Ten Commandments for the Classroom

Who rules your school? How do you keep things under control? Here's a list of our ten commandments for the classroom / homeschool room. These rules are good for every room in the house, but we've posted them in our school room as that is where we seem to need them most.

First, I think the methodology of creating the rules is important. If I had just arbitrarily made them up, I think they would be far less effective. So, first I wanted ten rules as modeled by God's gift of the Ten Commandments. This number fits well on a piece of printer paper, it is not too many for children to be able to memorize, and I think God knew what he was doing when he gave us His rules.

Next, unlike God, I did not make the rules and then pass them down to my children. I asked them to tell me what they thought the rules of our classroom should be. Here is some of their list:
No name calling
No potty talk
No nose picking
No whining
No hitting
No cheating

This is just a sampling of the list that they made. A pattern that I saw was that they were quick to provide a list of things they thought others should NOT do; but, I thought I would rather have a list of Always do's rather than Shall nots.

So, before you get impatient and click away from my site, here is my list:
1. Always turn to God in times of trouble. He will tell you what you should do.
2. Always use kind words, and always mean the things you say.
3. Always work diligently on your task. Your day of rest will come.
4. Always display good manners, even when no one is looking.
5. Always treat other people and their possessions with care.
6. Always be faithful, first to God and then to your future spouse.
7. Always ask before you touch.
8. Always give a good report of others.
9. Always use a soft voice in the school room, and anywhere that others are working.
10. Always Do Your Best. You're hard work will be rewarded.

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