On vacation...

Ok, so my body has definitely gotten the memo that Christmas vacation has started. The last several mornings (aside from Sunday - thank God!) my body has gone about ignoring the alarm clocks (yes, that's plural) I've set so I can get up at a decent time to go about getting as much done as possible with the daylight hours. This is *not* the way I'm wanting to finish up my preparations for Nativity by a long shot, but alas. I am thankful though that my body is starting to wind down earlier after all those weeks of having a bedtime that ranged anywhere from midnight to 2 am thanks to the myriad readings, papers and projects that required my rapt attention this past semester.

One would think that now that I'm on vacation I should be able to read whatever I want to, right? Well, yes and no. I'm reading through my first non-textbook since August, yet it still has to do with teaching. Go figure! I tried starting Homer's The Iliad but I couldn't in good conscience right now. However, after much endorsement from another friend who is also pursuing an education-related degree I'm getting a lot out of St. Theophan the Recluse's book The Path of Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation. What does this book have anything to do with education? Well, though I'm only part-way through the book, so far I can say "quite a bit!"

To give a little background St. Theophan was born in 1815 at a village near Orel in Russia. He went to theology schools in part to the fact that his father was a priest. Eventually he was tonsured a monk and after receiving his master's degree from the Kiev Theological Seminary he was first assigned as a temporary rector at the Kiev-Sofia Theological School, then on to be the rector of the Novgorod Seminary as well as a professor and an aid to the supervisor of the Petersburg Theological Academy. After serving in other places as a chief priest and teacher he was eventually elevated to Bishop of Tambov where he opened a school for girls. Later on he was transferred to Vladimir for three years and during his time there he opened another school for girls (Not that I didn't like this Saint before - but he quickly earned points in my book with this news!). In 1866 he asked to be relieved of his duties as Bishop so he could enter a life of seclusion and prayer, which he was granted and did so for the remainder of his earthly days; praying and giving counsel to his thousands of spiritual children.

With that, I've been going through and as all ready stated though only partially through the book I'm amazed at its timelessness in giving counsel for both one's own spiritual life as well as how to go about guiding children in the Church. Not only in their spiritual development but also in regards to how to instruct youth - which I'm more than willing to receive instruction on not only during this time of my 'official' development as a teacher but also beyond. He takes a perspective that would be very foreign to someone who is of an Evangelical Protestant background. Starting from the premise of a child who has been received into the Church and is therefore a Christian from the time of Baptism, he gently stresses the importance of raising a child with the full awareness of her/his developing Faith and the role of the parents (and godparents) in guarding the religious upbringing of their child(ren). While there would be similar sentiment in regards to raising a child aware of the Faith, the difference would definitely be in light of the view of most Evangelical Protestants that one comes to Faith on one's own through realized Belief.

St. Theophan writes from the Orthodox perspective that for the child who has been Baptized s/he is all ready a Christian and rather than doing things to help that Faith be brought towards, that Faith is to be developed and carefully guided. While either task for a parent is an important one, in light of having lived with both perspectives I have to say that the Orthodox perspective (and has always been the Church's perspective since day one - the rejection of infant baptism and self-actualization in regards to Faith is a new idea that came well after the Reformation in light of the fact that even the Reformers themselves held to infant baptism. It's their followers who pursued this new "idea") is far simpler, though the pursuit and guarding of anyone's Faith is definitely far from easy!

As someone who can only call herself the parent of a cat (and I realize while in some ways that counts I'm also well aware that in others it most certainly doesn't!), I've never taken lightly the role of parenting and what a vocation it is. I admire anyone who pursues raising their children within the Church with all of its challenges and pitfalls that our modern world presents, and grieve whenever I see a child being raised without the benefits of such a centering, or even worse a very poor and legalistically-based Faith center. Not to say that parenting doesn't have its joys (I don't have to look far to see those, believe me!), but in light of our "modern society" (even without the financial challenges we are currently in) I definitely have a place in my prayers for those who are parents. I know they are doing the best they can with what they have (and sometimes they weren't given much if anything and are having to figure out the whole 'parenting' thing from scratch), and while I pray for those who have the benefit of a spiritual base in Christ to do so also pray for those who don't. I celebrate for those individuals for whom parenting is a wake-up call, and ache for those who treat their children like an accessory or even another full adult (would you believe there are mothers out there getting bikini waxes....for their *8* year old daughters?!? Lord have mercy...) that came with all of their information all ready installed as though they were a brand new computer with the OS all ready in place out of the box. It only takes one meal at just about any restaurant these days to see which is the case, unfortunately.

So what does all of this mean for me as a teacher? Quite a bit. I all ready knew before I even sent out my first application to substitute teach that this is a vocation not to be taken lightly. True, I'm far from becoming a mother (no visits from Archangel Gabriel still!) but I know in a very real way I will become a role model for the children I will eventually be entrusted with once I get my own classroom. There will be ways I'll be setting boundaries that will either be familiar or even brand-new depending on the individual student. In a very real sense the salvation of each child is going to be entrusted to me for a time, and it's something I need to take very seriously, and do even now. True, I may not be able to directly engage a student in a conversation about Faith (especially if I teach at a public school!) but by how I go about conducting myself and treating each student I am either giving a good witness or a bad witness of the Gospel. By God's grace I hope to give plenty of the good and none of the bad. Even now I am praying, not only for my own future as a teacher but also for those with whom I am studying to become a teacher - whether we are sitting in the same classroom, on the same campus - or not. As well as for those who are all ready out there as teachers for we are truly in a profession where the results of our work will show not just immediately afterwards but far into the future. That is something I take very seriously, and I can only close with this quote from St. Theophan that not only challenges me but also inspires me in my own vocation, "Of all holy works, the education of children is the most holy."

St. Theophan, intercede for us!+