INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27036, 11 May 1953, Page 11

INFLUENCE OF TEACHERS

ADDRESS BY DEAN OF CHRISTCHURCH SERVICE AT TRAINING COLLEGE REUNION Even if a teacher never mentioned the name of God in class, children were quick to recognise a forceful Christian character and there was no finer influence on children than a Christian teacher, supplemented by a Christian home, said the Dean of Christchurch (the Very Rev. Martin Sullivan), when speaking at a service at the Christchurch Teachers’ College yesterday afternoon. “It will not mattey if your grading marks are not as high as you hoped they would be in your profession,” he said. "What does matter is the sort of impression you will make on your pupils,” he said. "If you care for these children and serve them, you will teach them well.

“After this vacation, go back to your classrooms and be yourselves. Boys and girls pierce a veil rapidly: you cannot bluff them, and they will know you better than you realise. They are watching you when you are off guard, and when you are teaching them you are also communicating your personality. Children are quick to pick that up, especially if they like you,” Dean Sullivan said.

It was the quality of a teacher’s work that mattered, and this could not be measured in ordinary terms. “Consider what you have been doing, day by day. in the classroom, and how much extra you have given to your work that was not expected of you. Consider your willingness to give to your profession more than the ordinary routine, and your readiness to do it without reward. “The temptation will be to take the attitude that this is too idealistic, and that it is not practical to give more than is necessary, but as soon as you have succumbed to that way of thinking you have lowered your faith and you will not be the person you were when you were first moved to go into your profession,” Dean Sullivan said. , The service was arranged by members of the Student Christian Movement and Evangelical Union to open the reunion of former students of the college. Mr C. Cross conducted the service and Messrs A. E. Layborn and A. Bond read passages from scripture.