by Matthew Harrison

It's time to kick off another school year-a good time to support and pray for our parochial schoolteachers.

When I was a parish pastor, I saw firsthand how our teachers handled challenges that might push the rest of us over the edge. You know what I'm talking about if you ever tried to keep a group of energetic schoolchildren productively occupied for an hour or so! Yet our teachers do this, day in and day out, most for well over ten hours a day! I'm convinced the Lutheran schoolteacher is the most valuable but least appreciated office in the church today.

Teaching children is challenging-in fact, more challenging than ever before. Teacher salaries are often low. Hours can be long. Congregational expectations often run high. More children in today's Lutheran schools come from less than ideal circumstances. Many need extra loving care-even when they aren't so lovable! Teachers deal daily with the complexities of relationships (among school and church staff as well as students), with parents, accrediting issues and more. Today's tremendous focus on student performance places a huge burden on our teachers to improve test scores. Many of our parochial schools lovingly serve children with special needs-and do so on a shoestring budget.

"Teaching kids to count is fine ... but teaching them what counts is best!" Our parochial schools do both. That's why Martin Luther called teachers "the finest jewels of the church."

Each day when my two little boys come home from Lutheran elementary school, I know they have been in a classroom where they are appreciated as precious little lambs of God, created and redeemed by Him. I know they are disciplined in love. I marvel not only at how diligently they are instructed in the "three R's," but also at how many hymns and Bible passages they have memorized and how they memorize the Catechism. For all this, for what it will be for them-a foundation of faith and knowledge of Christ-I owe LCMS parochial schoolteachers.

Do you know your teachers' pay scale? Can you influence an improvement? Ask a teacher what he needs for the classroom but can't afford. Ask a teacher if there is something she needs for her home or family. Give a teacher tickets to a show or a gift certificate for a night out. Let a teacher and his family use your summer lake house one week each year. Give a good used vehicle to a teacher. Volunteer to assist with special needs students. Offer to clean house for a teacher who is also a wife and mother. Organize a group of your congregation's retirees to arrange a monthly "teacher's treat" or encourage members of your LWML group to "adopt" a teacher for a whole year. Squirrel away a $500 or $1,000 investment for a teacher's retirement. Find out what your teachers are paying for medical insurance and lend a hand.

All in all, each of these suggestions is quite insignificant compared to the gift a teacher gives our children. But small things mean a lot in the lives of these dear servants of Christ who give so much and expect so little in return.

Rev. Matthew Harrison is executive director of LCMS World Relief and Human Care, the alliance of disaster relief, self-help and human care ministries that touch both body and soul. A former parish pastor, Rev. Harrison is the father of two young sons who attend St. Paul's Lutheran school in St. Louis, MO.