Teaching by Living

Granpa gives a lot of good advice to Little Tree throughout this book, but he treats wisdom with more than mere lip service. I noticed in the chapter on church-going and in other spots in the reading that Granpa regularly practices what he preaches. He showed the man how to make the chair that he gave to him. Little Tree explained that Granpa always believed that showing a feller how to do something himself was better than just giving to him.
As teachers we must practice what we teach. Do I put on a mask when I go into the classroom that smiles and loves the students? This actually seems easy enough, but soon the act would grow old and we would seek a different line of work. The type of teachers we want to be in the classroom should also be the type of people we want to be in our homes and relationships. Especially as health teachers, we should be an example of healthy living. We shouldn't get plastered on the weekends or take up chain smoking to cope with the stress of being a teacher. We should live a physically active life and wear a seatbelt and wash our hands and cough into our elbows. Teaching health isn't just presenting curriculum, it's presenting a healthy way of life. As members of the church are admonished to be living examples of the blessings of the gospel and testify of those blessings and from whence they came, we as health teachers should be shining examples of the healthy way of life we teach and advocate a healthy way of life to our students.