As you return to campus in August, you are met with many responsibilities related to a successful start to the year. Yet you also carry an essential responsibility that is often left off of back-to-school checklists—to become a shalom-maker in the place God has assigned to you.
Shalom is human flourishing, where everything is as it ought to be. It is living in right relationship to God, each other, ourselves, and all of creation.
When Jesus said in Matthew 5:9 that peacemakers are blessed and that they resemble their father in heaven, he didn’t just mean people who help others agree. He also meant people who bring the “ought” of God’s good design to other people and situations.
The biblical story gives us the framework for understanding Jesus’ words. God created the world to flourish (his good design), but sin disrupted that design. Thankfully, hope is not lost. Christ makes redemption possible, and one day God will restore all things fully to the way they ought to be. Rather than shrug off the brokenness we see around us, we have been invited to participate in Christ’s redemptive work in the particular communities where God has placed us.
For educators, the community is the school. And the work is being a shalom-maker—with students, our peers, and parents.
Shalom With Students
Students enter our classrooms carrying much more than backpacks and school supplies. They bring tough questions, pain, confusion, and sometimes real anxiety. Before they grapple with math and English concepts, they must wrestle with some level of brokenness in the world around and within themselves.
Being a shalom-maker does not mean shielding students from every challenge or removing appropriate consequences for poor decisions. It means creating an environment in which students are treated with dignity as Christ’s image-bearers and called toward growth that aligns with what God says is right, good, true, and beautiful.
When looking through your roster, rather than classifying the students as good or bad, easy or hard, studious or lazy, remember that God created them in his image for a purpose we may only begin to see or predict. Sitting in your class are future teachers, business leaders, ministry leaders, and Christian parents.
One way to cultivate shalom is to insist on a culture of honor in the classroom. In their book, Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes in You and Your Kids, Turansky and Miller define honor as treating others as special, doing more than what’s expected, and having a great attitude. This three-part definition can serve as a great framework for how you interact with students and for how you expect students to interact with one another.
Shalom With Our Peers
Teacher stress and burnout are real. And these often lead to isolation and fragmentation of a school culture. Between full schedules, heavy workloads, and the time spent among so many imperfect humans, we can be tempted to close our doors, focus on our own responsibilities, and interact with colleagues only when necessary.
When we embrace the idea of being a shalom-maker, we push back against silos and isolation, recognizing that we glorify God best in our unity. As expressions of that unity, we generously share resources and ideas, and celebrate the victories of others. We eat lunch together joyfully and connect for prayer or mutual encouragement. We understand that God made us for community, and we are called to be present in our work community.
Shalom-makers also believe the best about peers rather than approaching others with an eye for finding the negative. We choose not to “gossip at the water-cooler,” and instead speak words of life to and about one another. Taking Jesus’ words about shalom-makers seriously brings new joy and blessing to an entire community of teachers.
Shalom With Parents
More times than I can count, I’ve been a part of or heard conversations where teachers are expressing frustration with students’ parents.
We can easily fall into the trap of thinking that once the students hit campus, they are ours, and that parents need to “back off.” But parents hold a profound—and biblical—responsibility to nurture their students. Within a biblical worldview, parents are key partners in the work we do. That partnership can become strained when expectations differ, or communication breaks down, or when one partner becomes defensive instead of cooperative and trusting.
Being a shalom-maker with parents begins by remembering that most parents care deeply about their children, even when that concern is expressed imperfectly. Listening before responding, communicating before problems escalate, and approaching difficult conversations with clarity and humility are all ways we can nurture shalom.
Leaders at one school encourage teachers to write short positive notes to the parents of each of their students at least once in the first half of the school year. Parents are accustomed to hearing when things aren’t the way they ought to be. Imagine the shalom teachers can bring to parents when their kids are commended for being involved in something good, right, true, or beautiful.
Educators Embracing Their Job as a Shalom-Maker
As you prepare to start the school year, we know you need to think about rubrics, bulletin boards, and new school initiatives. We get it. But amidst all the busyness, pause for a moment to reflect on the reality that you are called to be a shalom-maker, helping to nudge things in your sphere of influence back towards the way they ought to be.
What can you do from day one to fulfill this great calling with your students, your peers, and your students’ parents?
-Dr. Maggie Pope