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It is said that he taught by the seashore, on the mountains, on the plain, in a boat, in the synagogue, and in the Temple. But over 40 times in the Gospels, Jesus is called a teacher. A Rabbi Named JesusĪs you pass into the New Testament, immediately you are confronted with the fact that Jesus was a teacher. In those days, to be a teacher of the law was a high honor. From these men came the scribes and eventually the Pharisees. To them was committed the great heritage of Judaism. They would study the Torah in minute detail and teach its precepts to the people of Israel. As the centuries passed, certain men rose up who were teachers of the law. The Old Testament is filled with commands that parents should teach their children what God has said. It will not surprise you that the Bible has a lot to say about teachers and teaching. They differ in a thousand ways, but they have this in common: They cared about us, they made a difference, and we are better people because we knew them. Some were in elementary school, some in junior high, some in high school, and some in college. It was Henry Brooks Adams who said, “A teacher affects eternity he can never tell where his influence ends.” All of us have memories of certain teachers who made a difference to us. But when I started to think of my favorite teacher this week, it didn’t take two seconds for her name to come to mind. Witt is this: I hadn’t thought of her for years. Those two years changed my life in ways I probably still don’t understand. They let her be our teacher the next year. Witt was so good and we loved her so much, that when the year was over, the administration did some-thing unprecedented. School was no longer school but a doorway into the future.

And for the first time in my life I began to dream. Maybe she just made a tall, skinny, awkward boy with glasses feel important. Maybe it wasn’t anything special like that. It was a great moment in American theater. Maybe it was when we performed “The Wizard of Oz.” I was the Tin Woodman, my buddy Tommy Thompson was the Scarecrow, David Neal was the Cowardly Lion and Judy Guin was Dorothy. Maybe it was when I had my very first public speaking assignment-a five minute speech before the student body on the history of the Franklin County Courthouse. Maybe it was when we divided up the class for a big debate on the topic-”Which is better: Corn or Wheat?” I took the side of wheat and have never eaten corn since that day. We were supposed to be making adobe haciendas. Maybe it was the week she let David Neal and me spend hours putting mud on old cigar boxes. Witt’s class.Īfter all these years it is hard to say what made the difference. I didn’t hate school, but it didn’t excite me either.

Until that day, school had just been school for me and teachers were people who kept you busy while you waited to go to recess.

But there was a smile, too, and a friendly voice. To me she looked like she had been teaching for a hundred years. She was a big, strong woman, which meant she could take care of us without any trouble. I first met her on a bright September morning in 1962. It’s not hard for me to remember my favorite teacher.