I have really been struggling with my Sunday School students for the past...  well, at least 6 months.  They cut up and make inappropriate comments, etc.  They don't seem to be "getting it" most of the time. 

 

Today was especially frustrating.  A child, who has only been in my class once before, had his grandma's painkillers in his pocket and was offering them to the other children.  He was climbing under the table.  When we tried to talk to him about his behavior he crossed his arms in defiance, rolled his eyes and refused to talk to us. 

 

Meanwhile, I had students entering class all through class time...  one was 15 minutes late, a few minutes later another late student arrived...  then at the 30 minute mark two more children and then with only 20 minutes left to class 2 more students arrived.  This is so rude, in my opinion.  It is a weekly occurence.  I mean, I have to repeat and back up to accomodate late students continually.  It is not fair to me or to the students care to be on time (or their parents care to make sure they are on time.)

 

I have politely told students that I would rather they be late then not attend, but could they please work on being on time.  I know that they don't always have a say in the matter at their age, but I know these families would not dream of having their childen late for school everyday and my class starts at 9:15 AM...  roughly the same time our local public school starts each morning! 

 

Another thing...  I make journals for the children to use in class and they have been misusing them too.  They have been drawing evil faces, motorcycle crashes, people with snotty, runny noses, etc. 

 

I have been teaching this class for over 5 years and I am growing to hate it.  I love children and I love teaching, but I am not getting to teach at all...  I am just managing them.  I feel like a glorified zookeeper. 

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Posted by tiredmom

I know just how you feel and it is so frustrating to plan and prepare a lesson that is not taken serious and respected. Have you talked to other teachers? Maybe if they are experiencing the same thing you could have a "parent's meeting" and discuss appropriate behavior and why it's so important.

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Posted by Anonymous

Would you .. and your church leadership ... consider switching to an intergenerational class? We've done this for short periods (like over the summer, or a month or two) and it has worked really well. If you have a large room, you could set up tables and families could attend class together. A typical class that we've conducted has been set up like this:
* An opening activity in family groups such as poster-making to introduce a theme.
* A drama or puppet or dramatic reading of a Bible story, with everyone together.
* Splitting back into family groups to study, answer questions, do an activity, break down the lesson.
* Getting back together to share lessons learned, ideas, how to apply the lesson, and a closing game.
* Music can be incorporated.
* We often served breakfast to encourage people to get there on time (being sure to have someone assigned to put breakfast away when lesson time is starting).
Just a thought.
Blessings,
Barb

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Posted by MomAtHome

I didn't mean to post as Anonymous. If you have questions about intergenerational, let me know.

Barb

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Posted by AcceptanceWithJoy

I am so glad your trip went well and that you arrived safely. I hope your son is recovering from his bee sting. OUCH!

You have been faithful in praying for me. I will add your Sunday school responsibilities to my prayer list. I taught SS for years and years. I must admit, I was relieved when we relocated to Minnesota and the church had their SS staff in place.

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Posted by hugs4Him

Wow, how awful that is, & discouraging. I can imagine how difficult. How can one enjoy teaching with such behavior. Maybe you could speak to some authorities in your church & something could be said to the parents?

Thank you for visiting me & mentioning Primal Defense. We have used it in the past & it has caused yeast die off, but has not cured our candida issues at all. I don't think it's a long term solution, at least not for us. It may be a good idea if you don't have long term problems. We have too many issues right now & need more "work". Thanks again though & glad it helped you!

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Posted by

I am so sorry to hear about this. It is a lot of effort to get together a quality Sunday School lesson, and it's disheartening when the kids come there without much respect in their repetoire of behaviors. I'd definitely have a parent pow-wow. I was our Sunday School director for a few years, and folks weren't happy with me because I got sick and tired of this kind of behavior. I began to understand why I couldn't recruit SS teachers. I kept asking myself (and DH), "Is this what goes on in public schools? I wouldn't last 3 minutes in a classroom!"

Edited by eyecorn on Oct. 9, 2006 at 4:07 PM

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Posted by Jocelyndixon

I hope something had been done and he has been taken care by his parents/grandma and taught was is right in the Lord's sight! I hope to hear from you soon! Happy Fall! Nai haryuvalyë melwa rë (May you have a lovely day)

Sincerely,


Jocelyn

Check out my latest post:
Elven Cloak & Time .

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Posted by 3kids

Truo, i understand completely!

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Posted by nsremom

I loved reading your responses....I too am dismayed at the lack of respect shown in Sunday school recently.

I had a child recite a verse just last week and was instead talking in a silly voice and making faces. I stopped him cold by telling him that 'this is God's Word and we don't treat it with disrespect, because it's holy'. His eyes looked like they were going to pop out......imagine.....someone calling him on something?

shocking, truly shocking.

(he did the verse without as much as a smirk......he got the picture.)

I needed to work in the Sunday school to keep me focused on homeschool. My experience last week was that bad.

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Posted by JustGiveMeStarbucks

...this, from someone (me) who has also taught Sunday school:

1. Don't take their behavior personally.
2. PRAY!
3. Bring in reinforcements. Talk with your church's youth pastor about having some of the teens come in to help, even if it has to be one teen for every two or three children for a while (and make sure these are teens who are able to get the kids to obey them). If you have others there to help keep the peace, it will make your job of teaching much, MUCH easier and a lot less stressful.
4. Send a note home to the parents reminding them to get their children to Sunday School on time because learning God's word is so much FUN and you don't want them to miss a minute of it.

Praying for you,
Sally

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Posted by giggles3

It is truely sad what has become of our children...
We have some adults that stay outside the class rooms and keep there eye on things and if the kids are having problems or are making trouble they are taken out of the room and talked to and prayed with.
About the showing up late... Is there someone in charge of the whole children's ministry? Our children's ministry gets together every so often and talk about how things are going and what things need to be done and then the persons in charge of everything deal with putting out the rules.
Things seem to go very smoothly in our church by what I have seen.
I will pray that a change will take place in the hearts of the people.

And I am so glad that you are home and that all went well. I hope that your hubby will heal quickly and that your children will get back into the home schedule quickly also and will stop the fighting.

Have a wonderful week... Don't be discouraged the Lord will show you what to do. Stay strong.
Love,
Christina

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Posted by SheilaG

I find this one of the hardest parts of Sunday School and youth ministry. You want to be like Jesus and let in everyone from the highways and biways. But what if you do so and in the process the "good" kids, so to speak, start really losing out? You can't let one or two kids spoil it for everyone else, but on the other hand, those one or two kids really need to be there. How one handles these sorts of dilemmas I'll never figure out!

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