Teachers Talking
Talk 3 | Mess Management
Many people know exactly what you mean when you mention “the world of Star Wars.” The Star Wars trilogy depicts the adventures of characters, humans, aliens and robots living “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” A universe permeated by a mystical power known as the Force, an energy field that binds the galaxy together, depicted as a kind of pantheistic god. The power is wielded by two major knightly orders, the Jedi, the peacekeepers of the Galactic Republic who act on the light side of the force and the Darths who use the dark side, space craft and weaponry to manipulate by fear and aggression. Lightsabers and blaster firearms used in the military conflicts, the context in which most of the films take place. The heroism of Luke Skywalker is about sacrifices, friendship and loyalty. The fundamental ideas that permeate the universe are tales of hope, family, good versus evil and perseverance. The special effects and the music create a fantasy of unbridled imagination that children, since 1977, have entered into through watching the movies, reading the books and building LEGO models. This way of being in the world – “the words, concepts, symbols and narratives we use to make sense of our experience and to create patterns in our lives and thoughts” [1] embody a story about the kind of life this culture promotes for its inhabitants.
Author Charles Taylor called our understanding of our world as our social imaginary – “the ways in which they imagine their social existence, how they fit together with others, the expectations which are normally met and the deeper narrative notions and images which underlie these expectations.” [2] Our world then legitimatises common practices. Sometimes it seems like our children are aliens from another world to both their parents and teachers. Sometimes we cry out “Where did that come from?” when they act in certain ways. Rearing them to fit into the world of school can be an arduous task.
Let’s face it – life is messy, and we need to understand the world that our students inhabit. In our class there are many external factors that cause relationship and behavioural issues. Often there are undercurrents that enter our classrooms due to the students facing personal problems or breakdown in families and friendships. Some may have had a mean comment posted about them on Instagram. Competing voices vie for their attention, telling them that no one has the right to tell them what to do. The rise of a cultural pattern where authority is not respected, where victimhood is a position of default and where how I feel is more important than duty to do what is right, are shaping the world which our students inhabit.
In the Christian school, the class becomes a place where, in the midst of the daily realities of life, the students can experience the development of habits, practices and ways of thinking and acting that demonstrate a foretaste of God’s Kingdom, what it means to live a truly human life. It is important to realise that our students do not need our friendship, but they need us to be their teacher, a relationship that has specific boundaries. We can be friends when they leave school and become adults. What a joy it is when some return to school as teachers.
Discipline that nurtures will provide both positive and negative consequences for the choices students make. To love is to act in the most effective way to assist a child to grow as an image‑bearer. It is important to acknowledge and affirm a student’s achievements and actions that build up others. Having boundaries will guide a student to think and act in a wise way and this helps to drive out foolishness (Proverbs 22: 15). A good approach is to praise students in public and rebuke them in private if it requires more than a command to stop behaviour that is disrupting the class. It is important for students to learn personal responsibility and to learn the valuable lesson that they can choose their actions but they are not free to choose the consequences. For example, if a student steals or damages property, in age‑appropriate ways, it is important to find why they did this (their heart’s intent). A student needs to understand that when people steal, they break trust with the one whose property they stole, but they break trust in the community. It is not just about breaking a rule but involves breaking relationship with others. Consequences help the student to take personal responsibility for their attitudes and actions, and prevent a destructive pattern taking root in their lives. It is important to distinguish between events and patterns that require discipline. An event may require a warning or a simple consequence, whereas a pattern requires much more discipline. For example, a student who fails to wear their uniform correctly once, may need just a warning but a student who constantly disobeys the uniform standards has a pattern of disobedience and further discipline is needed. If many students are rejecting the school’s standards with no consequences, then patterns of disobedience are embedded in the school culture. Consequently the rules and the principles that give rise to them are perceived by students to really have no value.
Loving students often means giving them over to the consequences of their choices. The consequences will not necessarily change the heart attitude of the offending student, but it will indicate to them that their behaviour is not acceptable in a community where members are to love each other because ‘this is not how we do life around here’. Teachers need to implement a restorative process where relationships are broken. A student should have opportunity to own what was in their heart, to acknowledge damaging actions, to apologise to the teacher or student who was sinned against, as well as make restitution where needed. This process is an act of grace and mercy. One of the great gifts we can teach children in our current culture is to teach them how to handle conflict well.
May the Lord give you wisdom as you seek to embed these patterns of discipline where grace, justice, forgiveness and restoration of relationship are practised in your classrooms. Our students will be learning to inhabit the new creation where love of neighbour replaces self-centredness.
“Start children off on the way they should go and even when they are old, they will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22: 6)
Grace & Peace
The Excellence Team
[1] Christopher Watkin, Story, Biblical Critical Theory – How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life & Culture, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2022), 7
[2] Ibid P11