Teachers Talking
Talk 2 | Achievement Re-Imagined
A student’s father was in my office to discuss his Year 8 daughter’s acceleration in Mathematics. The family had been part of a persecuted minority in their country of origin and thus, denied places in university. Hence, to achieve well enough to enter the medical profession, for example, was seen as a sign of success and social honour in their culture. His daughter, however, was gifted in the creative arts and was suffering anxiety over the conflict related to her dad’s desire for her to achieve in Mathematics at a high level in order to be a doctor or pharmacist. Achievement was seen as a licence to get into these professions which in turn were gateways to material prosperity and prestige.
This story, in different forms, can be repeated around the world, for in many places, a western education is perceived in this same way. The immense pressure of expectations from families and schools can be brought to bear upon students where learning is seen primarily for earning and so excellent results in examinations becomes the priority. This compulsory achievement paradigm has changed individual effort and productivity into the measure of a quality education and the measure of human worth.
As Christian schools and teachers, we must reimagine achievement shaped by the Biblical narrative, as we are exhorted to be transformed by the renewing of our hearts and minds and not be conformed to the pattern of the world. The first way to reimagine this problem of achievement is to recognise that love is core to our way of being in the world. “Well-ordered love loves God first and foremost, and everything else is ordered by that primary love.” [1]
God created the heavens and earth in all its splendour and beauty and declared it was good. He created humans in His image to be cultivators and caretakers of creation to promote the wellbeing of all. God’s design for our lives was that work would flow from our relationship with Himself and be an expression of worship. For achievement that results from effort and work are part of being authentically human. But after the FALL, achievement became a god where a sense of pride was bound up in being successful. As in Babel, “… that we may make a name for ourselves.” (Genesis 11: 4). Our education system can easily impact our students lives in this way and addict them to destructive thoughts and behaviour around achievement.
Right from kindergarten we must orientate our children’s thoughts and desires toward the Creator who created them as His image‑bearers with intrinsic worth and value. Their identity is not an achievement or a construct, but a gift bestowed upon them. The primary purpose for all God’s people is to know and love Him through Christ and be conformed to the image of His Son. Each person is called by God to fulfil their calling as a life response to God. Seen through this lens, achievement becomes about fulfilling a sacred task and this includes their schoolwork. For love is the form of human participation in the created order.
As teachers, we need to constantly articulate that we are not to be self‑made, solely by our own grit and hard work. Accomplishments emerge as a result of the gifts our students have been given. In our classes, we explore with our students what it means to be good stewards of the gifts God has given them. For a priority task for each student is to appreciate and explore what has been given them and recognise that God wants to work in and through them to unfold His purposes through their achievements. A close analogy is a vegetable gardener who plants a seed that he/she could not create. After the planting, however, the gardener’s role makes a great deal of difference to the quality of the produce. Was the garden fertilised and watered well by the gardener? Who will the gardener share the produce with?
Dorothy Sayers, an author, reminded people during WWII that work “should be … thought of as a creative activity undertaken for the love of work itself … (image‑bearers) should make things as God makes them, for the sake of doing well a thing that is well‑worth doing.” [2] As teachers, we want to instil a love of learning that explores the wisdom and wonder of all God has made and how this learning will bless God’s world. An illustration from the past highlights the relationship between the teacher, the students, that which is to be known, and how the learning will bless others.
Antonio Stradivari, the famous Italian violin maker, who lived in the 17th Century, devised the modern form of the violin with its perfected acoustics and beautiful tone. He never wrote down the exact dimensions of his famous instrument and never recorded his techniques. This genius craftsman passed on his knowledge to a number of apprentices by what has been called “elbow learning.” [3] Stradivari’s apprentices learnt their craft by being at his elbow, feeling the timber, assessing its length and balance right in their fingertips. Imitating the master craftsman, the apprentices were trained to use their gifts to produce an instrument that played magnificent music. What a wonderful achievement and blessing to the world. By the presence and the passion of the teacher, students are to be engaged in their learning, head, heart and hands, and have continually impressed upon them the purpose of it all.
May we, as teachers, trust the Lord to help us reframe achievement for the love and glory of God and the flourishing of our students. Always remember that the Holy Spirit goes before us to draw the students to Himself and produce His fruit in their lives.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1: 17
Grace & Peace
The Excellence Centre Team
[1] Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory – How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, (Michigan: Zondervan Academic, 2022), 394
[2] Dorothy Sayers, Why Work?, in Letters to a Diminished Church: Passionate Arguments for the Relevance of Christian Doctrine, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2004)
[3] Michael Frost, Incarnate – The Body of Christ in an Age of Disengagement, (Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 89