The Cry Of The Teacher's Soul [Hardcover]

Teaching is hard. External pressures are steadily increasing, leading to high rates of attrition and burnout. Unlike other resources that attempt to address those external factors, The Cry of the Teacher's Soul offers hope by focusing on the key factor of good education: the teacher. It does so by examining the teacher's inner life--mental, emotional, and spiritual. For the Christian teacher, paradoxes in teaching such as idealism/reality and performance/authenticity often parallel similar paradoxes in the Christian faith. By embracing these paradoxes that probe the depths of issues around identity and purpose, the teacher can sustain the difficult vocation of teaching, even thriving instead of just surviving. Each chapter focuses on a cry of the teacher's soul, features a teacher's story that illustrates that cry, and then explores the paradoxes embedded in teaching and in Christianity. Matthias has written a thoughtful, reflective, and instructive guide for Christian teachers. While this book has wide-ranging application for educators and Christians in other fields of service, the carefully-designed chapters in this volume provide wise counsel particularly and especially for those struggling with the very real tensions, antinomies, and challenges of carrying out one's calling in the classroom each and every day, semester after semester. --David S. Dockery, President, Trinity International University I get tired of reading that this book or that book is a 'must-read, ' but Matthias has definitely written a 'must-read' for teachers. It is theologically rich, readily accessible, and eminently practical. It has encouraged this teacher's soul. I intend to give it to as many teacher friends as I can. --Steven D. Mathewson, Adjunct Professor, Moody Bible Institute and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Matthias grounds her approach to educator burnout in both theology and in her long, personal familiarity with teaching. In a world where educators often have lilƒ(