Detention Duty

Over Christmas break I thought a lot about the nukumach behavior of my students. Why don’t they hate it when they do wrong? Why don’t they try to always do right? Why do they not understand punishment for when they do wrong? Well, I decided one of the answers to that last question is – me. For the most part, I’m a softy and I want my “precious” students to love me and I’ll love them and we’ll just be one big happy family in the classroom where everyone does their work happily, always praising each other for each person’s accomplishments. Okay, well it took me, probably, well, maybe one day to figure out last year that that just isn’t the way things work – anywhere. But I’ve been praying to be consistent in my discipline. Yesterday alone I put twenty kids on detention. Why? They were breaking school rules – chewing gum in class, eating in class, drinking soda in class, tardy, not wearing their uniform, leaving class without permission, speaking Chuukese excessively (which means not doing their work and distracting others), doing work for other classes before doing mine, having a cell phone operating during class, and the list goes on.

Well, I have the God-ordained task of Thursday detention duty this month. Most of the time, we make them write something over and over again in detention. Today, it was Romans 13:1-2 in Chuukese. Depending on how many reasons they had listed next to their name for being in detention constituted the number of times they had to write the verses. Seems fair enough to me. All they have to do is come in after school, write as quickly as they can, and then they can leave, be finished, go home. 50% of those students spent the majority of the first 30 minutes trying to say that they weren’t guilty, it wasn’t right, when did they do that, “no, miss” or “it’s excused.” They don’t get let off the hook, if they don’t do what I ask (or don’t show up, for that matter) their name is taken to Vice and harsher punishment inflicted. I always, always, always try to convince them to just do it and not get mad and not waste their time arguing but just do it and be done with it.

So let’s zero in on Peter. For the most part, when he does his work he’s a high C/low B student and does fine. It’s when he refuses to do his work. And, it’s not just that, because obviously I cannot make anyone do work, but if he’s (for whatever reason) refusing to do work that means he’s distracting other students, talking in Chuukese (which most of the time results in peals of laughter and pointed fingers in my direction), and being so distracting that I can’t even teach the students that want to learn or at least are willing to give it a try. Last semester, Peter said he hated me. After Emily talked to him, he did sort of revoke his comment. Back to this afternoon and Peter in detention. About ten minutes into it he comes over and starts complaining about the assignment and a sign falls into my lap – “You are a bad teach!” (I don’t even realize the bad grammar until afterwards when I was showing it to Director.) For a few moments, I was in my own world – I can’t even begin to tell you all the thoughts that passed through my mind – and I wanted to weep. I wanted to cry for so many different reasons. I kept my tears in check, though, and was back to the task at hand. An hour and ten minutes after school ended, Peter was the only one left on detention and he had written only a portion of the verse on his paper, not even covering two lines. I went down to the office. I explained to Director the situation, again wanting to cry. About ten minutes later, Peter came into the office looking resigned to his judgment. He paid the penalty and left. I left shortly thereafter disheartened and sad.

A few hours later…
*knock, knock, knock* I open the door of our little home and there stands Peter. “Miss, I wanted to say I’m sorry for the way I have behaved in your class.” I didn’t know what to say. Em and I invited him in and we talked for a little bit. “We love you, Peter.” With hand on his forehead and a slight smile, I heard those beloved words repeated back, “I love you too.”

I don’t know what caused Peter to come up and apologize but at least he did. And at least he admitted to his wrong which is a huge first step for so many of these kids. …And now I’m finally crying because of God’s goodness.

Please, pray for tomorrow.

Note: In relation to Em’s post on the Ideal Student, I have to say that I understand cultural differences. Well, no, I don’t actually understand them, I am just aware that they exist. However, my goal is to teach – whether speech, New Testament, English, that you must trust in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life, or discipline. Not because they have to be disciplined in the exact same way as an American suburban high school but so they learn how to have discipline – which the Lord says is a very good and necessary thing. In fact, the thing that really made me lock down on the rules was the very fact that so many of these kids don’t see their need for salvation because they simply have no understanding of punishment – let alone eternal judgment. Why can’t they talk their way out of it or, even worse, smile their way out of it? But eternity is not something to fool around with and my students first must recognize that there is punishment for wrong, no matter how seemingly small. And breaking the school rules is wrong, no matter how trivial you think those rules are. They are not the rule givers. And in the grand scheme of the Gospel, God is the Rule Giver. I pray that this learning of punishment for wrong will result in a better understanding of the Gospel and softened hearts for their desperate need of the only Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.