On Teaching: "A Place of Holy Mystery"

“They all realized they were in a place of holy mystery..." --Luke 7: 16-17

When I read this sentence in the gospel of Luke this morning, I immediately thought of my classroom. It might seem odd to think of a small classroom in a quiet, unassuming school in southeastern Connecticut as being “a place of holy mystery”. After all, it’s a rather commonplace classroom, no different, really, than the thousands of other classrooms in the country. Kids come and go, talking and yawning and trying their best to stay focused, not thinking much, I’m sure, about miracles and holy mysteries. For me, though, my little room at 89 Barnes Road is truly a sacred place, for I know that miraculous things happen there. In this room, forty-two students and one teacher have their lives transformed each and every day, not because of especially good teaching, but just because that’s the nature of this amazing process called “learning”. When people come together to share ideas, lives are changed. It’s the law. It always happens. I once calculated that approximately 500,000 thoughts occur to my students and me in my classroom on a typical school day. Think of it – all those thoughts swirling together in my room each day, mingling and sharing and transforming! It’s like a magic potion of ideas, and not one of us can avoid being changed by it. Even if we’re not especially tuned into what’s happening on a given day, we can’t help being transformed, at least somewhat, by the blending and stirring of ideas in my classroom. How does it happen? Why does it happen? I really have no idea. I plan my lessons and work as hard as I can to be a good teacher, but I must honestly say I have no clue as to how this miracle called learning happens. That’s what makes my classroom – and any classroom – “a place of holy mystery”.