“Teachers in the Protestant Reformed schools walked off their jobs yesterday, demanding higher salaries and more benefits.

A spokesman for the teachers commented, ‘We have families and children to support. They have to eat, too, you know.’

Another angry educator shouted, ‘We won’t go back to work until they give us the raises we deserve!’”

No, this isn’t a quote from a recent edition of the Grand Rapids Press. Teachers in our Protestant Reformed schools have not walked off their jobs in the past, and they will probably not do so in the future, either. Thus, it’s not likely that you will ever see the above headline in your local newspaper.

However, if you paid any attention at all to the news in 1979, you know that many teachers did trade in their chalk and rulers for picket signs. All one has to do is substitute “Wyoming,” “Jenison,” or any number of names for “Protestant Reformed,” and the headline and comments above would be accurate.

Most of us – myself included – strongly disagreed with the striking teachers and condemned their highly-disruptive actions. But before we go any further in their discussion, maybe we should look at their motives for walking off the job.

I would suspect that one word sums up why so many teachers went on strike in 1979: inflation. You don’t have to have a Ph.D in Economics to realize that inflation is running wild these days.

Take gas, for example. The price of gas is so high that, well, if you own a car, you know how high the price of gas is.

The cost of housing is also up dramatically. Most of us young people haven’t really looked into buying a house yet, but as any recent home-buyer will tell you, the price of housing today is enough to cause a person to seriously consider moving back in with Mom and Dad.

So is it really fair for us to criticize striking teachers for wanting more money? Should we expect them to work for wages that are admittedly lower than what many workers in other professions receive? Can we blame them for trying to keep up with inflation?

I think all of us would agree that teachers should be paid respectably, and no one would suggest that they be treated unfairly. But does that give them the right to strike if they do not get what they want?

Our Protestant Reformed teachers have correctly responded to that question with a definite “No” answer.

However, hundreds of public school instructors have shouted a loud and forceful “Yes!” Many have walked off their jobs when their demands were not met by school administrators.

The question to be answered is, Why do so many public school teachers believe that it is perfectly proper and acceptable to strike if they do not get what they want, while teachers in Protestant Reformed schools would not even consider walking off their jobs if they wanted more money?

Well, to begin with, teachers in Protestant Reformed schools are, of course, members of the Protestant Reformed Church, which has taken a strong stand against unions and the strike. Obviously, few teachers outside the Protestant Reformed Church agree with that position.

But I think that there is another important – and somewhat overlooked – reason for the difference of opinion between our Christian school teachers and public-school teachers on the issue of striking. I think that Protestant Reformed teachers cling to a philosophy of teaching that is radically different than the one held by secular instructors.

What I mean is this: most public-school teachers view their jobs only as a means of making a living, and nothing more.

Oh, I’m sure that many of them enjoy teaching and believe that it is very necessary and important. I’m sure that many of them like working with children and truly care about them. I’m also sure that many of them would rather do nothing else than teach.

But for most of them, teaching is still only a job, a way of making a living. They teach for themselves, really, for their own earthly benefit. As is true of all unbelievers, their god is their belly, and their concern is only for the things of this world.

In contrast, teachers of the Protestant Reformed schools teach in order that they might serve God. Their purpose in teaching is to use the talents that God has given them to build up the Kingdom of God by grounding His covenant youth in the knowledge and love of their Creator and Saviour.

Their concern extends beyond making a living and beyond merely teaching their students the three R’s – they are, above all, concerned with their pupils’ spiritual welfare. Nothing must stand in the way of the proper upbringing of the covenant seed.

Now we can readily understand why Christian school teachers have rejected the idea of striking for more money. To allow their material wants and desires to interfere with their sacred calling of caring for the children of the covenant is out of the question.

In a very real sense, their striking would be a rebellion against God and His Church. In effect, they would be saying, “Sure, we will labor in Thy Kingdom as teachers of Thy children, but only if the price is right. Our money demands must be met before we do anything.” Can you imagine any true believer having such an attitude?

Very clearly, our Christian school teachers have no spiritual right to strike, and we should thank God that, to date, our teachers have always considered the welfare of the children of the Church to be more important than their own material gain. We must pray that they will continue to do so in the future.

On the other hand, public school teachers, as we mentioned earlier, teach not for the sake of God and His Kingdom, but only for their own selfish interests.

Thus, their actions in the past several months should not surprise us, nor should we be shocked when, undoubtedly sometime in the near future, the public schools of America are again paralyzed by teacher strikes.