Parents to Strengthen the Teacher's Hands The teacher should not be left to carry the burden of his work alone. He needs the sympathy, the kindness, the co-operation, and the love of every church member. The parents should encourage the teacher by showing that they appreciate his efforts. Never should they say or do anything that will encourage insubordination in their children. But I know that many parents do not co-operate with the teacher. They do not foster in the home the good influence exerted in the school. Instead of carrying out in the home the principles of obedience taught in the school, they allow their children to do as they please, to go hither and thither without restraint. And if the teacher exercises authority in requiring obedience, the children carry to their parents an exaggerated, distorted account of the way in which they have been dealt with. The teacher may have done only that which it was his painful duty to do; but the parents sympathize with their children, e…
"Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."
Both passages emphasize the importance of mutual support and encouragement within a community. While 1 Thessalonians 5:11 speaks generally about comforting and edifying one another, the EGW passage applies this principle to the specific context of parents supporting teachers.
"Sometimes there is in the school a disorderly element that makes the work very hard. Children who have not received a right education make much trouble, and by their perversity make the heart of the teacher sad. But let him not become discouraged. Test and trial bring experience. If the children are disobedient and unruly, there is all the more need of strenuous effort. The fact that there are children with such characters is one of the reasons why church schools should be established. The children whom parents have neglected to educate and discipline must be saved if possible. CT 153.1"
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Both passages deal with the training and upbringing of children. Proverbs 22:6 provides the general principle, while the EGW passage applies it specifically to the context of church schools and dealing with difficult children.
"In the school as well as in the home there should be wise discipline. The teacher must make rules to guide the conduct of his pupils. These rules should be few and well considered, and once made they should be enforced. Every principle involved in them should be so placed before the student that he will be convinced of its justice. Thus he will feel a responsibility to see that the rules which he himself has helped to frame are obeyed. CT 153.2"
"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
Both passages discuss the importance of discipline and its long-term benefits. Hebrews 12:11 speaks of the painful but ultimately righteous outcome of chastening, while the EGW passage applies this principle to the school setting, emphasizing the need for just and consistently enforced rules.