From the Editor
Welcome back! I hope that the new school year is off to an excellent start for you and your students. As always, there will be the usual mix of students, from those who are anxious to learn, to those who, for whatever reason, find school anything but exciting and are prepared to do everything possible to make school difficult for the teacher and fellow students.
These students who are turned off school become a real challenge for the teacher. I feel that the following prayer might make us a little more understanding and forgiving.
Teacher’s Prayer
O Heavenly Father, make me a better teacher. Teach me to understand my students, to listen patiently to what they have to say and to answer their questions kindly.
Keep me from interrupting or contradicting.
Help me to be as courteous to them as I want them to be to me.
Forbid that I should ever laugh at their mistakes or resort to shame or ridicule.
May I never punish them out of anger or spite or to show my power.
Help me, dear Lord, to demonstrate by all that 1 say and do that honesty does produce happiness.
Reduce, dear Lord, the meanness in me. And when 1 am out of sorts, help me to hold my tongue.
May I be ever mindful that my students are merely children, and that 1 should not expect them to have the maturity and judgment of adults.
Let me not rob them of the opportunity to do things for themselves or to make their own decisions.
Help me to be fair and just and kind Lord, so that I will earn their love and respect and they will want to imitate me. This is the supreme compliment.
Art Jorgensen
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