School Daze part 2

"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good."  Proverbs 15:3

Back in 1982 when I was student teaching in Elm Mott, as I mentioned in my last post, I learned a little trick.  When the supervising teacher left the room, even though her eyes were not on me, her ears were still listening.  Not only that, but sometimes the principal, Mr. Friend, and the office staff were listening as well.

Thinking about it now, it's a scary thought that I might have changed my tone and attitude once I believed I was alone with the students.  One time I did change my approach and launched into an impromptu sermonette as soon as Miss Webb left the room.

The third graders had become too familiar with me and were becoming lax in their respect and obedience.  That day in particular, they seemed to have taken control when I lost it.  When I was alone with them, I propped myself up on the teacher's desk and began to talk in a low voice, requiring a quiet room so they could hear me, and neighboring teachers could not.

My sermon's topic was authority.  I lamented with them that as children they were under the authority (also protection) of many people - parents, teachers, policemen, etc.  Then I outlined their responsibility and obligation to respect, obey, and make their authority figures "look good" by showing honor.  "It's not just doing what they say, but doing what you know they would want you to do even when they are not watching," I clarified.

Then I outlined how the chain of authority works.  They are under me, I am under the supervising teacher, Miss Webb, Miss Webb is under the principal, Mr. Friend, and Mr. Friend is under the superintendent, Mr. Peoples, who is under the school board, who is under the Board of Education.

By making me look good, I explained, they in turn are making all my authority figures look good.  From there we explored ways we might go above and beyond the norm to do what we know these people would want us to do.  Then we took five minutes to tidy up the room the way we knew Miss Webb would appreciate.  After that I quickly returned to the lesson I was supposed to be teaching.  The time was redeemed with good behavior and attitudes for a long time.

In the cafeteria and on the playground, Miss Webb's third grade class was the ideal class with cheerful, quiet, appreciative students who went out of their way to clean up after themselves (a suggestion I might have hinted at in my sermonette).  I'll never forget how the boys and girls grinned with pride when Mr. Friend came in the cafeteria and remarked about how well behaved they were.

It wasn't until the end of the semester as Miss Webb and Mr. Friend were filling out my evaluation forms that they confided that they had in fact heard my entire sermon from the intercom in the office, and how they had cheered my ingenuity.  "Best student teacher lesson of the year!"  Boy was I ever glad I hadn't simply yelled at the rowdy kids and complained that they were going to force me to flunk my student teaching!

Oh that I would remember this lesson and always be on my best behavior, knowing that God is ever watching and listening and even discerning my heart attitude.  I wish I had done a better job instilling this lesson in my own children, helping them to daily strive to make God look good, giving Him honor and glory.

With my own kids, I appealed to their pride, which wasn't always the best approach.  I even used to bribe them to "look good" by offering some reward if they could get a total stranger to remark about how well behaved they were.  It worked, too!  We'd go out to a restaurant, and more often than not, a stranger would stop by our table and comment about what a well-behaved bunch we had.  I miss those days of traveling around with my whole "class" - seven kids trying to make Jim and me look good.  Such vanity in that, but somehow I hope God was still honored.