Chapter thirty four. The under teacher discipline, train admonish, and courage,
be long suffering. One of the first lessons a child needs to learn is
the lesson of obedience. Before he is old enough to reason, he may
be taught to obey by gentle, persistent effort. The habit should be established.
Thus, to a great degree may be prevented those later conflicts between will
and authority that do so much to create alienation and bitterness towards parents and teachers,
and too often resistance of all authority, human and divine. The object
of discipline is the training of the child for self government. He should be
taught self reliance and self control. Therefore, as soon as he is capable
of understanding his reason should be enlisted on the side of obedience. Let all
dealing with him be such as to show obedience to be just and reasonable.
Help him to see that all things are under law, and that disobedience leads
in the end to disaster and suffering. When God says thou shalt not,
he in love warns us of the consequences of disobedience in order to save us
from harm and loss. Help the child to see that parents and teachers are
representatives of God, and that as they act in harmony with Him, their
laws and the home and the school are also His. As the child is
to render obedience to parents and teachers, so they in turn are to render
obedience to God. To direct that the child's development, without hindering it by
undue control, should be the study of both parent and teacher. Too much
management is as bad as too little. The effort to break the will of
a child is a terrible mistake. Minds are constituted differently. While force may
secure outward submission, the result with many children is a more determined rebellion of
the heart. Even should the parent or teacher succeed in gaining the control he
seeks, the outcome may be no less harmful to the child. The discipline
of a human being who has reached the years of intelligence should differ from the
training of a dumb animal. The beast is taught only submission to its master.
For the beast, the master is mind, judgment, and will.
This method, sometimes employed in the training of children makes them little more than
automatons. Mind, will conscience are under the control of another. It is
not God's purpose that any mind should be thus dominated. Those who weaken or
destroy individuality assume a responsibility that can result only in evil. While under authority,
children may appear like well drilled soldiers, but when the control ceases,
the character will be found to lack strength and steadfastness. Having never learned to
govern himself, the youth recognizes no restraint except the requirement of parents or teacher.
This removed, he knows not how to use his liberty, and often
gives himself up to indulgence that proves his ruin. Since the surrender of the
will is so much more difficult for some pupils than for others, the teacher
should make obedience to his requirements as easy as possible. The will should be
guided and molded, but not ignored or crushed. Save the strength of the
will. In the battle of life, it will be needed. Every child
should understand the true force of the will. He should be led to see
how great is the responsibility involved in this gift. The will is the governing
power in the nature of man, the power of decision or choice. Every
human being possessed of reason has power to choose the right and every experience of
life. God's word to us is choose you this day whom ye will serve.
Every One may place his will on the side of the will of God,
may choose to obey him, and by thus linking himself with divine agencies,
he may stand where nothing can force him to do evil. In every
youth, every child lies the power, by the help of God, to
form a character of integrity and to live a life of usefulness. The parent
or teacher, who, by such instruction trains the child to self control,
will be the most useful and permanently successful. To the superficial observer. His
work may not appear to the best advantage, it may not be valued so
highly as that of the one who holds the mind and will of the child
under absolute authority, but after years will show the result of the better method
of training. The wise educator, in dealing with his pupils, will seek
to encourage confidence and to strengthen the sense of honor. Children and youth are
benefited by being trusted. Many, even of the little children, have a
high sense of honor. All desire to be treated with confidence and respect,
and this is their right. They should not be led to feel that they
cannot go out or come in without being watched suspicion to moralize, producing the
very evils it seeks to prevent. Instead of watching continually as if suspecting evil,
teachers who are in touch with their pupils will discern the workings of the
restless mind and will set to work influences that will counteract evil. Lead the
youth to feel that they are trusted, and there are few who will not
seek to prove themselves worthy of the trust. On the same principle, it
is better to request than to command. The one thus addressed has opportunity to
prove himself loyal to right principles. His obedience is the result of choice,
rather than compulsion. The rules governing the schoolroom should, so far as possible,
represent the voice of the school. Every principle involved in them should be
so placed before the student that he may 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. Rules should be few and well considered, and once
made, they should be enforced. Whatever it is found impossible to change.
The mind learns to recognize and adapt itself too, But the possibility of indulgence
induces desire hope and uncertainty, and the results are restlessness, irritability, and
insubordination. It should be made plain that the government of God knows no compromise
with evil. Neither in the home nor in the school should disobedience be tolerated.
