Cure for Powerless Teachers

“A generation of adults who grew up uncomfortable asserting authority over children has produced teachers who have never learnt to control a classroom, a government adviser says. New teachers often have not been taught basic techniques for managing pupils’ behaviour because they were trained by people who were themselves uncertain how to go about it” (The Times, June 17, 2015).

“Many adults from the 1960s onwards have, understandably and rightly, questioned the relationship between adults and children and the right to be so prescriptive and authoritarian. Sadly, that necessary process of re-evaluation has led to a disintegration of an understanding of when adults do need to be adults” (ibid.). Today’s philosophy of teaching is so removed from reality that many teachers have forgotten that they are the adults who are in charge and who actually know what is best for the children they teach! In many classrooms today, children are actually allowed to be the “oppressors,” just as Isaiah prophesied they would be at the end of the age (Isaiah 3:12). However, all this is going to change when Jesus Christ returns to establish the Kingdom of God. Isaiah also prophesied, “Yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers. Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:20-21).

Children are a blessing from God (Psalm 127:3) and need to be guided in the right way. They are unable to know right and wrong unless they are taught. To learn how to raise children God’s way, be sure to read Successful Parenting: God’s Way.