I have always said that my profession was “ teaching”. I realize that I often spent much more time in administration, planning, supervising, consulting, grant writing etc. but if you ask me what I really am I would say “I am a teacher.” When I spent some 10 years in Hong Kong I spent a great deal of that time teaching.
I had barely gotten off the plane when I first arrived in Hong Kong when Miss Behling informed me that I was scheduled to teach the next week. The Lutheran Church was requiring in-service training for its entire staff. Every Wednesday night the teachers from our various schools gathered for in-service classes. My first was “Basics of Christian Education.” Naturally I taught through an interpreter and I had an excellent one: Mr. Isaac Ma. He translated my lectures sentence by sentence. Regretfully my teaching method was almost exclusively by the lecture method. To this day I admire those members of my class who sat through that –especially since they came there after themselves having taught all day and then returning to their classrooms again by 8:00 the next morning.
Concurrently I taught a similar class at Hong Kong College. I taught there partially because in return for my teaching in the college the college provided free space for us to conduct church services on Sunday or special church holidays. The students were all refugees of all ages and probably came to class as much to learn English as to learn about Christian education. Mr. Ma was my interpreter there. One of my strongest memories there relates to a student who objected or questioned almost everything I said (very rare in those days.) He eventually came around. In fact he became a Christian and later a professional church worker in our Lutheran Church.
On Thursday night I taught a class for Sunday School teachers. I really enjoyed doing this as the class members were very excited to be learning and then teaching the Bible stories. Teaching this class also assisted me in being supportive of my wife Jane who was playing a major role in producing the Sunday School curriculum. Our Sunday Schools became very popular and before long we were printing 1,000 Sunday School leaflets each week.
Friday night teaching was also wonderful. This was the Bible Study class for missionaries and spouses. We really kept our Friday night reserved specifically for getting together and study. We spent the first hour in Bible study and then the second hour discussing another book, magazine article or special topic of interest. We did this while also enjoying some refreshments. We moved from member home to member home to do. We took turns leading the class –and I learned a very great deal from all the men and women who shared the teaching roles.
In my second year I added a class on Teaching Religion. This, too, was very satisfying. I taught it to all the elementary school teachers and I gave them lessons plans for them to use in their classes the following week. This class was very interactive with the students (teachers) doing demonstrations, critiquing each other’s teaching etc. I was determined to do this job right-for a very special reason. When I announced that the Chinese teachers in kindergarten through grade six would all be teaching religion a veteran missionary spouse confronted me very sternly with the words “Mr. Kieschnick, you are sewing the seeds of the destruction of the Lutheran Church by your actions!” She was convinced that no new Chinese Christian should be permitted to teach and that only missionaries had this right and skill.
Soon I was also teaching in the Bible Institute and later Concordia Seminary as well as the American Lutheran Church’s Sha Tin Lutheran Seminary. I have made previous reference to my disaster in that last named teaching assignment as I was teaching General Psychology, was teaching it in my very poor Cantonese, and the only texts available were very behavioristic translations from the Russian.
Now as I near my 90th birthday I do very little teaching. I have sternly requested my wife to let me know when my Sunday Adult teaching in my local parish is not up to standard. So far she tells me I am still getting a passing grade, so I will carry on for a bit longer. Teaching is enjoyable and personally rewarding. And hopefully the class members find that this is true for them as well.
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