EDUCATION
DOING the right thing even when you don’t feel like it – that’s discipline.
That was not the opening line to some dry sermon but a thought from a religious instruction (RI) lesson at a Port Moresby secondary school three Mondays ago.
The teacher, Pastor Jeremiah Kavanagh had graciously permitted the writer to accompany him into the grade 12 class to observe.
The previous Monday the pastor-teacher and his class had discussed discipline and control; discipline in controlling what can be controlled and never trying to control that which is beyond an individual’s ability to control.
Time, age, other people’s attitudes, for instance, cannot be controlled, the class was told. Something that can be controlled is one’s own reaction to a situation or another person.
Discipline entailed pain and discomfort. But just like night is surely followed by radiant daylight, so is pain by ‘gain’ or good and favourable outcomes in the end.
The Grade 12 class at Gordon Secondary School went over those truths from a previous lesson as their RI teacher took them through another 40-minute class on that Monday morning. The period before the 10am recess.
The delivery from the young pastor-teacher, himself a father of teens in primary school, would have struck a chord with this class, especially the boys.
Having himself gone through a turbulent youth life, with ugly experiences with peer pressure, illicit alcohol and drugs, Jeremiah approaches his classes with telling zeal and commitment. With all in his human capability and prayers for divine intervention to take over where he cannot venture, he tries to instil Christian values in whatever classroom his steps into.
The man of Mekeo (Central) and Finschhafen (Morobe) parentage goes on a weekly circuit around several primary and secondary schools in the city with a team of other equally dedicated teachers delivering RI lessons.
On that Monday, like in the past, Jeremiah was joined by others who had all bussed to Gordon Secondary School from various suburbs of the city.
There were, besides him, other pastors or lay people willing to share the gospel and help shape young minds in schools – like Christine Sampson, Pastor Malachi Tom and William Willie, among others. All are volunteer teachers of religious instruction which is now part of the Citizenship and Christian Values Education (CCVE) syllabus.
The leader of this team of volunteers is Pastor William Willie, a veteran of religious instruction in Port Moresby and Central schools.
His ministry spans nearly 30 years. He has preached, strummed his played his guitar in singalongs, counselled, prayed, rejoiced at students’ success, and held hurting young people.
A teenager falling pregnant and chastised by family had a willing and caring ear to pour out her heart to. Troubled young men distracted from their studies by peer pressure or drugs and alochol had mellowed under his guidance.
Years later some would come up to him to thank him or simply remind him of the impact he had on their lives.
There was Christian Sampson, a mother who felt called to this work. And there was Ps Malachi Tom who Ps Jeremiah loves to work alongside because of his strength of character and conviction in what he does.
Malachi has been doing this for over two decades and Christine for 15 years.
William the veteran, it seems, grows younger with each passing year as new needs and trends arise with each new group of teens in primary and secondary schools.
He and his team have to be creative with ideas on how to tackle those matters confronting each generation of students.
After these many years, William has not grown weary, and, God forbid that the knees would grow weak before time!
This is volunteering in religious education Port Moresby style.
Teachers are strictly non-denominational, meaning they try not to push any particular church doctrine but make the best use of the hour or 40-minutes to instil practical everyday principles that should guide students today and accompany them wherever they go as independent adults later in life.
They use whatever theological or ministry training they have acquired in their churches and volunteer to teach the students. Some have been ordained, while others are simply following a call to serve in this area.
If the church is not involved in the training of young minds, there is a grave danger in letting other influences into the lives of young people.”
Religious education has been incorporated into a bigger syllabus of Citizenship and Christian Values Education (CCVE). A couple of church denominations have already aligned their teaching guides with this curriculum and trained their teachers, whether full time or laymen volunteers to teach the curriculum.
The United Church, for instance, had engaged a curriculum officer from the Department of Education to train some of their volunteer teachers to work with Port Moresby schools in 2019.
Speaking after that training the curriculum development officer remarked that teachers, regardless of whether they are religiously trained, they are trained teachers and would have to teach the given curriculum.
In the case of volunteer teachers like Jeremiah, William, Malachi, Christine, and others, they are yet to be trained to align what they do to the official Department of Education CCVE curriculum.
And besides training, they would obviously also need practical assistance and or recognition for what they do, which is happily endorsed and accepted by school administrations and importantly students.
Some of these volunteer teachers have been drawn to this ministry because of a very strong conviction for the young people. Coming from troubled backgrounds and later saved by the grace of God from letting their lives from spiralling dangerously into crime and self-harm, these volunteers feel they have a message for the youth in classrooms.
William had a rough upbringing but drew motivation mainly from active participation in sports such as volleyball which would set him on a path of discipline, team bonding and caring for others. As a young man he mentored kids.
He finds a lot of personal joy and pleasure in seeing those young people grow up and play sports or become professionals in various fields.
“Kids today are not as open to receive lessons and Bible-based messages as those in the past,” Ps William points out.
“Besides, there are also larger classes of students to deal with (some over 60 students). Some do not have personal Bibles. We find out from these classes that unlike in past years or decades, today only about five or 10 students out of a class of 40 would have Bibles.”
Some of the youth are out of church because mum and dad are not in church either.
“If the church is not involved in the training of young minds, there is a grave danger in letting other influences into the lives of the young people. Churches should send workers into schools and there should be funding support for those workers,” Ps William said.
“What we do now is all voluntary, and we pay for our own travel, materials and associated needs,” he added.
The volunteers also have built trust among their students who occasionally confide in them some of their darkest and closely guarded worries. Drugs, alcohol, and gang/cult activities feature prominently among troubled youths.
There has been a case or two of students taking their own lives. Teens falling pregnant have sought guidance and counsel from the volunteer teachers.
While it is purely voluntary work, the families of these men and women have to be commended for letting them spend hours away from doing that would bring in material returns to their families. But they continue doing it because it has to be done.
“He is fully behind what I do,” Christine says of her husband.
The costs incurred by these volunteers and their families is a challenge because in a week they visit more than one school. The demand in schools for RI teachers is high.
The group of teachers would also like to reach out to other groups or ministries such as Scripture Union which has been working with high school and college students for years now.
Despite their willingness to offer religious instruction in schools, the volunteers are not always welcome or expected in all schools.
“Some schools have closed their doors to us,” one teacher said.
Church agency schools have a distinct advantage as they have dedicated teachers for RI.
Various denominations have their children be trained in religious education or citizenship values by teachers from within their denominations, which is understandable and is encouraged.
However, it is clear that whoever is responsible for teaching citizenship and Christian values matters less than actually doing it.
It is a critical subject at this critical juncture in national and global history with competing value systems being fostered and promoted aggressively through the use of the internet and artificial intelligence.
The mind of the child in school is fertile ground and whatever is sown grows and produces a “harvest” in time, whether it is “wheat” or “tares”.
Picture today’s students growing up to be responsible, productive, morally strong adult citizens of tomorrow as wheat.
Port Moresby’s volunteer RI teachers are, therefore, like watchful gardeners helping to ensure that only good seed is sown and/or tended in young minds.
