By Diana Kim

My 3rd grade teacher engaged me as a human being. 
At the end of the 3rd grade, my teacher gave the entire class his mailing address and invited us to write to him and keep in touch with him during the summer. I took him up on that offer and wrote a letter just a few weeks after school ended. (It wasn’t until the fall that I learned I was the only student who actually wrote to my teacher during the summer.) I wrote multiple letters, consisting of multiple pages. He responded in kind. Instead of being condescending, his letters revealed a mutual relationship (at least, as much as a teacher can have with a nine-year old). When I told him of the things I did that week, he shared his thoughts on the activities, what he remembered about his first experiences with them, and what he thought about them in the present. The relationship extended beyond the classroom: he took time out of his own summer vacation to keep in contact with a former student. I still have the letters he wrote me. 

My 5th grade teacher challenged me. 
Perhaps it was because she wanted to keep me busy, or perhaps it was because she wanted to provide me with a new opportunity. Once a week, our class would do a new math challenge: one of the classroom boards was decorated with random numbers and random formulas and we would have to use the variables to solve the formulas. Because I would always finish so quickly, my teacher challenged me to create the answer key that would be used for the entire class, which required me to not only finish the challenge quickly but with accuracy. There were some weeks where the answer key I created was 100% correct. There were also a few times when I had errors. My teacher didn’t punish me for my mistakes; rather she guided me to see what I did wrong and helped me correct my mistakes. She saw my potential and challenged me. She motivated me to strive for excellence. She provided guidance.

My 8th grade English teacher believed in me. 
I had never considered myself to be a good writer. I knew I was good at math, but writing seemed to require a creativity that I struggled to recognize within myself. One of our English assignments was a competition among all the 8th grade students: we were to write a short story that would be “published” so all the students could have a keepsake of their own and the winner of the competition would receive an award. While brainstorming with my peers, I heard of their amazing ideas of other-worlds, ones I could never have imagined myself. Ashamed that I didn’t have such original ideas, I decided the only thing I could do was write about something I knew. I didn’t expect to win the competition. If anything, all I wanted to do was complete the assignment, to get it over with. When it was time to announce the winner of the competition, I was not surprised to hear that one of my friends, whom I considered an amazing writer, had won. But what came next did surprise me: my teacher pulled me aside to tell me that I had received 2nd place in the writing competition and that it was a very close call between my friend and me. She told me that she was so moved by my short story and that I should continue to write, that I had a story to tell. 

In hindsight, what makes so many of my teachers so memorable is not necessarily what they taught, rather it is the characteristics of Jesus they emulated. They were educators who not only affected my learning but also affected me as a person. That is what a teacher is. That is what a teacher does. It is not about teaching to the test or merely passing along information that students can regurgitate. It is about shaping human beings. It is about seeing potential and challenging students to be even better versions of themselves. It is about encouraging students to think and imagine bigger things about themselves and the world.

Diana Kim is a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary and is majoring in Christian Ethics. Her current research area of interest is Asian American feminist ethics. She is committed to teaching and equipping the next generation to be passionate for Jesus and to live out His passion and care for the world.