Recently I heard a young student say to a teacher, “Kids say
that you are mean.” Thankfully this
teacher was mature enough to not even be upset.
This student was using “mean” in the terms of “causing
trouble or being a bother” as if this teacher gets joy out of harassing and
giving students a difficult time.
What this student did not realize is that the teacher
recognizes their responsibility to educate and that to fulfill their
responsibility of education the students need to be disciplined. Therefore, when a child is acting in such a
way as to disrupt their own education and the education of the other children
in the classroom a loving and concerned teacher will deal with this and bring
consequences into the life of that student so that they hopefully learn to be
disciplined in their life so that they and those around them can receive an
education.
Whether or not they realize it teachers with this view of
discipline are actually reflecting the loving character of Jesus Christ. In Rev. 3:19 in speaking to the Laodiceans
Jesus said, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.” (cf. Hebrews 12:5-6)
Parents are given many challenges in Proverbs in how to
discipline their children.
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Prov. 29:17 “Correct thy son, and he shall give
you rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.
-
Prov. 23:13 “Withhold not correction from the
child”
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Prov. 29:15 “The rod and rebuke give wisdom, but
a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
-
Prov. 29:18 “Discipline your son while there is
hope, and do not desire his death.”
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Proverbs 13:24 (NKJV) 24He who spares his rod
hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.
Unfortunately, if children like the one above are allowed to
be the focus of the home and they are seldom if ever disciplined they will not
realize their teachers’ actions as loving. (Note: Discipline is giving loving
consequences to an action to bring about God honoring behavior. This differs from punishment – which is
simply “payback” for a behavior.) Therefore,
if we as parents choose to hand over our God given right and responsibility to the government and our local schools, we must realize that we are
asking these teachers to act “in loco parentis” that is “in the place of the
parents”. We should then expect them to
be disciplining and training our children so that they can receive the best
education possible.
In recognizing this we as parents out of love for our
children, the other children in our community, and our teachers would do great
help if besides just teaching numbers and the ABC’s to our children before they
enter school we will also discipline and build character in their lives. Every young person entering preschool should
understand terms such as lie and obey and they should be disciplined and trained
to consistently respond the first time they are told to do something. When we get back to these ideals we will have
a bunch of teachers who are less stressed and who can do a better job of
teaching our children because they will spend less time training and disciplining
our children what we should have already taught them.
In closing let me say thank you to the many teachers who are
“mean” in the manner explained above.
Thank you for coming along side of us as parents to help educate our
children, because no matter how good of job we do as parents we recognize that
all people, including our kids, are sinners and will occasionally need a “mean”
teacher!
