Slow

No one is “slow.”

The lesson a student taught this teacher.

Students respond to education at their own pace, not ours.

And “their own pace” may far exceed our own.

Watch our Truth in Two to find out how (FULL TEXT and AFTERWORD below).

Eckelberry taught this Eckel how much he had to learn.

Subscribe to “Truth in Two” videos from Comenius (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), hosts a weekly radio program with diverse groups of guests (1 minute video), and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).

Picture Credit: Luke Renoe, Snappy Goat

FULL TEXT

I didn’t think he would amount to anything. He shuffled through the hallways. His view of school was blasé. His response to teaching seemed careless. What I thought was not true. I, of course, was the idiot.

I should have, instead, focused on Kirk’s feet. On the soccer field I never saw anyone with the footwork of Kirk Eckelberry. Soccer prowess moved classroom shuffle to playing field speed.

As annoyed as I might have been about Kirk’s commitment to average schoolwork, I sincerely liked Kirk as a person. I remember his helpfulness in loading my books ahead of a move to Michigan; he had a servant’s heart.

Kirk’s academic mindset kicked in after high school. He earned a juris doctorate and had begun to practice law. In the early days of email, Kirk reached out to me with questions. “How can I, as a Christian, defend someone I know is guilty?” Kirk wanted to know what the Bible taught about law.

Sometime after our flurry of emails establishing Pentateuchal law for “innocent until proven guilty” and “justice for all” I heard the tragic news; Kirk had been killed in a motorcycle accident. I was dumbstruck. The promise of such a strong Christian voice silenced at such a young age: there are no words to fully express the sadness.

Kirk taught me an important lesson in my early years of teaching. No one is ‘slow.’ To this day, when I see a student who has yet to appreciate educational opportunities or who struggles to apprehend disciplinary content, I remember Kirk. He may have shuffled through the hallways, but speed caught and exceeded the efforts of many. Kirk Eckelberry’s picture hangs in the art gallery of my mind – a student whose life who taught a teacher how better to teach.

For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

AFTERWORD

I am mindful of God’s Providence. Why is one kept safe and another taken? I hear the echoes of Joseph – “God meant it for good” – and Job – “God gives and takes away.” Humanly speaking I am unconvinced. Sovereignly, I know that my understanding is limited, my thoughts are not his.

Education is unlike any other craft. The framing of a life, the unseen stud-wall behind living room décor is hidden yet necessary. Little did I know or understand Kirk’s interior life. Who knows how a person is ‘built’? How could anyone fully comprehend the structuring of a student mindset?

Perhaps it was my lack of training (I had not had an education course to that point in my life) or maybe it was my lack of understanding people (my blind spots are legion) which was my initial misunderstanding of Kirk. Kirk may never have earned above a “C” in my class but he was an “A+” person, a Christian, whose life set an example.