The Influence and Love of My First Grade Teacher

My five-year-old was reading aloud to me yesterday when she stopped herself and said, “Mama, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to read like you do.”  Relief and hope seemed to fill her when I told her, “Guess what?  You’re already ahead of me.  I didn’t even know how to read when I was your age.  When I was in school, most of us (including me) didn’t learn to read until first grade.  So you see, one day you are definitely going to be able to read as well as I can.”

Miss Pam taught me how to read.  She is the one who unlocked and opened wide that door for me—and not only for me but for probably about a thousand children.  My first grade teacher is retiring this year after forty-two years of teaching first grade.  Let me say that one more time—FORTY-TWO YEARS TEACHING FIRST GRADERS—always first graders since August of 1973.

And I bet we can count on one hand how many times Miss Pam raised her voice in those forty-two years.  You know when you’re about to experience pain, such as getting stitches or a big shot, and the nurse tells you to think calming thoughts (like thoughts of the beach)?  I could just think about Miss Pam’s voice—kind and calming.  I can still hear her reading Charlotte's Web to us at the end of the day, her voice, like gently rolling waves, rolling over little malleable hearts.  Everyone with whom I grew up knows that voice.  When I hear preaching on the balance between love and discipline, grace and law, I think of Miss Pam.  She held that balance beautifully in her voice (and in her heart too, of course).

Even though I couldn't yet read, I walked into that first-grade classroom with a good bit of six-year-old confidence because I had known Miss Pam (or she had known me) since I came out of the womb.  She was in our church family and was married to Cousin Morgan.  Since her husband and I shared the same name (that of his father as well as his great-grandfather who was my great-great grandfather Morgan Adams), I was feeling pretty good about the fact that I was going to be special to my first grade teacher right off the bat.  And that’s what every kid wants—to feel particularly noticed and loved by their teacher.  While I felt especially loved by Miss Pam every day of that whole year, I know that every little child in that classroom felt especially loved too.  That, my friends, is a spiritual gift—to be able to encourage children of every temperament and leave each of them feeling valued.

In short, Miss Pam lives the gospel day in and day out for her students.  What does it mean to live the gospel?  It means you show love, as Christ did, to a whole lot of undeserving “knuckle heads.”  Or as the Apostle Paul would explain, “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘LOVE your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:14 NIV, emphasis mine).

I’m sure she would shake her head in disagreement, but Miss Pam’s character gives me a precious glimpse into the character of Christ.  When I read these words in Philippians, I think of her:   “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others.   In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus . . .” (Philippians 2:3-5 NIV).

Miss Pam is truly humble and joyful—not selfishly ambitious or overly concerned with herself but always genuinely interested in the other person, comfortable in her own skin and finding true contentment in loving the children to whom God has called her.  I said it back in 1988, and I’m still saying it:  “I want to be like Miss Pam when I grow up.”

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”  He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me . . .”
(Mark 9:35-37a NIV).