u/Handsome-Rutabaga

Vent/request for advice ahead ...

I've been teaching children's Sunday School for the better part of two decades. I'm good at it. Little kids learn scripture, know their way around the Bible, can tell you the general outline of Bible history, understand the gospel, and, yes, enjoy being there. Many parents have told me their kids love Sunday School and, well, me. I've seen the Spirit at work in these kids, and I love it ... I have loved it.

The past few years, it's gotten progressively rougher. The cultural shift in parenting styles + the cognitive effects of phones and tablets have hit the SS classroom. These kids are limited so much from their parents' low expectations. Parents believe their kids need constant distraction/entertainment/action. Kids show up to worship services with craft kits and art supplies. They make multiple trips to the bathroom. They constantly distract their parents. These are kids who I know are capable of sitting (mostly) still through a sermon, mostly listening, maybe drawing a picture about something they hear in the sermon, certainly singing. They're just not being trained to do any of this. It's heartbreaking. Parents believe it's not developmentally appropriate, or they've pathologized their own kids' natural squirminess, or they've been taught it's not *gentle* to direct their kids' behavior. These poor kids aren't learning to worship, to be fed by God's word. And I know they're capable! I've done it with my own kids, and I've seen many other parents do it with far more difficult kids than I had. Then they come to Sunday School--how can I possibly have higher expectations for engaging students in learning than what their parents are expecting during the worship service?

And now, it's not just the parents. It's other SS teachers. Every lesson has to be non-stop active engagement. Kids can't be expected to sit still, not even for 10 minutes. Kids can't be expected to listen when it's time to listen--to learn how to be fed from God's word. Asking a kid to sit still and without a fidget device is unthinkable. All the efforts at active learning, which certainly can be well done and useful, are allowed to go completely off the rails. Kids spend 45 minutes with us and leave having no idea what the lesson was about. The kids whose parents haven't given into such laissez-faire parenting styles are overwhelmed by other kids' behavior. Some of them stop coming altogether because they can't handle the chaos that teachers are permitting.

When it's my turn to be in charge, honestly, things go better. The other teachers comment on how enthralled the kids were by the 10-minute storytime. We do activities that are fun, or at least engaging, and the kids actually do them and learn stuff. They spend time finding Bible verses. They mostly rise to the occasion. And then it all unravels the next time another teacher is in charge. Chaos.

... OK ... that was the rant part. I'm on the cusp of deciding that my time is up; time for the next generation to take over. Maybe my ideas about parenting and teaching are hopelessly out of date. Maybe I'm just plain wrong. I'm certainly prideful and judge-y (see above).

Short of giving up, what can I do? If I'm able to convince those in charge to spend some time training SS teachers and providing some guidelines, what might that look like? Are there good books about all this? (Surely there are!) Is there a good training program for SS teachers that might help us all get on the same page? Is there something I should be learning more about myself, maybe to get me more up to speed on what I incorrectly perceive as subpar parenting? Anybody else seeing the same trends? What are you doing about it? Any advice before I throw in the towel?

This sub has me paranoid about KDP identity verification

Any children's SS teachers out there?