Teaching is a Gift

Teaching has allowed me a lot of really cool things. I get a chance to be in school-I loved school. I get a chance to interact with kids-I loved being a kid. I get a chance to educate-I loved to learn. I get a chance to be an example-I loved my mentors. I get a chance to make an impact on the future-I love learning an improving the past. Because of all these things comes an awesome responsibility. I love the responsibility, it can be hard to handle at times, but I stay the course because I want to impact others the way others impacted me.
This summer I really learned the awesome responsibility associated with teaching. As I have shared I went to Poland to teach basketball camp. I taught 17-23 year olds the game of basketball as I knew it. I was there exactly ten days and regardless of what I did for ten days, I had a return flight to America. I literally could have done nothing; I was going home and they probably will never see me again. I chose to do something different-I took it has an even greater responsibility. I had to teach because they might not ever see me again. I would not have been able to live with myself if I didn’t give them all I had. Even as I boarded the plan to return; I thought of things I forgot to tell them.
The responsibility to teach could not have more evident than when I walked into the gym the first day and met Dorata. She was 30 minutes early for the first practice. I thought to myself, by the end of the week she will be so tired there is no way she will come early to practice. I even made it a mission to wear her out and make her use her free time for rest. She won that battle. She stayed in the gym, she never left, and she was a sponge. The only time she left the gym was to eat. I had to learn more about her. Dorata was 22 years old, she is the daughter of Christian preacher in Poland, and she does not play organized basketball. I was stunned. She was at camp to get better, learn and because she loved basketball. I was stunned. She is the type of student I want to teach. She wants to work hard to just be better. Most kids have a motive- to play more, to score more, to be the star. She just wants to be better. She worked harder, spent more time in the gym than anyone in camp. People like Dorata make teachers accountable and responsible. She was the epitome of a sponge. I even found out later she kept a notebook the whole time, and wrote down every word I said. All the kids in camp play on a team and their motive for learning was different than Dorata’s. Dorata got better that week, and I became a better teacher.
Teaching is a gift. It is a responsibility. I have a responsibility to teach because there are a lot of Doratas’ out there who do things because they just want to learn. I hope I never miss an opportunity to teach and share. Who was the master teacher? Jesus was the master teacher and he never wasted an opportunity to make people better.