No parent or teacher who has at heart the well being of those under
his care will compromise with the stubborn self will that defies authority or results to
subterfuge or evasion in order to escape obedience. It is not love but sentimentalism
that palters with wrong doing, seeks by coaxing or bribes to secure compliance,
and finally accept some substitute in place of the thing required. Fools make a
mock at sin, we should be aware of treating sin is light thing terrible.
Its power over the wrong doer. His own iniquity shall take the wicked
himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. The
greatest wrong done to a child or youth is to allow him to become fastened
in the bondage of evil habit. The youth have an inborn love of liberty.
They desire freedom, and they need to understand that these inestimable blessings are
to be enjoyed only in obedience to the law of God. This law is
the preserver of true freedom and liberty. It points out and prohibits those things
that degrade and slave, and thus to the obedient it affords protection from the
power of evil. The Psalmist says, I will walk at liberty, for
I seek Thy precepts. Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
In our efforts to correct evil, we should guard against a tendency to be
fault finding or censure. Continual censure bewilders but does not reform. With many
minds, and often those of the finest susceptibility, an atmosphere of unsympathetic criticism
is fatal to effort. Flowers do not unfold under the breath of a blighting
wind. A child, frequently censured for some special fault, comes to regard
that fault as his peculiarity, something against which it is vain to strive.
Thus are created discouragement and hopelessness, often concealed under an appearance of indifference or
bravado. The true object of reproof is gained only when the wrong doer himself
is led to see his fault and his will is enlisted for its correction.
When this is accomplished, point him to the source of pardon and power.
Seek to preserve his self respect, and to inspire him with courage and hope.
This work is the nicest, the most difficult ever committed to human beings,
requires the most delicate tact, the finest susceptibility, a knowledge of human
nature, and a heaven bore faith in patience, willing to work and watch
and wait. It is a work than which nothing can be more important.
Those who desire to control others must first control themselves. To deal passionately with
a child or youth will only arouse his resentment. When a parent or teacher
becomes impatient and is in danger of speaking unwisely, let him remain silent.
There is wonderful power in silence. The teacher must expect to meet perverse dispositions
and obdurate hearts, but in dealing with them, he should never forget that
he himself was one's a child in need of discipline. Even now, with
all his advantages of age, education, and experience, he often errs and
is in need of mercy and forbearance in treating the youth. He should consider
that he is dealing with those who have inclinations to evil similar to his own.
They have almost everything to learn, and it is much more difficult for
some to learn than for others. With the dull pupil, he should bear
patiencely, not censuring his ignorance, but improving every opportunity to give him encouragement.
With sensitive, nervous pupils should deal very tenderly. A sense of his
own imperfection should lead him constantly to manifest sympathy and forbearance towards those who also
are struggling with difficulties. The Saviour's rule, as ye would that men should
do to you, do ye also to them. Likewise should be the rule
of all who undertake the training of children in youth. They are the younger
members of the Lord's family, heir with us of the grace of life.
Christ's rules should be sacredly observed toward the dullest, the youngest, the most
blundering, and even toward the erring and rebellious. This rule will lead the
teacher to avoid, so far as possible, make ye public the falter or
errors of a pupil. He will seek to avoid giving reproof or punishment in
the presence of others. He will not expel a student until every effort has
been put forth for his reformation. But when it becomes evident that the student
is receiving no benefit himself, while his defiance or disregard of authority tends to
overthrow the government of the school, and his influence is contaminating others, then
his expulsion becomes a necessity. Yet with many the disgrace of public expulsion would
lead to utter recklessness and ruin. In most cases, when removal is unavoidable,
the matter need not be made public by counsel and cooperation with the parent,
let the teacher privately arrange for the students withdraw in. This time a
special danger for the young. Temptations surround them on every hand, and while
it is easy to drift, the strongest effort is required in order to press
against the current. Every school should be a city of refuge for the tempted
youth, a place where their folly shall be dealt with patiently and wisely.
Teachers who understand their responsibilities will separate from their own hearts and lives everything that
would prevent them from dealing successfully with the willful and disobedient. Love and tenderness,
patience, and self control will at all times be the law of their
speech. Mercy and compassion will be blended with justice when it is necessary to
give reproof. Their language will not be exaggerated, but humble in gentleness.
