In addition to wanting to become a missionary, I also wanted to test the idea of teaching in a public school and being “salt and light” in that environment. This desire was rooted in my great admiration for an adjunct at my college who advised our campus newspaper and yes, taught in a public school nearby. I thought she was wonderfully honest and crisp. One example of her pungent speech: “If you’re just quoting the party line, don’t quote it.” It was hard to decide when to do my student teaching, but I settled on fall quarter. I was assigned to a public high school in a nearby town, teaching several classes of English. I was nervous and overprepared, but got along well with the kids. My cooperating teacher seemed to hate me. I suspected she might be jealous; we were having more fun than she was. That reality didn’t make me want to teach in a public school. What if my colleagues didn’t like me for being a Christian? The turning point came one afternoon when my roommate showed up, which was not like her. She came to tell me that a recent graduate who was doing a short-term mission stint had just died. He’d been a popular athlete, newly married, seemingly healthy. Everyone was shocked. The two of us found a space somewhere and prayed for his young widow and that this terrible thing might somehow be turned to good. Later, after she’d gone back to campus and I’d gone back to class, I wondered: if I’d been alone when I’d gotten that news, with whom would I have prayed? Now I can see that there were other Christians teaching there. and that I was perfectly capable of digesting bad news and praying on my own. But the event shook me, and I decided to search for a job in a Christian school.
1 Comment
Bonnie Shelburne
5/1/2023 08:34:59 pm
Public schools are often a hard and inhospitable environment. I’m so glad you had a friend to pray with in the midst of that tragic news. I love the light that your stories being to my day!
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Baptist GirlI was a conservative Baptist girl who grew up to become a career Christian, working first in a Baptist school and then in a Baptist college. For about three decades, it was very good until it wasn’t, and I had to leave. But the Baptists formed me. This is my homage to the good times and good people of the world I left, finally, at forty-three, when I became an Episcopalian. These are my memories; others might disagree with my recollections. So be it. Archives
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