A few days ago I attended a presentation by Rev. C. Vermeulen, titled “The other 16 hours”, to a large gathering of John Calvin School teachers (including teachers’ aides). The number 16, he said, is arbitrary; he understands teachers do not spend a fixed number of hours at school and that they often spend many hours on school related work in the evenings. The point he wished to make was that what teachers do outside of the classroom, in their daily walk of life, can and does have a direct or indirect bearing on the classroom teaching.
We are all aware, he said, that our teaching is related to our three-fold office of prophet, priest and king (LD 12). Preparing our children for that three-fold office directs our teaching. We also remember that Psalm 78 speaks about passing onto the coming generations the great deeds of the LORD. Children need to learn who God is and about His great deeds in history.
That three-fold office, which as members of Christ we share with Him, is not a part-time task; as a full-time office it embraces every moment of our life. As it says in Colossians 1: “all things were created by Him and for Him”. Since that is so, we are to live a reformed life in which we confess Christ, dedicate ourselves to Him, rule over all He has given us and fight against sin and Satan.
As teachers we keep that all-of-life office in mind. We also keep in mind, said Rev. Vermeulen, that there is a unique bond between teachers and children since we belong to the same church, the same covenant community. That bond affects our concern for the children. It involves more than merely instructing children in the classroom teaching but involves a nurturing in the ways of the Lord. And since all of life is to be dedicated to the Lord, the way we live as teachers will impact our teaching. Indeed, the teacher’s whole walk of life has ramifications for the education at school.
For example, if as teacher I live responsibly in my financial matters, by following the biblical injunction to be a good steward of what God has entrusted to me, I will reflect that in the way I formulate questions in Maths. The norms I apply in daily life, said Rev. Vermeulen, channel naturally into the lessons. For we want the children, too, to be good stewards of the money entrusted to them.
That applies, too, to the way we interact in the communion of saints, he added. The degree to which we show hospitality, strive to have upbuilding conversations, promote the truth and expose false arguments (also in our writing in journals like Una Sancta) in accordance with God’s Word, is the degree to which we will appreciate the importance of equipping the children with all they need to do these things too. That’s particularly applicable to the English teachers. But just as a solid grasp of the English language is basic for learning and communication across various disciplines, so the way we interact with others in our personal life outside of the classroom is foundational for our teaching.
Likewise, living as godly citizens in our community is also an obligation that we adults have and affects the reformed behaviour we want to nurture in the children. For example, the calling to respect those in authority includes paying our taxes and reflecting in various ways our thankfulness for what God gives us. That is something that would lend itself particularly to the subject HASS (Humanities and Social Science) but also to Business and other subjects.
Indeed, all of life is to be looked at through the lens of Scripture, said Rev. Vermeulen, and as teachers we are looking at how we can pass this on to the children. That includes our pleasures, sport, entertainment and those things we find beautiful. All must be viewed through the spectacles of Scripture. Scripture says: “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Phil. 4:8). If we do this in the light of God’s Word, it follows that we will also impart in our lessons these values to the children.
Of course, the converse is also true. If, for example, we were to show appreciation for rock concerts it would have a dangerous rub-off effect on the children, even if we find the lyrics sufficiently vague not to be offensive. Rev. Vermeulen drew attention to a recent article in The Australian by the rock musician Bob Geldorf who said that the message was conveyed not only by the words but also by the rock music itself. Looking back on the decades of rock concerts he remarked that, “With the code of rock ’n’ roll, you didn’t have to understand the words; it was so primal that the noise was an articulated howl of ‘no’. Just ‘no’.” Implied was a rejection of societal norms. The music itself conveyed a message of revolution.
We all know that we are called to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”. In Matthew 28 Jesus tells His disciples to go into the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that He has commanded. Therefore we support the mission work funded by the churches. Said Rev. Vermeulen: show the students why it’s important. Draw it out in the classroom. Seeking the kingdom of God also comes out in our families when, where God allows it, we are fruitful and multiply. Having children, godly offspring, grows the kingdom of God. That is so at odds with today’s self-centred secular mentality.
And another thing to do in those 16 hours when we’re not teaching is to read widely to develop our thinking, to see the seriousness of what we are doing as teachers. We are equipping our students in today’s environment in which there is so much focus on ‘woke’ ideology. Students need to be prepared to live in that world. One useful book in regard to this is The Air We Breathe, by Glen Scrivener; it shows clearly that so called modern values, assumed by all to be obvious and universal, actually have their roots in the Bible – things like equality, compassion, consent, enlightenment, science, freedom, progress. The lamentable thing is, said Rev. Vermeulen, that secular society has divorced these terms from their Biblical roots, their Scriptural norms. Think of words like equality, compassion and consent; when used to promote homosexuality or transgenderism, such words no longer uphold their biblically normative meaning. Students therefore need to see how the use of these words have the right meaning only when linked back to Scripture, and need to be used in the service of the King who gave them to us. When they are removed from their scriptural roots they may sound acceptable but are in fact revolutionary.
That spirit of revolution is also exposed in Logan Lancing’s book The Queering of the American Child which shows how children are learning to be radical gender activists. The writer says that to ‘queer’ something is to challenge the idea that something is normal. We know that ‘normal’ contains the word ‘norm’ and that norms are to be based on God’s Word. In American schools, however, children are taught to challenge that which is normal. We reformed people, on the other hand, need to teach children what is truly Scripturally based normal.
And one of the things that is normal is simply the decency of the ordinary daily life of faithful Christians. Rev. Vermeulen illustrated this with a painting of Pieter de Hooch. It showed a mother and her daughter beside their home. There is nothing extraordinary about it, but it illustrates the dignity and decency of ordinary life. We too should not be ashamed of the ordinary things in life such as praying before our meals, singing psalms, reading the Bible. In relation to this, Rev. Vermeulen urged the teachers to continue having the children learn their psalms and not to replace this practice with the learning of texts.
Summing up his speech, Rev. Vermeulen said that a teacher’s life is to be godly in all its aspects and reiterated how such a walk before God in all faithfulness in “the other 16 hours” impacts the “8 hours” of education given at school. He also encouraged teachers to read widely and carefully from good books, including those from the past, to test the spirits, to be aware of dangerous influences and of how those dangers can be exposed.
At the conclusion he passed around the following three questions for the teachers to discuss briefly in their small groups:
- Go around the group, and get each person to first answer question a, and then do the same for question b.
- Share something that you have learned over the holidays – from reading, from a podcast, from something in nature, from becoming more deliberate in some aspect of Christian living, that you will be able to use in your teaching.
- Share something that you have picked up that might be useful for someone in another area of teaching and explain why.
- Life is busy and there are many things calling on our time. How will you develop further? How will you keep honing your worldview and living according to it? Discuss strategies you might employ.
- Any other discussion about the speech.
I found Rev. Vermeulen a passionate and vibrant speaker; he certainly held my rapt attention throughout his presentation. If, also in “the other 16 hours”, teachers and teachers’ aides take very seriously that three-fold office given them in Christ (LD 12), it cannot but impact the way they prepare the children for that three-fold office which, like us, they are so wonderfully privileged to share. Although the message was addressed to teaching staff, the principle applies just as much to all adults who seek, as we all must, the glory of God and His kingdom, and who therefore sincerely want the coming generations, too, to know God and to walk thankfully in His ways.