It’s hard to believe that public school students in Shenandoah County will be heading back to their classrooms this coming week. As I reflect on my teaching years, I often wonder where my former students ended up. While I have remained in contact with several, others have slipped away. I’m especially curious about those who could be challenging at times and I’m sure many of them have become successful in spite of my attempts to “set them straight.”
In his book, The Breadbasket, Paul Brubaker writes about several individuals who were written off by their teachers as slow or ignorant. Napolean Bonaparte was not a great student graduating 42nd in a class of 43. Renowned Scottish poet and writer Sir Walter Scott was considered a moron by his teachers, and one of the greatest scientists of all time, Sir Isaac Newton, did so poorly in class that he was removed from school to do menial work.
American preacher Henry Ward Beecher powerfully moved congregations and audiences in the mid-1800s commanding respect few speakers have ever enjoyed. Yet during his schooling, one of his teachers reported that he was a poor writer and a miserable speller with a “thick utterance and reticence so great that he actually seems stupid.” What was that teacher’s name? We don’t know, but many of Beecher’s sermons can still be found online with all words spelled correctly.
No American classrooms today lack electric lights yet one teacher advised Thomas Edison’s parents to remove him from school and put him to work in the fields. While most teachers today are more positive about students’ abilities and potentials, I’ve heard some unsettling stories.
Not all students shine academically but all can succeed in the area that God has gifted and prepared them for. Each child is born with preloaded software to do certain things well. Given proper training and encouragement, some become excellent carpenters, masons, electricians, mechanics, or plumbers, all of which are vital for human thriving. Others are gifted in childcare, data entry, or accounting. Still others have aptitudes for relationships and flourish in counseling or human resource careers. One privilege and responsibility of parents is to help their children discover their gifts, develop them, and use them to glorify God.
Students are also preloaded with software for a relationship with their Creator. All children have a capacity for God and even a basic sense of right and wrong, both of which must be fostered and guided. They all have inborn capabilities to love and be loved and these too should be encouraged and developed by parents and teachers. I’m so thankful for many parents who are training their children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord and who are helping them establish and grow in their relationships with Jesus.
In Shenandoah County, parents of public and home school students can benefit from a partnership in these crucial areas. Bible Break provides 2nd-5th grade students with basic instruction about God’s love shown through Jesus Christ. Using the Bible as the main textbook, children learn how God wants them to live. Students are released 50 minutes each week and there is no cost for them to be transported to local sites where trained teachers love, guide, and instruct them. All WRE students receive free Bibles and workbooks chocked full of interesting lessons to help them grow in Jesus.
Parents can register their children for these free classes by going to www.biblebreak.org and clicking on Student Sign Up. The goal of the Shenandoah County Weekday Religious Education Association is for all students to establish and develop their relationships with Jesus and become all that God has created them to be. If readers would like to help fund these classes, checks can be mailed to SCWREA, PO Box 634, Woodstock or you can give online at Biblebreak.org. Join me in praying for all of our students, teachers, and administrators this school year! Blessings, George