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Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students
the words, “You, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of
His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblamable and
unreprovable in His sight.”
Colossians 1:21, 22
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Sometimes there is in the school a disorderly element that makes
the work very hard. Children who have not received a right education
make much trouble, and by their perversity make the heart of the
teacher sad. But let him not become discouraged. Test and trial bring
experience. If the children are disobedient and unruly, there is all the
more need of strenuous effort. The fact that there are children with
such characters is one of the reasons why church schools should be
established. The children whom parents have neglected to educate
and discipline must be saved if possible.
In the school as well as in the home there should be wise dis-
cipline. The teacher must make rules to guide the conduct of his
pupils. These rules should be few and well considered, and once
made they should be enforced. Every principle involved in them
should be so placed before the student that he will be convinced of
its justice. Thus he will feel a responsibility to see that the rules
which he himself has helped to frame are obeyed.
Parents to Strengthen the Teacher’s Hands
The teacher should not be left to carry the burden of his work
alone. He needs the sympathy, the kindness, the co-operation, and
the love of every church member. The parents should encourage the
teacher by showing that they appreciate his efforts. Never should
they say or do anything that will encourage insubordination in their
children. But I know that many parents do not co-operate with the
teacher. They do not foster in the home the good influence exerted
in the school. Instead of carrying out in the home the principles of
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obedience taught in the school, they allow their children to do as they
please, to go hither and thither without restraint. And if the teacher
exercises authority in requiring obedience, the children carry to their
parents an exaggerated, distorted account of the way in which they
have been dealt with. The teacher may have done only that which
it was his painful duty to do; but the parents sympathize with their
children, even though they are in the wrong. And often those parents