Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Christian Education

Even though I am a Christian School Teacher, I don't think that I have ever blogged about Christian Education.

But yesterday, as I was waiting for my microwave meal to be nuked in the teacher's lounge, I picked up one of those teacher magazines. I don't remember which one it was, but there was the title of an article that really jumped off the page and grabbed my attention. It was, Why do Christian School students resent Christian Education?

It is an excellent question. It is a question that I have thought of myself. I went to a Christian School myself, and now, as many of my classmates have reached the age where their children are going to school, a majority of them speak so resentfully of their own Education. And refuse to send their kids to a Christian School.

It baffles me, it really does. In most of the cases, it wasn't because the school was all that bad, it was because they were bad! I know because so was I!

We were rebellion incarnate. It wouldn't have mattered what kind of school we were at, we were bent on doing evil. Unfortunately many of my old friends want to blame the school and blame their church and blame their parents, but they don't want to look deep to see what the real problem was. them.

When I decided to go into education, I chose Christian Education mostly because I knew that if I worked at a Public School, I would get fired. Plain and Simple. There is not a day that goes by that I don't refer to the relevance of God in everyday life. I wouldn't be able to keep my mouth shut in a Public School.
  • Why is a line straight? God made it that way.

  • Why do we have to do geometry? God tells us to be submissive to our authority, and your authority says to take geometry.

  • Where did the number pi come from? God came up with it. Decided that would be the best number for the job. And even though it is a never ending and never repeating decimal, God knows the whole thing... He wrote it.

  • Why does 2+2=4? God decided that.

  • Why do we have to do our homework? To get good grades, so we can get into a good college? No! It is because God says to do all things to glorify Him.

  • When are we ever going to use this? You might never use this particular thing again, but your whole life you will have to do things that you don't want to do or don't understand why you have to do them, so doing geometry to the best of your ability because God says that is the way we should do all things, is practice for real life.

  • Why? Why? Why? God.


It all comes back to Him.

Why do Christian School kids sometimes resent Christian Education? They don't see it's value. Maybe they had teachers that weren't doing the job well, I don't know. But I want to restore that value. NO. I don't have delusions of grandeur. I don't think that I can change a whole system, but I do think... Hope... and pray that God might help me no use me to reveal God to a student.

Even if it is only one.

4 comments:

  1. I know many people that have had a 'Christian' education and resented it. I've visited some schools and thought that I would resent being sent there too.

    I think a lot of it has to do with the culture of a school. Some Christian schools think that the Christian difference in their school should simply be harder discipline. This is dished out without any show of love.

    The Christian school where our kids go has a wonderful culture. It is a culture of love and respect, with God flowing through everything that's taught. I wish I had been able to go to a school like that when I was young.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is good to hear.

    The last Christian School that I taught at had an awesome atmosphere. With both the students and the faculty!

    My favorite thing (and I think it was their favorite thing) was getting off on rabbit trails. Even though all of my rabbit trails were not spiritual in nature, when they were it was so encouraging to have highschool kids interested in that stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ok, as a kid who went to a christian school for 10 years then was transferred into a public school, i must put in my two cents. When I was at DCS, I know it was a bit overwhelming at times, everything was GOD. not that it was bad, but it became mundane, it became something that I took for granted. Maybe, things were almost over-christianized. When you're so submursed in all the "good" you start to pick out the bad, the "if onlys" and the faults. But now that I'm out, I'd give anything to go back. I know I respect my teachers and value what I got from that school ten times more than when I was in it. You don't know what you got till its gone...

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is so true!

    I am glad that you posted that on here. I hadn't even mentioned that yet.

    Excellent point. And something that I think alot of the "Christian School kids" have experienced.

    Thankyou!

    ReplyDelete

Leave a thought of your own.