The Christian School Manifesto
The Christian School Manifesto was written as a professional autobiography of the portion of my teaching career in Christian schools, both in New York State and California. My career has been almost equally split between public and Christian schools, and I have enjoyed both of those arenas with equal joy.
I have enjoyed them equally, yet remain convinced that the true message and importance of education can potentially be found in the Christian schools. Six of the most rewarding years of my career were in Christian schools, yet ironically, some of the most unprofessional experiences have happened in that realm. In The Christian School Manifesto I do not sugar-coat any of the experiences, but am totally honest, but only with the hope of bringing some changes which are desperately needed.
The rest of this page consists of the Introduction and Chapter One from the book.
Introduction
In my opinion, public education has neutered the learning process. Political correctness has created a culture of wariness in which people are hesitant to express solidly held opinions for fear of offending some obscure group. The thrust towards inclusion of diversity has resulted in the unintended consequence of “everyone is right,” and open dialogue involving any form of disagreement labels people as “haters.”
Christian schools hold the potential to create a system of education that sets the standard of education worldwide. Christian schools have the potential, but the reality has yet to be achieved, at least in a broad-based scenario. There are three strong reasons why Christian schools have the opportunity to fix what is wrong in our educational system.
- The Christian worldview can be taught openly and actively.
- Strong academics and extracurricular activities can be approached with excellence and higher order reasons for existing.
- Governmental intervention and restriction can be reduced to a minimum.
Similarly, there are some systemic defects that keep this from happening in many Christian schools and need to be corrected.
- Christian schools must actively and consistently follow their well-intentioned mission statement.
- Leadership in Christian schools must become courageously visionary.
- Classroom presence must create a norm of radical excellence.
- The economics of attending and teaching in a Christian school must be addressed.
Chapter One
Standards Based Mediocrity
I applied mine heart to know, and to search,
and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things,
and to know the wickedness of folly,
even of foolishness and madness
Ecclesiastes 7:25
One of my public school colleagues entered the room as I was teaching my chemistry students the concept of electrochemistry. She sought me out immediately after class, and it was obvious she had fire burning in her spirit.
“Why are you teaching electrochemical cells?” was her tart question.
I tried to explain to her that the concept being taught was critical to the full understanding of chemistry and necessary for students planning to take chemistry in college.
“You must not teach that. It’s not one of the state standards, and none of the rest of us do it.” was her uncompromising retort to my explanation.
Since it was my first year at that school, I approached my department chair that afternoon hoping for some positive reaffirmation. He was patronizingly supportive, but strongly urged me to stick only with the standards so that our department would show unity and consistency. He even added that it might hurt my student’s performance on the state standardized test if they learned more than was required.
Sufficient to accomplish…
I teach both high school science and am also an adjunct professor in a four-year university. Whenever a paper or written project is assigned, one question always follows.
“How long does it have to be?” follows the first hand raised for questions.
Early on in my career I gave some arbitrary answer, usually dependent on nothing more substantive than the mood of the day and class.
What I soon realized was that if I asked for five pages, that is what the students wrote. The same was true, no matter what the length. If I said it, they wrote it. If I said three, they gave me three, even if their topic require four or could have been done in two.
It did not take long to arrive at a better length requirement.
“Your paper needs to be sufficiently long to accomplish the purpose you intend.” became my standard response to that universal question. Interestingly, as soon as students caught on to the liberty that gave them, the quality of their work improved markedly. No set standard gave them the opportunity to achieve excellence.
Raising the bar?
If education in the United States is getting worse even as we search desperately for a fix, why don’t we take a look back and see what did work? If other developed countries continue to perform better on standardized tests than our students, why don’t we analyze how those countries teach their kids? If “old fashioned” teaching methods and systems produced more well-educated students, why are we trying to invent “new and modern” methods? If modern technology creates distractions that stifle critical thinking, creativity and understanding, why can’t we figure out a way to incorporate that which used to work into all the new technological toys?
Those questions are not necessarily rhetorical, but they do illustrate a fundamental flaw in our reasoning.
Historically, education was intended to produce an informed electorate and was unashamed to include scriptural principles into the fabric of the learning process. Now that God is no longer a viable option as a reference point for moral, ethical and everyday living, education is secularized and essentially devoid of the acknowledgement of any Being greater than ourselves. Similarly, the teaching of evolution as fact is inculcating students with the concept that who we are is simply the product of random chance molecular rearrangement.
“I’ve had it with saying we are better than the public school!”
Those were the animated words of my normally mild-mannered friend in one of the Christian schools in which I taught. He continued his wonderfully intriguing tirade at our spontaneous morning crew by explaining how comparing Christian schools to a flawed system could only result in a similarly flawed product. He elaborated further by illustrating how a system that emulated a broken model could never really establish its own identity.
Since that insightful day, I have pondered frequently on that concept, and continue to agree wholeheartedly with the idea.
With that in mind, the only logical conclusion is that it is time for a change. My desire is to present my ideas for logical change by writing this book, The Christian School Manifesto.
The Christian School Manifesto can help create a new bar.
Christian education needs to become the NEW STANDARD. It is not just about raising the bar. It must become changing the bar. We need to do that by producing students who think critically and act positively about major issues from a Christian worldview. We need to be proactive in producing radical excellence in academics with a focused mission of creating people who live from a worldview focused on eternal principles. It is incumbent upon Christian education to produce a continuing cadre of visionary leadership with a vibrant courage that makes the Christian voice in the public square loud and clear.
The fatal error we can make is to stand by and do nothing. We must press toward the mark of the high calling we have been given. We must always keep in mind the always keep in mind the why of our existence, and that needs to be the fuel that energizes our commitment to our mission.