Teachers deserve huge respect!

Today I spent my longest day in school since I left Liberton High School in 1975!

We have two primary schools in my placement area and we were in both of them today. It was the first time I had been tasked to prepare and deliver the class activity in each of the classes that we visited. And with six classes to visit in one school, and three classes to visit in the other school, it was a rather daunting prospect!

After spending four hours in school today I was exhausted - and full of admiration for the teachers who help our children learn how to live in this world of ours.

Since we are coming up to Advent, with it's Christmas theme of helping those in need, often through charities, I decided that today's theme would be helping.

For the core story we looked at Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan. For those who heard it the very name was a contradiction in terms. At that time, all Samaritans were considered to be 'bad'. How could there be a 'Good Samaritan'?

But such was the radical message that Jesus brought. We should not only love our friends, not only love our neighbours, but we should love those who we think are 'bad', and even love those who openly declare themselves to be our enemies.

Of course, we didn't go into that depth in school. But in most of the classes we touched on helping those in need, be they 'orphans, widows, or aliens' that we are commanded to care for in the Old Testament, or just people who need our help in our everyday lives.

In the last class we visited today, the children have been studying the disastrous sinking of the liner Titanic on 14th April 1912. That day 1504 died, and only 704 people were saved, despite the theoretical lifeboat capacity of 1178.

The figures are shocking, for in the panic and distress of the evacuation, many people were left to die, instead of being saved.

In Jesus' story, the people who should have helped - didn't. And the person who was not expected to help - did.

Let us all do our best to be people who help.