One of the American television networks is running a news series on the condition of American education. In one of the segments, the sordid story was told about the lack of classroom control in some schools. One teacher had been teaching for nine years but was so overwhelmed by what was happening in her classroom that she had to give up her job and undergo therapy. She simply could not cope with the disorder in her classroom. When on camera, the teacher appeared as an alert and intelligent person. Perhaps her standards and expectations were just too high for the classes she faced day after day. At any rate, she no longer could face a classroom of today’s children.
In an interview with another teacher on that same program, the teacher reported, somewhat hopelessly, that if she were able to teach even ten minutes of the fifty-minute class period, she felt she had had a successful class.
A hidden camera caught the disorder of another classroom. It did not take a doctoral degree in education for one to conclude that little or no positive education was taking place. It was also obvious that negative habits were being learned. As I viewed the disorder and dismay and sensed the hopelessness of the situation, I began to better understand the accelerated movement toward private schools. For some parents, private schools provide the only educational hope for their children.
One must stop to wonder about the future of a nation when one considers that its schools are sometimes unable to teach even the basic fundamentals to its children. How have nations like Japan and Russia advanced so rapidly while we seem to be losing long–held initiatives? Japanese students study math and science every year in junior and senior high school. They also attend school six days a week. What is more, on the elementary level, Japanese students are assigned much homework and are subjected to strict discipline.
Russian schools have a curriculum not too different from that in our schools. It is weighted heavily in Russian language, literature, mathematics, and history. The Russian school day is about one hour longer than is ours, at least in the upper grades. Although the same discipline problems exist as in some schools on this continent, much stronger methods of control are used and tolerated, and thus the learning environment is better controlled.
We know that efficient and effective learning cannot take place in a chaotic classroom. Educators and parents also know that the amount of learning that does take place is directly related to the serious time spent on the task. A child learns to spell, to play the piano, or to read at a speed commensurate with the time given to the task of learning. A child who spends five hours in school, but who works at learning only ten minutes will receive only ten minutes worth of learning.
One can readily see why a well-disciplined classroom is often a classroom where much learning is taking place. Learning takes place there because the children are busy with learning.
When Christian parents select a school for their children, they look for one that will serve their children’s spiritual needs. It must be a school where God is foremost and basic to all learning. A second criterion for selecting a school is one that creates an atmosphere for learning. Fortunately, most Christian schools have such an atmosphere. The teachers of most Christian schools view learning as serious business, as business concerned not only with one’s service to self or to mankind, but also as service to God. As for me and mine, that’s the kind of school I want for my children!
This article by the editor, Dr. Philip Elve, appeared in the October, 1981, Christian Home and School and is reprinted by permission.
