Tony Perkins of Family Research Council on March 16, 2022 describes the work of churches in Columbus, Ohio to start a Christian school, Westside Christian School. Their work is "driven by this sense that it is part of our calling as Christians to provide education for children." One of the men involved in the project, Aaron Baer, asks a fundamental question, "What is forming our children?" He then answers his own question and eliminates a lot of objections by saying, "...we have to be honest that [the culture and public schools] are forming our kids way more than the churches. And once you sort of acknowledge that, it makes all...other issues just logistical questions that we can work through." His conclusion parallels a conviction that I've had for a long time, "If the Body of Christ doesn’t assume the responsibility to prepare the next generation to flourish in God’s world, someone else will try. Instead of life-giving hope and responsibility based on love and truth, they will be led on a path of despair paved with lies and leading to destruction. Instead of the life of the Spirit, they will be exposed to the deadly lies of the enemy."
John Nunes in the March 8, 2022 edition of Public Discourse (the journal of the Witherspoon Institute) discusses the implications for Christians of the University of Austin's educational approach. The university is "radically committed to the principle of independence—political, intellectual, and financial" because this model "reinforces this university as a place where students can engage in the unfettered pursuit of truth. The school claims no prior philosophical commitments, and is firmly committed to the idea that no argument is off the table for discussion." It is convinced that this approach is "a cornerstone of a free and flourishing democratic society."
Nunes raises some important questions for Christians:
Nunes challenges Christians to be involved, recognizing that universities are "thin communities" that have a limited role and simultaneously "remaining firmly grounded in think communities such as families and churches."
Kent Ezell in the March 10, 2022 CACE Roundtable has some suggestions about how to document the faith development of students. A few examples are given of the kind of student reflections that could be done in the classroom and then teachers are encouraged to collect these in a variety of electronic forms to provide evidence that a Christian school is making a difference in the lives of their students. The suggestions are good and could encourage the teacher and the students who contribute to an on-going portfolio. My first impression was quite positive, but as I thought about the article, I had a couple of questions about the suggested use of such a journal to convince prospective parents that students grow in their faith at the school.
Leonard Sax in The Epoch Times, 2021-08-21, asks an important question for every parent, "Which school is the best school for your child?" He points out that most patents tend to define the "best" schools in relation to the kind of universities that their graduates attend. However, he then looks at the research of the past 40 years. In the 1980's the "common sense" expectation was that attending schools in low-income communities increased risk for substance abuse, anxiety, and depression. In the late 1990's it was found that the results "had flipped" so that affluent kids were now at higher risk than low-income kids. More recent research has found that risk associated with affluence doesn't come from the household income itself, but from the type of school that they attend. "High-achieving schools connote risks for adolescents" seems counter-intuitive, but constant comparison with others and measurement of self-worth by accomplishments creates a toxic environment that hinders long-term success. Followers of Christ should not be surprised that prioritizing character and conscientiousness over performance produces the best chance of graduates being healthy and happy decades after graduation.
Glenn Schultz writes in his Kingdom Education Ministries blog about how a conference challenged him that "the education we give the next generation must be built on a strong biblical worldview and a biblical philosophy of education. This must be a reality at home, church and school." Research was presented by Dr. George Barna that the most dominant worldview among young Christians is Moralistic Therapeutic Deism, "a very dangerous belief system that too many Christians live their lives by."
Schultz concludes that "we cannot afford to be simply 'better' than secular schools. Christian schools must not take a secular model of schooling and merely Christianize it with Bible classes and chapels."
Page 4 of 7