It was a foggy winter day as I drove through Fort Langley on my way to meet with Lisa VanDooyeweert, a Grade 2 teacher at Fort Langley Elementary. The fog gets thicker as I drive up to the school and a fine sheen of mist coats everything. It feels much later than it really is as light pours from the windows and spills out over the parking lot.
This is my first time at this school and after parking, I have trouble finding my way into the building. The doors, which seem to be the front entrance, are firmly locked and as I stand there looking lost and dumbfounded, Lisa opens the door for me. Apparently these used to be the front doors, but the entrance was moved around to the other side of the building.
The classrooms are almost laid out in a circle, with the classrooms on the outside of the building and a central corridor connecting them together. Moving into Lisa’s classroom I am struck by both its vibrancy and neatness. Apparently, one of the things Lisa works on, is helping her students take ownership of the space and help clean up before they leave at the end of the day.
All of the furniture is child sized so we gather around a little table and settle into a couple chairs a few sizes too small for me and Lisa tells me a bit about how she got to be a teacher.
“I’ve been teaching for, I think this is my 21st year, and all in the Langley School District. I’ve been teaching in this room, Grade 2, for the past eight years. I work with students of all ranges because the school is all inclusive. I do have an aid every once in a while, but mostly it’s just me.”
While she knew from a young age that she wanted to be a teacher, her training was actually in history. She had also planned on teaching high school.
“I was a history major at the King’s University, in Edmonton. When you were graduating you had to write a paper supporting what career you were going into. So I was supporting the fact that at that time I wanted to be a High School history teaching, in a Christian High School. Apparently, God was laughing at me, because it never worked out that way."
After King’s Lisa attended Simon Fraser University to complete her teaching training and get her education credentials. When she graduated, there were only 10 openings for High School history at the time and they were only open to those who had their Master’s degrees. She was offered a position at an inner city elementary school, however, and she jumped at the chance.
This school provided Lisa with an opportunity to serve a very high need population. Lisa had wanted to teach overseas, but being a Type 1 diabetic came to see just how difficult that would be. This school became a place where she could serve in a similar way.
“That school became my mission. That’s a school where we supplied everything for the kids. Breakfast, lunch, after school snack, we had a clothing room, boys and girls clubs, everything.”
While she originally felt called to teach in a Christian school, she has come to see that it was God who placed her in the public system.
“I am where I am supposed to be. That’s really how I feel, and I think as I get older I feel that more and more. The stuff that you see here, you know the kids need someone to be there for them. I mean, I teach, but I do more than teach. We have a counsellor, but when she’s not here, we’re the counsellors. We don’t have a school nurse so, when someone’s hurt, that’s my job. When the parents are fighting outside the door, I’m the person that often steps in. I always say to the kids, “‘Teach’ is in my name, teacher, so I do that. But after that my job is to help.””
This reflects an attitude toward her job that goes much deeper than simply passing on bits of information to a group of students. While it may be difficult at times to share specifics about her faith in a public institution, she is really trying to build a community that functions the way God intends it to function; caring for each other and helping each other grow and develop. In many ways she sees her work as character and leadership development which shows up even in very practical ways.
“When I make seating arrangements, the child in the middle who needs the support of the two children who sit beside them and trying to get those two children to step up to be the helper, the leader, sort of guiding the one who’s not quite there yet.”
Lisa has a real heart to develop a real sense of self-worth. She works to help those who struggle gain a sense of satisfaction as they do learn and grasp new concepts. She also works to help those who get things a bit more easily gain a sense of worth from helping those who may not get things quite as quickly. As each student comes into Lisa’s classroom, she loves them and seeks to build a place where every student can experience that love and become a family together.
“I tell my children at the start of the year, ‘We are a family for this ten months. We’re not related to each other, but we are a school family, so we will treat each other respectfully and when someone’s upset we have to help and comfort them and find out what’s going on. If we’re struggling, we ask for help and support and we’re not going to make that person feel bad but we are going to help and support them and give them what they need.’”
Creating a sense of community like this is not easy to put into a curriculum. It requires Lisa to know each child as an individual, and treat them this way.
“No two kids are the same. You have to meet everybody where they are, and try to move them along.”
As we wrapped up our time together, I couldn’t help but be struck by the way that Lisa embodies God’s heart for these children. It reminds me of a line I’ve heard attributed to a number of different people over the years.
“God loves us the way we are, but too much to leave us that way.”
Just like Lisa welcomes and incorporates every child that comes to her into her classroom family, God welcomes all of those who come to him through Jesus and incorporates them into his family. And just like Lisa works to help these children grow into people that actually functions as a family, God gives us the Holy Spirit to shape us into the people God calls us to be.