Professionals

Our society tends to believe in the power of professionals. If you have any kind of difficulty - be it financial, medical, mental or whatever -, you ought to speak with a professional. A professional is someone who has studied the field, has a certificate, and knows the answer to your problem. Also if you are a teacher, you are expected to think, speak and act professionally. You should always understand, always know the next step, always be compassionate and fair.

A friend of mine, a teacher for 20+ years and father of three children, expressed to me his frustration over the arrogance of the 23-year-old teacher of his daughter who used her professionalism as a mask to cover up her own lack of experience, and told him and his wife what they should do to solve the problems of their daughter. True professionalism, my friend said, would have been to humbly invite the parents to consider mutually their experience, and to share in a process of finding solutions.

Parker Palmer, a well-known American pedagogue, in his great book „The Courage to Teach“, writes: „This book builds on a simple premise: Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.“ In his research he found that  good teachers cannot be identified by their teaching techniques, but „good teachers share one trait: A strong sense of identity infuses their work“. And „bad teachers distance themselves from … their students.“

Let’s be careful to not over-emphasize the secular notion of professionalism, but build on our identity and integrity in Christ as the anchor for true professionalism.