Church Schools
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In selecting teachers we should use every precaution, knowing that
this is as solemn a matter as the selecting of persons for the ministry.
Wise men who can discern character should make the selection, for
the very best talent that can be secured is needed to educate and mold
the minds of the young and to carry on successfully the many lines of
work that will need to be done by the teacher in our church schools.
No person of an inferior or narrow cast of mind should be placed in
charge of one of these schools. Do not place over the children young
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and inexperienced teachers who have no managing ability, for their
efforts will tend to disorganization. Order is heaven’s first law, and
every school should in this respect be a model of heaven.
To place over young children teachers who are proud and unloving
is wicked. A teacher of this stamp will do great harm to those who
are rapidly developing character. If teachers are not submissive to
God, if they have no love for the children over whom they preside, or
if they show partiality for those who please their fancy and manifest
indifference to those who are less attractive or to those who are restless
and nervous, they should not be employed; for the result of their work
will be a loss of souls for Christ.
Teachers are needed, especially for the children, who are calm
and kind, manifesting forbearance and love for the very ones who
most need it. Jesus loved the children; He regarded them as younger
members of the Lord’s family. He always treated them with kindness
and respect, and teachers are to follow His example. They should
have the true missionary spirit, for the children are to be trained to
become missionaries. They should feel that the Lord has committed
to them as a solemn trust the souls of the children and youth. Our
church schools need teachers who have high moral qualities, those
who can be trusted, those who are sound in the faith and who have
tact and patience, those who walk with God and abstain from the very
appearance of evil. In their work they will find clouds. There will
be clouds and darkness, storms and tempests, prejudice to meet from
parents who have incorrect ideas of the characters which their children
should form; for there are many who claim to believe the Bible, while
they fail to bring its principles into the home life. But if the teachers
are constant learners in the school of Christ, these circumstances will
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never conquer them.