Attachment parenting in schools: How to apply attachment parenting to your classroom (for teachers)

It is back to school season for school students across the nation. Many teachers and school administrators will be talking about ways to discipline students who go wayward of the school policies and rules. In the United States, our schools take a more punitive approach to discipline. The fact of the matter is that not only is that discipline not acceptable, but attachment parenting strategies can be used to form a bond with a student. "Hands-off" policies actually are a myth, meaning they do not exist.

It says in Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and grace of parents. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of adults, just as adult believers rest in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Schools act in place of parents, meaning they are a parent in loco parentis. Schools have the same anti-spanking and attachment parenting obligations as the child's actual parents. Secure attachment to teachers ultimately starts with secure attachment at home. Secure attachment at home is the core of biblical obedience to parents, and starts with skin-on-skin comforting strategies such as mammary closeness. If a child does not have a secure attachment to parents, they cannot readily have a secure attachment to teachers and other school personnel. However, there are ways to form an attachment to your students, and they include legal ways to have genuinely affectionate contact with students.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by the child in an exchange, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by the child, coming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any form of punishment or controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, any adult who punished a child was put to death by way of bloodletting, being charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damage or offense stemming from hostage-taking - punishing a child was likened under the Law to holding the child hostage merely for things they did wrong. Paul was lifting up the Law for a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. No such custom existed among the Early Christians, as the Early Christians practiced attachment parenting.

It is a myth among teachers that putting a hand on a student is a criminal offense. In most states, even putting a punitive hand on students is only a civil offense, if at all. In every single state, it is okay to hug and embrace a student that you have under your charge. It is recommended that teachers and other school personnel, including principals, embrace the students that they are charged with instructing, including putting a reassuring hand on them when they are upset, and so forth. Holding the hand of students who are frightened, scared, or upset is also allowed. There are many ways you can form a attempt to secure bond with your students, many of them physical in nature. See 22 Pa. Code §14.133 regarding positive behavior support.

In biblical times, they had homeschools where fathers would instruct their children in Scripture, and many a father would gather in an open area to instruct their children on Scripture, as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic. The relationship between parent/teacher and student/child was casual. Fathers guided children to the right knowledge by encouraging self-education in his children. Fathers gave children assigned reading, and children read most of it on their own, after being taught to read by their fathers starting at age 6. 

Teachers should not beat a lesson into a child, as you cannot beat an education into someone. Not every student is going to want to learn, and you must accept that instead of forcing entitled help onto students. The best way to form a bond with students is to be their friend, meaning allow them to confide in you about personal things, and then allow yourself to comfort and reassure them. Encourage them in their learning endeavors, and use encouragement to guide them on the right track. But, again, not every student wants to learn. You can't save them all. But, you can try your best to influence children with a rapport with them. Punishment has no place in schools. I do support expulsion of students after many warnings, as a logical consequence that places a severely disruptive student elsewhere so that the other students can learn. In most European countries, expelled students are sent home for homeschooling.

The depraved and entitled adults who provoke children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be cast forever into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire ant torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!