Mr. Male

 

Mr. Male was my sophomore English teacher.  He made grammar fun.  I know that “grammar” and “fun” doesn’t make sense to most of you, but it is true.  Each day he came to class with a quiz that was twenty sentences that had some sort of a grammar question.  It might be to identify the subject and predicate or to find the prepositions.  He would pick a girl to write the twenty sentences on the chalkboard.  We had to copy the sentences on our notebook paper and answer the question of the day.  Mr. Male would stroll around the classroom making wise cracks while we were copying the board work.  After we had answered the questions, we exchanged papers and graded them.  Then after we had returned the graded papers to the owners, Mr. Male collected the papers and recorded the grades.  We never had homework; we never had a test; we never had a textbook; we just had a quiz every day.  It seems that when I got a question wrong, I remembered the right answer.  I learned each part of speech, the types of sentences, phrases and clauses, subordinating conjunctions, and active and passive voices in Mr. Male’s English class.  All while copying, answering, and laughing.  Mr. Male was different.  He did not do things by the teacher’s manual, but he was an effective teacher.  Hey, we should use our abilities in just the way that the dear Lord has equipped us to be.  God didn’t make us all the same; we are unique.  Paul said in Ephesians 4:11&12, “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”  The dear Lord gave each of us our special abilities to be a blessing to others.  Now, use your God-given abilities today … for God’s glory and to build up one another.