They will set before the wrong door his errors and help him to recover himself.
Every true teacher will feel that, should he err at all, it
is better to err on the side of mercy than on the side of sovereignty.
Many youth who are thought incorrigible are not at heart so hard as they
appear. Many who are regarded as hopeless may be reclaimed by wise discipline.
These are often the ones who most readily melt under kindness. Let the teacher
gain the confidence of the tempted one, and by recognizing and developing the good
in his character, he can, in many cases correct the evil without calling
attention to it. The divine teacher bears with the erring through all their perversity.
His love does not grow cold, his efforts to win them do not
cease. With outstretched arms, he waits to welcome again and again the erring,
the rebellious, and even the apostate, his heart is touched with the
helplessness of the little child's subject to rough usage. The cry of human suffering
never reaches his ear in vain. Though all are precious in his sight,
the rough, sullen, stubborn dispositions draw most heavily upon his sympathy and love,
for he traces from cause to effect. The one who is most easily
tempted and is most inclined to error is especial object of his solicitude. Every
parent and every teacher should cherish the attributes of him who makes the cause of
the afflicted, the suffering, and attempted his own. He should be the
one who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of
the way, for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. Jesus treats
us far better than we deserve, and as he has treated us, so
we are to treat others. The course of no parent or teacher is justifiable
if it is unlike that which, under similar circumstances the Savior would pursue.
Beyond the discipline of the home and the school, all have to meet the
stern discipline of life. How to meet This wisely is a lesson that should
be made plain to every child and to every youth. It is true that
God loves us, that he is working for our happiness, and that if
his law had always been obeyed, we should never have known suffering. And
it is no less true that in this world, as the result of sin,
suffering, trouble burdens come to every life. We may do the children
and the youth a lifelong good by teaching them to meet bravely these troubles and
burdens. While we should give them sympathy, let it never be such as
to foster self pity. What they need is that which stimulates and strengthens,
rather than weakens. They should be taught that this world is not a parade
ground, but a battlefield. All are called to endure hardness as good soldiers.
They are to be strong and quit themselves like men. Let them be
taught that the true test of character is found in the willingness to bear burdens,
to take the hard place, to do the work that needs to be
done, though it bring no earthly recognition or reward. The true way of
dealing with trial is not by seeking to escape it, but by transforming it.
This applies to all discipline, the earlier as well as the latter.
The neglect of the child's earliest training and that consequent strengthening of wrong tendencies,
makes us after education more difficult, and causes discipline to be too often a
painful process. Painful it must be to the lower nature, crossing as it
does the natural desires and inclinations. But the pain may be lost sight of
in a higher joy. Let the child and the youth be taught that every
mistake, every fault, every difficulty conquered becomes a stepping stone to better and
higher things. It is through such experiences that all who have ever made life
worth the living have achieved success. The heights by great men reached and kept
were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept,
were toiling upward in the night. We rise by the things that are under
our feet, by what we have mastered of good or gain, by the
pride disposed and the passion slain and vanquished ills that we hourly meet, all
common things, each day's event, that with the hour begin an end.
Our pleasures and our discontents are rounds by which we may ascend. We are
too. Look not at the things which are seen, but at the things
which are unseen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the
things which are unseen are eternal. The exchange we make in the denial of
selfish desires and inclinations is an exchange of the worthless and transitory for the precious
and enduring. This is not sacrifice, but infinite gain. Something better is
the watchword of education, the law of all true living. Whatever Christ asks
us to renounce, he offers in its stead something better. Often the youth
cherish objects, pursuits, and pleasures that may not appear to be evil,
but that fall short of the highest good. They divert the life from its
noblest aim. Arbitrary measures are direct denunciation may not avail in leading these youths
to relinquish that which they dear. Let them be directed to something better than
display, ambition or self indulgence. Bring them in contact with truer beauty,
with loftier principles, and with nobler lives. Lead them to behold the one
altogether lovely. When once the gaze is fixed upon him, the life finds
its center, the enthusiasm, the generous devotion, the passionate ardor of the
youth find here their true object. Duty becomes a delight, and sacrifice,
a pleasure. To honor Christ, to become like him, to work for
him is the life's highest ambition and its greatest joy. The love of Christ
constraineth. End of Chapter thirty four.