I first met Sue at a conference for nearly qualified teachers. She was sitting next to me. I liked her immediately. She was witty, attractive and personable. She laughed heartily at my feeble jokes and made sympathetic noises when I moaned about my current teaching practice nightmares. She asked if I had a job yet and as I hadn’t yet left university, I said no. She asked me to come and see her the following day at her school. I tried not to look shocked. I had NO idea she was a headteacher. For one thing she looked nothing like any I had ever worked for. I did a mental checklist. She was under 40, had peroxide blonde hair, stilettos, manicured nails and more jewellery than Mr T. This was new territory.

I didn’t really have an interview. More of a chat and a coffee. I knew I wanted to work for her. She inspired me immediately. She was an impressive leader who had the knack of being incredibly normal too. She worked in a rubbish area with difficult kids and even more challenging parents. But I wanted in on it. But she didn’t actually have a teaching position for me. She had to juggle things around to create one. She just knew I was meant to work for her. The feeling was mutual.

Sue was a brilliantly empowering teacher. Every time she observed me teaching, she had new things to pass on to me. Even when I made mistakes, she always had something positive to draw out of the mess. We laughed a lot in that staff room, (until we cried, in fact) mainly at each other.

The government ran an advert about this time with the strap-line ‘No-one forgets a good teacher.’ I remember thinking of all the teachers I had ever loved (or loathed) and thinking that I might inspire such strong feelings in someone else’s memory one day. What a thought!

Teaching anything can be frustrating and slow. If we know something well, it can be hard to remember how to explain it as if for the first time. It can be difficult to give someone confidence to try again when they have failed before. And yet this is what we all need. In any sphere of our working lives, there will be a time when we know more than the person next to us. We know the systems, the ‘in’ jargon, the latest technologies. How do we use that knowledge? Do we take time to explain it patiently to the new person, or do we use it to maintain some sort of power over them? Even as Christians, this can be easy to do.

But this kind of teaching is consistently modelled for us in the relationships that Jesus had with his followers. Never did he say “Oh for heavens sake! You are doing it wrong!” (And boy, was He entitled to say that and really mean it!) Although He sometimes had to discipline his wayward friends, it was always as someone who believed in them.

Jesus was a patient teacher who let those around him serve, heal, perform miracles, argue, question him, lie, fish occasionally, make mistakes and let him down.

This sort of teaching isn’t glamorous and doesn’t have much status or glory. It is often about being a servant, the one in the background, taking none of the credit, letting someone else shine. At one bible study I went to, the leader’s phrase ‘Jesus taught them, to teach us’ really hit home. Jesus left the company and majesty of heaven to be born in an undignified feeding trough in a backwater in order to teach me how I could know His father.

Who are you going to teach today?

“In everything set an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned.” Titus 2:7