3 minute read
The heart of teaching
Walla Walla University is in the teaching and learning business. So it is quite natural that we have a special soft spot in our institutional heart—or at the heart of our institution!—for teachers. When we meet with alumni, their best stories seem to be about teachers, the contributions they made to one’s education, the rigorous assignments they used to give, and, sometimes, the eccentricities they exhibited.
In this edition of Westwind you will read the heartfelt stories of five educators, all across the country. You’ll be inspired by reading these biographical sketches about the rewards and challenges of teaching. Their experiences span some decades of WWU’s institutional life, but important themes emerge including the modeling they experienced at WWU. They name the names of professors that inspired and blessed them. Their stories will spark your own and remind you of the value of a WWU education.
That great heritage of faith-based education continues today. A few days ago, I sat at the lunch table in Kellogg Hall with a circle of WWU students, about six of them. I asked a usual question to one student, “Do you have a favorite class this quarter?” The student replied, “Yes. Jesus and the Gospels.” She went on to describe her growing conviction that Matthew was her favorite gospel and detailed the reason why. Matthew had helped her understand the Old Testament and why it is that Jesus fulfills the hopes and dreams of earlier believers. A second student chimed in with his choice of another gospel as his favorite, which sparked a very detailed and informed conversation about the four gospels, their features, and their unique contributions to the story of Jesus. Along the way, students commented on this or that course about the gospels they had taken, warmly sharing their reactions to those classes and the professors who taught them.
Given that I trained as a New Testament professor and have practiced the craft of teaching for much of my career, I found the conversation nothing short of heartwarming. I didn’t contribute all that much to it, aside from luxuriating in it and composing an internal soliloquy with this theme, “Only at a place like WWU could such a wondrous conversation be experienced.”
I left that table with my sense of mission renewed and my gratitude and respect for Walla Walla University faculty members, whatever their discipline, intensified. Great students taught and mentored by dedicated faculty members who build excellence in thought, generosity in service, beauty in expression, and faith in God is at the heart of WWU and its mission.
