The Trust of Teachers--and Parents

We recall again the comment that the teacher is responsible for the total effect of his teaching; for his every utterance, his innuendo, has its influence on others. In furtherance of this thought, we would cite a single short sentence from Henry Adams⎯simply said in twelve far-reaching words: “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.”

All occupations and professions have some effect on others; but some touch lives on more intimate terms. Some professions, by their very nature, cannot escape the sobering awareness of their weight on the lives and minds and hearts of men⎯and their effect on the future.

For example, the medical doctor, who deals with people and patients, cannot, whether he wants to or not, avoid a personal responsibility for patients. He is honor bound, by the privileges and knowledge and skills and traditions and ethics of his profession, to respond to calls that come to him⎯to save life, to promote health, to alleviate suffering, to help people to be whole.

And the profession of teaching also is a dedicated service⎯for it molds, in far-reaching measure, the minds and spirits and lives and souls of men. A teacher does, as Henry Adams observed, affect eternity. And what we have come to call academic freedom is a sacred and sobering trust. Nor is it something that can be one-sided. Freedom is never successfully one-sided. There is also freedom for pupils, and freedom for parents and the public who give the teacher his trust. And along with the right and responsibility of the teacher to teach there is also the right and responsibility of parent and public to what is taught. (Let it also be said that no teacher has the right to irreverence, or irreligion, or to undermine the foundations of faith.) Indeed, there is no trust in life, public or private, for which any man is free from accountability to others.

The Lord God gave children to parents⎯and he did not give parents the right to relieve themselves of their responsibility. Teaching must begin in the home long before other teachers take over⎯and must continue after other teachers take over. Indeed, respect for teachers themselves must first be taught in the home.

Teaching is an honored profession⎯a sacred trust. Parenthood is an honored mission⎯a sacred trust; and parents cannot rightfully relieve themselves⎯nor can teachers⎯of real responsibility for their influence on the lives of others⎯pertaining both to time⎯and to eternity.