Desert Christian Schools

In his book, The Safest Place on Earth, author Larry Crabb talks about walking in the flesh verses walking in the Spirit. Anyone in a community is either walking in the flesh or spirit at any moment in their life. Dr. Crabb looks at ways we were created to live and examines how the corruption of sin has produced motives in us that lead to walking in the flesh.

We as people were commanded by God in Genesis 1 to “rule over the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea”. We were created and commanded to rule. To rule over the animals God had created. Note that he did not command Adam to rule over people. God is our King! He is our ruler. Leadership is important, but it is not about ruling! (Look at what Jesus said on this in Matthew 20:25-28)

Now Genesis 3 follows after this command by God and man disobeys and falls. Corruption enters the world. Dr. Crabb says that our command to rule has been corrupted so that we have a passion to control. We are desperate to control any and everything. This is a major motivation behind our walking in the flesh. We expect that we can be in control of pretty much anything, particularly people. This is one reason I think we have such a hard time with change. Change shows us we are not in control, much like suffering. As I tell the kids, “there is a God and you are not Him!” If we are in control, we do not need God!

The list of the acts of the flesh mentioned in Galatians 5 reveals the actions produced by a persons’ passion to be in control. Jealousy, fits of rage, dissension, factions and the like come from a persons demand that life work they way they want. When life does work out the way they want, these characteristics rise to the surface as evidence of our demand to be in control.

In contrast, walking in the Spirit is motivated by a different passion, a passion to trust. God is King, He is in charge! He rules! These are truths we know in our heads. The question is do we believe it in our hearts? Does he control the circumstances in our lives? Does He know what is or is not happening? Does He care? These are all questions we ask ourselves almost daily. God is good and He wants us to trust Him, to believe He is working in whatever circumstances to achieve His purposes and plan. To rely on Him and trust His control of the circumstances, as Romans 8:28 says, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him…”.

To rely upon the Lord is synonymous to a passion to trust Him. A passion to trust God will produce an entirely different type of result in our lives. These fruits of the Spirit; Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control are evidence of a person passionately trusting God.

I am not saying we never stand up to wrong, that we never speak out. We should and must do so, but not out of a passion to control the circumstances but out of a passion for what God has said is right and good. As a spiritual community when we see something we do not like, it is a good time for us to stop and examine what is bothering us and ask questions. What is God telling me? Does He want me to confront this, to reflect the impact it has on me and others, or to seek to understand the issues. I know in all of this, He is asking us to trust Him in this situation. He is not asking us to burst out in fits of rage, discord, dissentions or envy.

Let us follow the Spirit’s lead, as Galatians 5:25 says, “let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Checking the Fruit of the Spirit

We either walk in the sinful nature or we walk in the spirit. There is no third possibility!In Galatians 5, Paul points out these two paths. In verse 19, he identifies the outward evidence that are the result of our walking in the sinful nature – sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft (we believers know these are wrong). As he continues, the next behaviors of the list are the ones we see more of in the midst of believers. Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy. The list ends with two more that we believers know are wrong, drunkenness and orgies.

Paul’s list does not place a scale of which are worse than the others. Walking in the sinful nature produces destructive behaviors. These behaviors are evidence we are on a path to death! These behaviors do not please God. (Romans 8:6 & 8)

Paul then, in Galatians 5, contrasts the outward manifestations that are the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. You can look and tell about how a person is walking by the fruit seen in their outward actions. You can see if a person is being patient or is responding in a fit of rage. The way someone is being gentle as opposed to someone creating discord.

In Ps. 51:6 God reveals that He desires truth in our inner parts. God wants us to be honest with ourselves. It is wise to look at ones actions and ask yourself, what impact they are my behaviors having on those around me? Proverbs 14:8 – a prudent man gives thought to his ways.

So is fruit of my actions something that reveals love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, or does my behavior produce hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, ambition, dissension, factions and envy? Am I raging? Am I full of joy? Am I sowing discord here? Am I displaying kindness in this situation?

As a community here at DCS we see how individuals behave. From students to parents to teachers to administrators, we see either the fruit of the sinful nature or the fruit of the spirit in people. So as Jesus said in Luke 17:3-4, “if your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents forgive him”, we can confront the sin we see in others by pointing out the evidence of walking in the sinful nature to them. Remember, how we confront also reveals whether we are walking in the flesh or in the spirit!

So look at yourself and take a fruit check! Am I bearing the fruit of the spirit or the fruit of the sinful nature? God wants us to be growing in producing the fruit of His spirit. 2 Peter 1:5-9. My prayer is for a fruitful spring around here at DCS!

January 2010

Christ Has Set Us Free

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery – Galatians 5:1

The apostle Paul faced a constant issue in preaching and advancing the Gospel in his day. This problem continues to be an issue into our present time. It is the problem of living in grace or living under the law. Notice the prepositions of that last sentence, in grace as opposed to under the law. The law sets a standard and requires us to live within the confines of that standard. Living in grace is different. It is enjoying and partaking of an environment, not achieving a standard. It is the difference between swimming in a community pool during the summer and doing the high jump at a track meet.

