My dream has always been to go to BYU and attend the McKay School of Education. The school's mission statement states: "We strive to model the attributes of Jesus Christ, the Master Teacher, as we prepare professionals who educate with an eternal perspective." As I have attended classes within the McKay School, working toward earning my elementary education degree, I have learned more about what it means to teach as the Savior would.
The Savior has always taught with compassion, humility, patience, and love. I strive each day to develop and work on the attributes of Christ, especially as it relates to my teaching. Christ truly loved every single person that He taught during His ministry and demonstrated how important that was. The children that we teach will look up to us as their example just as those that Christ taught looked up to Him. It will be up to us to help every child who steps into our classroom feel safe and loved. That is exactly what the Master Teacher would do.
Just as the Savior did, we can and will progress grace by grace. With Him as our guide, we can become the best educators possible. While no teacher is perfect, but we can become perfected through Him. Christ inspires hope in the weary and goes after His lost sheep. Each child we teach will learn at a different pace, and it is our job to make sure they do not become lost. It will be our job to inspire and encourage each and every student.
“The Savior is the Master Teacher. The teachings of Jesus Christ constitute a treatise on teaching technique surpassed by none. Jesus has been described as a philosopher, an economist, a social reformer, and many other things. But more than these, the Savior was a teacher. If you were to ask, ‘What did Jesus have as an occupation?’ There is only one answer: He was a teacher. It is He who should be our ideal. It is He who is the Master Teacher.” (President Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Mine Errand from the Lord (2008), 336.)
In my opinion, teaching is one of the highest callings we can have as we follow the example of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through Him all things are possible. May we turn to Him as we prepare to become educators for His children, for each is precious in the sight of God.
To learn more about why we model our teaching after the Master Teacher, schedule to meet with a student ambassador here.