What Did You Go into the Classroom to See?

Academic Dean, Grayson Gunn, compares the mission of a teacher to the mission of John the Baptist in an article for CiRCE Institute.

“What did you go into the wilderness to see?” This is Christ’s question to John’s disciples in Matthew 11. John had captivated an audience, but how? What was it about him that drew the crowds into a place isolated from worldly cares and pleasures? What does this teach us about education?

They did not go out to see John because he was swayed by the world like “a reed shaken by the wind”  or because he was “clothed in soft raiment.” John was not a man of this world (e.g., the diet of locusts and wild honey). What captivated John’s followers was John. It was his soul on fire for his message. In John, the message and the person are so close to being one, and this unity in a person is captivating. What John taught, he embodied. What he commanded, he lived. He was not a hireling feigning enthusiasm for the good news for the sake of earning a wage. Rather, he had given everything over to following this mission of preparing the way of the Lord, and so, when he spoke, his whole being echoed the words. He sold all for the pearl of great price. 

Excellence is a result of sacrifice even on a worldly level. Think of the excellence of an Olympic athlete: the willingness to set aside everything for the sake of one precise goal is captivating, and John, who has rejected the things of this world, is an authority not just captivating but worthy of emulation. He is a saint. 

Read the rest of Mr. Gunn's Article for the CiRCE Institute here.