It’s Not My Class

My philosophy of teaching as been developing as I’ve been teaching two homiletics classes each semester at Indiana Wesleyan University. I suppose that’s only natural and I know that process won’t end until the day I stop teaching. It better not anyway.

I believe strongly that a professor should be a servant to students. This is what Christ taught and modeled, and the two professors I most admire from my graduate work have modeled it for me too. A large part of being a servant to students is impacted by how I describe my relationship to them.

I could look at teaching in two different ways.  I can think of students as taking my class, or them being my students. Or, I could speak and think in terms of me teaching their class. I am their professor. I know, this might just look like semantics. And at first look, there isn’t that much of a difference between the two — except — there is. In the first view, they are there for me, the professor is the point of the classroom. They have value because I am there to share my knowledge with them. In the second view the student is the point of the classroom. I have a job — no — I have a calling to students. Without them I’m just a guy with too many degrees. A professor without students is just a smart person and those are a dime a dozen, even when adjusted for inflation!

Of course, these are ultimately just words. We could use either description of our relationship to students and have healthy or unhealthy view of teaching. But I want to try and use this kind of language to describe the students and classes I teach.

By the way, this fits with our relationships with spouses and children, pastors and churches and on and on. Just sayin’.