"If You Can Read This, Thank a Teacher"

 "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." I Thessalonians 5:18

Several days ago my family was in our car together driving down a main road here in Monrovia, Liberia, when 18 year-old Jared said with humor in his voice, "I suppose I should say thank you. The sign says, 'If you can read this, thank a teacher.'" I knew to what he was referring. We had just passed a wall on which those words were painted. I was amused and pleased by his remark, so we high fived. Jared's friend and Jonah also wanted in on the action, so the high fives were flying.  

Jared's words of appreciation reminded me of a subject to which I have given much thought. Because of living and working in Liberia, I know beyond any possible doubt that literacy should never be taken for granted. In fact, when I arrived in Liberia in 1986, to my deep dismay, I discovered very few of my counterparts could read at all, much less on a truly meaningful level. Through the years I have wept tears of gratitude to God for the gift of education I was given. I do not, in any way, take it for granted any more.

Nancy with Liberian women - 2014

By God's grace, through home schooling I was able to pass the gift of education on to my children. And now, with my oldest four grown and Jared a senior in high school, it is a good time to analyze my successes and failures—the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is no need to repeat mistakes with #6, Jonah, who is six years old.

Prayer card - 2003

Jonah being goofy

Perhaps failure would be too strong a word, but the sign Jared noticed pointed out a mistake I now realize I did make. I did not teach my children to "thank a teacher" regularly. If they had been in either a public or private school I would have insisted on it, but because it seemed self-serving it never occurred to me that, in the same way they were taught to say thank you for the food after a meal, my children needed to be taught to say thank you for being educated each day. 

Jonah is my sixth and last chance to get it right in this area. While I have no control over whether he will actually be thankful—that will be his choice—I am requiring him to express gratitude, to "thank a teacher," at the end of our school days. Time will tell the results. But even before the stats are in, I know it is a good thing. Biblical gratitude reinforces the obvious—everything in life, both the good and bad, is the "stuff" of which God makes our stories. To be thankful is a sign of trust in Him.

Jared and Nancy - 2014

So, my dear Jared, you are most welcome.

See The Myth of the Perfect Quiet Time.