One of the toughest part of being a teacher is training the students to be disciplined by learning how to obey, and to obey right away.
A random thought about discipline came to me while we were discussing the various educational philosophies in our graduate class. “What is the best way to discipline children? What is the most effective technique to help them become disciplined?” (Ironically, these thoughts came to me when we were discussing about freedom in school and adults having equal rights with children). These thoughts (along with the challenges that we have with our students) motivated me to do an informal survey on understanding children's concept of obedience.
In one of the Grade 3 classes that I handled, they had a new set of rules given by their adviser (and because disciplining them has become more challenging than it was before when I was their adviser), I took the opportunity to know if: 1) they really understand why they obey or 2) why they want to obey these rules, if they even want to, or 3) if they even understand the whole point of having rules.
So I asked them to write on their notebook why they obey their parents and teachers. I told them to write their reasons and emphasized that there are no right or wrong reasons - just their own reasons. Here are some of their responses:
I obey because…
“…I love my family and teachers very much. I want to study hard (for my) family. I want to please God and love Him.”
“…I want to be with God.”
“…I love God and respect God’s creation that he made for us.”
“…It is for God and a way to go to heaven and when I grow and be a doctor, I will know medicine and cure for sickness.”
“…If we obey, we can learn something to teacher and it makes people smile.”
“…I love God, I love my parents, and I love the people who love me.”
“…I obey because I want to listen.”
“…God will be happy and will go to heaven.”
“…I praise God.”
“…I want to obey my parents.”
“…I want to learn a lof from school. I want to have the highest merits. My mom and dad paid for school. I want to
have free tuition fee. I want my teacher to say very good. I want to be a good student. I want to finish highschool. I
don’t want to waste the money that my mom and dad paid. I want to be a scientist.”
“…I love God and my parents. I don’t want God to punish me.”
“…Teacher said and my mom said that to obey because to glorify God.”
I will not give any conclusions about these data. I will let you ponder about these while you answer these questions:
• Do they really understand what obedience is and what it is for?
• Do they really understand what it means by glorifying God or praising God or are they just trained to answer this way because they study in a Christian school?
• Even if they have memorized in their mind Ephesians 2:8-9 (“for by grace are ye saved…not of works), do they really understand that good works are not a way to heaven? Or have we created a contradiction to this verse by overemphasizing obedience and discipline that they think it is a way to heaven or even a measure of Christianity?
• Why and how do we adults/teachers obey God? Are we able to manifest this to our students that they see in our lives what obedience is?
Let me go back to my original questions: “What is the best way to discipline children? What is the most effective technique to help them become disciplined? How do we teach them to obey?”
Any thoughts?