The Teacher’s Religion
The inquiring teacher by this time may have asked, “What about a teacher’s religion?” A teacher should know his Bible, be a regular communicant of some church, and a Sunday School worker. Fanaticism must be avoided. But the sane and mellowing influence of religion has a great effect upon character. No teacher should make it a practice to inject his religious ideas into his school work. His every day life should indicate his obedience to the Master Teacher. He must not attack any religious denomination as that is not his province. Some child may be offended or over influenced by his views. The tenets of every child’s church are sacred to him and the teacher should not attack them. Often it is argued that a teacher should not teach a Sunday School class. If the teacher does not find it too great an addition to his already heavy work, there can be no good reason why he may not teach in the Sunday School.
It is well to discriminate carefully between a moral person and an apparently religious person. Too often it is assumed that a pious person is of necessity a safe moral guide. Sometimes unfortunately the teacher who appears religious is not morally sound.
True religion includes an approved morality. But, it must be understood that teaching religion does not necessarily indicate that good morals are being taught. The author does not mean to criticise the Sunday School, or even the Church—they are great and effective institutions—but they are failing to teach morals as they should. The school teacher has a great work to do at this point. The final admonition to the teacher is, have a standard moral code, live it, and in pointing others to it as a signboard of life, be sure to heed it always yourself.