I recently completed the ED106 course, and as I completed the section on teaching students with learning disabilities, I thought of a particular trait that teaching such students demands—that is patience. Last year in reflecting upon my life, not only as a teacher, but in various other dimensions as well, I recognized that I must ever strive to be patient. In fact I wrote an article for Examiner.com, an Internet publication that I work for, in which I discussed “patience” as one of the fruit of the Spirit. In the title I asked, “What Fruit is in Season? Patience is Always in Season.”

Here is an excerpt from the article: 

Since patience or perseverance is a fruit that seems to be of importance in my life at all times, I briefly examined one of the words for “patience” in the New Testament and noted that the term means “to stay, remain, abide”, literally abiding under. As a verb it figuratively means, to undergo, i.e. bear (trials), have fortitude, to persevere -- abide, endure. The essence of the word involves the yielding of the will to something against which one naturally would rebel. It means cheerful (or hopeful) endurance, constancy. It is a bearing up in a way that honors and glorifies God, not merely to grin and bear it.

I examined a passage from the Book of James that provides an excellent example of both the verb and the noun associated with patience in a particular individual who embodies the character trait of patient endurance. This quality we most often associated with Job, whom *Chuck Swindoll described as a “man of heroic endurance.” One of the spiritual principles that the Book of Job demonstrates is that God is “full of compassion and tender mercy” and that he rewards those who demonstrate “patience.”

More than 30 years ago I recall a comment made by Leslie Fiedler, noted literary critic, who commented that the teacher’s task is “to patiently explain.” This is case in general, but it seems to be particularly needful when working with students with learning disabilities or other challenges to the learning process.