Positive Expectations of Students

I am currently reading Harry Wong's "The First Days of School."  (Thank the OHC education department.)  In  the first section Wong highlights three qualities of "the effective teacher."  On is that the effective teacher has positive expectation for students.   These positive expectations are important because students will rarely rise above the teacher’s expectations of them.  Too many students have been left behind by teachers who don't think that they are capable of reaching a higher standard. 

   I think that as a Christian teacher this is even more important and takes another dimension.  For the worldly teacher these positive expectations come from a belief in the basic goodness of man.  To the effective worldly teacher, the student can succeed because of an inner resilience or smartness that he must be inspired to access.  The Christian teacher realizes that merely helping the student look within for an inner genius is counterproductive.  She believes that the student is dependent on Jesus for any true success.  She also knows that God has given the student abilities capable of vast improvement and that the goals that God has for the student are higher than the highest human thought can reach.  The student can be inspired with the thought that they may reach a high standard by taking hold of the strength of Jesus. 

 

As this standard is higher than the worlds standard, and the student is not limited to human power to achieve it, the Christian teacher must have even higher expectations of her students than the worldly teacher.   

 Consider the following statements.   

“In the common walks of life there is many a toiler patiently treading the round of his daily tasks, unconscious of latent powers that, roused to action, would place him among the world's great leaders. The touch of a skillful hand is needed to arouse and develop those dormant faculties. It was such men whom Jesus connected with Himself, and He gave them the advantages of three years' training under His own care. No course of study in the schools of the rabbis or the halls of philosophy could have equaled this in value”.  Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students p. 511 

“Many who are qualified to do excellent work accomplish little because they attempt little. Thousands pass through life as if they had no great object for which to live, no high standard to reach. One reason for this is the low estimate which they place upon themselves. Christ paid an infinite price for us, and according to the price paid He desires us to value ourselves.   Be not satisfied with reaching a low standard. We are not what we might be, or what it is God's will that we should be. God has given us reasoning powers, not to remain inactive, or to be perverted to earthly and sordid pursuits, but that they may be developed to the utmost, refined, sanctified, ennobled, and used in advancing the interests of His kingdom."  Ministry of Healing p. 498

I pray that my students will know that I believe in God and in His plan for them.  I pray that not one will be left to feel that their case is hopeless, but will recognize that they can not only be a better English student, but an effective and powerful worker for Jesus.