have to leave it to the Holy Spirit to do that work, but I find that the more I pray, the easier it is for me to have the courage to go talk with them or to think realistically about the difficult situation. So deliberate prayer is another way to deal with a tough teaching situation.
Justin: I really appreciate that, too, Rebecca. More so in my own family, I’m in the habit of praying with my kids for the fruit of the Spirit because we yearn to experience that. We yearn to experience joy and goodness and peace and faithfulness and self-control, so we yearn for the Spirit to give us those gifts. We need to pray for those internal character habits or experiences in addition to those intercessory requests we might have. Prayer as a practice is important both individually and institutionally I think.
At this point, I realized that we were about out of time and our conversation had already given us more text than we would be able to fit into our column. But I think we all sensed that although our conversation had moved on from Rebecca’s initial sharing, the reality of that situation and the very real woundedness that Rebecca had shared on behalf of her community was with each one of us and was, in some ways, guiding our conversation. I asked for closing comments and listened to my colleagues thoughtfully model vulnerability, support, and care for each other and the broader community in a way that is instructive for all of us in the challenges we face.
John: We are about out of time. Are there any closing thoughts you would like to add?
Justin: To honor what has been shared, I would say that it’s apparent from all of us that we’re not just talking about job performance but that our actual identity as Christians and as human beings is completely wrapped up in our passions and our visceral experiences as educators, and that there’s something deeply holy about that reality—even as it can be difficult at times—and so I want to thank those who have shared today.
Rebecca: I appreciate the honesty that we have shared in our stories and in our conversation today. As teachers we have to be honest and show integrity to our students and our colleagues. That’s what makes us real to them, and that may say more to them than any great lesson we teach in our classroom.
John: The more we realize, as Justin said, that our identity as Christians, as human beings, means being authentically present—I think that is a way of preparing for those times. At the end of the day, whether it’s through prayer, reflection, or talking to a trusted colleague or friend, the recognition of that is crucial. It supports and encourages us when we are frustrated with today’s lesson plan or with a student’s behavior but also when we face tragedies that tear at the fabric of our community or when we confront challenges that we never thought we would have to face. Thank you all for sharing.
Christian Altena, who teaches at Chicago Christian High School in Palos Heights, Illinois.
Justin Cook, who serves as the director of learning at the Ontario Alliance of Christian Schools in Ancaster, Ontario.
Rebecca DeSmith, who serves as Discovery Program coordinator and teacher at Sioux Center Christian School.
John Walcott, who is assistant professor in the education department at Calvin College.
