Goal-Day 3 (sorry, I skipped day 2)

I often reflect on several different encounters I had with the parents of one of my students. On one occasion, the father had come to my classroom before school started for the day and in a nutshell wanted to know why I was putting his son in time-out so much (according to the student). I very calmly explained to him that in my classroom we are always talking about and practicing our rules and one of those rules is showing respect to others. I told him that if I saw people not showing respect they would be in time-out. His next line completely floored me: "I don't send my kid to school to learn respect." Now, Diane says that he probably didn't mean it as literally as I took it, but she also wasn't there to hear his tone of voice and she didn't know the whole context of the story.

The talk by Sister Margaret S. Lifferth from the Primary General Presidency brought me back to this very situation (and others) with this angry father. Her talked was focused on respect and reverence. One thing that stood out to me is her "appeal...to parents, teachers, and leaders to work together to teach, exemplify, and encourage the standards of respect and reverence that will strengthen our youth...." Even though her appeal was more focused toward a church worship setting, it has definitely validated my teaching of respect for others in a school setting. Other instances where this father treated me, Diane, and others very badly made me sad that his son wasn't learning from his father's example.

Something else I really enjoyed was how she stated that "reverent behavior is not a natural tendency for most children." Agreed. They have to learn it and sometimes it takes a VERY LONG TIME! "But it takes time, patience, and consistency. Remember that we are not only teaching a child his first lessons in reverence, but the child may be mastering his first attempts at self-discipline." I definitely said amen when Sister Lifferth finished her talk.

Ideas for teaching and exemplifying reverence: 1) "Love those in your class. Often the child who is the most disruptive needs your love the most." 2) "Take the time to explain what reverence is and why it is important." This is something that we are working on in our ward Primary. I missed a training meeting a few weeks ago that talked about reverence. It's just like the song: "Reverence is more than just quietly sitting; it's thinking of Father above." Instead of saying "Johnny you are sitting so reverently" we say "Johnny I love how you are sitting so still and listening." We do this because the quiet sitter might not be "thinking of Father above." Their mind might be elsewhere. So, during music time (hi, that's me!) and sharing time we try to show and explain that reverence is feeling the Spirit of the Lord and thinking about Jesus. I don't know if it's working, but as Sister Lifferth said, it takes "time, patience, and consistency." Maybe one day we will be blessed to see the effects of our teaching respect and reverence in our Primary (and our schools). I hope that I can be an example of respect for God and others so that my children may learn to do the same thing and learn what reverence really is.