"The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin"
About this Quote
A warning shot disguised as a proverb: the moral failures of leaders do not stay private; they reproduce. In "The sins of teachers are the teachers of sin", William Gurnall compresses a whole theology of contagion into a neat chiasmus. The line works because it turns "teacher" from a reassuring role into a moral accelerant. Sin is not only an individual lapse; it becomes curriculum.
Gurnall writes as a 17th-century Puritan divine, in a culture where authority is pedagogical by default: ministers instruct congregations, fathers instruct households, masters instruct apprentices. In that world, example is not an accessory to instruction; it is instruction. The subtext is brutal: hypocrisy is more persuasive than preaching. A teacher who lies, rages, covets, or cuts corners does not merely fail to teach virtue; he actively trains others in vice by granting it legitimacy. If the person paid (or revered) to model the good treats rules as optional, everyone downstream learns the real lesson: the standard is performative.
The rhetorical sting is in the reversal. "Sins" become "teachers", as if wrongdoing has agency, a staff, a lesson plan. That personification is strategic: it implies that corruption is self-propagating, almost institutional. Gurnall is also quietly shifting blame. He is not excusing the student's sin, but he is sharpening accountability for the instructor: your private indulgence is public formation.
Read in context, it is less a scold than a containment strategy. Puritanism feared not just immoral acts but the social spread of them. Gurnall is naming the vector.
Gurnall writes as a 17th-century Puritan divine, in a culture where authority is pedagogical by default: ministers instruct congregations, fathers instruct households, masters instruct apprentices. In that world, example is not an accessory to instruction; it is instruction. The subtext is brutal: hypocrisy is more persuasive than preaching. A teacher who lies, rages, covets, or cuts corners does not merely fail to teach virtue; he actively trains others in vice by granting it legitimacy. If the person paid (or revered) to model the good treats rules as optional, everyone downstream learns the real lesson: the standard is performative.
The rhetorical sting is in the reversal. "Sins" become "teachers", as if wrongdoing has agency, a staff, a lesson plan. That personification is strategic: it implies that corruption is self-propagating, almost institutional. Gurnall is also quietly shifting blame. He is not excusing the student's sin, but he is sharpening accountability for the instructor: your private indulgence is public formation.
Read in context, it is less a scold than a containment strategy. Puritanism feared not just immoral acts but the social spread of them. Gurnall is naming the vector.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teaching |
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