Paul wrote to the Galatians wanting them to understand that they were no longer under the law as believers in Jesus. They were free! Christ had lived a perfect life and his righteousness was now imputed to them. They met the standard of God in Christ through trusting the work of Christ and not by their efforts to be moral. The Galatians had started out well but were now trying to win the favor of God by their efforts (Galatians 3:1) Many today think and act the same way, I accept Christ by faith but now I have to live a righteous life to be ok with God. Paul refutes that idea in this book of Galatians.

In Galatians 5 verse 6, Paul points out that circumcision (any external standard of religion) does not matter, the only thing that counts is faith working itself out in love. I understand this to mean that the thing to look for in the life of a believer is evidence of love. Our faith must be producing the fruit of love. One of the things we desire to see of students at DCS is that they are growing in love. Love for God, others and creation. Do they love God, people and learning? The only thing that can produce that type of love is the spirit of God as we trust God.

So how does this get integrated into a Christian school? We want to be truly Christian as a school. How do we work out being a place of grace? First is to realize that we want to see our children learn to love – love God, love people and love His world and want to learn about it. Larry Crabb says all sin is a failure to love. Paul says that love fulfills the law (Galatians 5:15). If our students are growing in love, sin will be less of an issue. The Law does not produce love! Love is a fruit of the Spirit, so we learn to love from the Spirit of God teaching us to love. So as a school community we want to encourage and promote walking in the Spirit to learn to love.

Now making love the issue does not remove the need to do certain things. Paul admonishes the Galatians not to use their freedom as an opportunity to sin (You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love – Gal. 5:13). A school as a community of grace will not turn a blind eye to students using their freedom to sin. We will follow the pattern of God as he states it in 2 Timothy 3:16 – we will teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness. That is what young believers need, which is what our children need. But like God those things must be approached in an environment of Grace. As Dallas Willard says, Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning!

As Americans we understand the benefit and dangers of freedom. We also see the reality of a dictatorial approach to government. Freedom is desired over totalitarianism. Totalitarian states are in many ways safe, but they enslave and destroy people. Freedom is messy, but freedom is not chaos! Even so I want our school to wrestle with living out our faith in a climate of freedom. The law kills, but the spirit gives life! Come join us in the sometimes messy reality of the freedom that God offers in the spirit of His Son, Jesus Christ.

November

To Know or Not to Know

I had a roommate my senior year in college who was diagnosed with cancer at the ripe ‘ol age of twenty-one. He died four months later. It was one of the most painful and difficult things for me at that stage of my life. Why would God take this person? Why would someone so young die? I asked God repeatedly why? God does not always let me know what is going on.

We all like to know what is going on. It is one reason we watch or listen to the news. So we will be in the know. To be aware of what is happening is valued and a sign of being a responsible citizen. Being ignorant is not good, just watch at "Walking" on the Jay Leno show. Ignorance is funny--and scary! But we are also fallen people. We struggle with sin and knowing certain things can be either good or bad.

There are several possibilities to consider about our desire to know and whether it is good or bad. One is that there are some things we will not know or cannot know. Like my friend dying. God has never told my why that happened. I have asked Him! I guess I have to wait till heaven to hopefully find out. When I am in those situations I am thrust into the place of having to trust God and humbly accept the fact that I do not know. The demand that God tell me why is a sign of folly and an unwillingness to trust God.

Secondly, there are some things I should not know. It is a bit like Pandora’s Box, our curiosity drives us to find out what is going on and when we do, we often times wish we did not know. There is a weight in knowing, a responsibility and obligation. I heard of a situation where a grandparent died and all that was revealed to the grandchildren was that grandpa died. Truth was the grandpa committed suicide! It was probably better the grandkids did not know. There are some things better left unknown for now and maybe always.

Third, there are some things it is best I not know right now but perhaps later. “When Corrie ten Boom asked as a child that (her) father tell her about sex, he made her try to pick up his heavy suitcase on the train. When she couldn’t do it, he said that the same was true in life: there are some things to heavy for us to know until we are old enough to bear the burden.” (http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/monkeynote/pmHidingPlaceSample.pdf)

Lastly, there are some things I can know right now. With knowledge comes responsibility though. My knowing something has a reason behind it. In Ezekiel 39:7-9 God says,

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. When I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you will surely die,' and you do not speak out to dissuade him from his ways, that wicked man will die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. But if you do warn the wicked man to turn from his ways and he does not do so, he will die for his sin, but you will have saved yourself.”

God had made know what was right and wrong to his people and expected them to communicate that knowledge.

Ten years after my friend died of cancer, God gave me Deuteronomy 29:

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

God is not going to reveal everything to me, but the things He has revealed I am responsible for. May we all handle knowledge responsibly!

October 2009

God's Unique Image Bearers

The DCS board has been talking about our school’s philosophy of education. We are working to put into print a succinct statement of the school philosophy of education. It is a very interesting endeavor with lots of discussion and points of view. One of the facets of a philosophy of education is the nature of people.
Who are we and why are we the way we are?

Genesis 1:26, 27 states that God made people in His image…male and female He created them. People are image bearers. We reflect the image of God! To illustrate this, a friend of mine says that God stood in front of a mirror that captured His entire image and then broke the mirror into billions of pieces. Each piece reflects a bit of the image. My friend says that we each reflect the image of God in a unique way.

As image bearers, we also reflect the image in general ways. Genesis 2 tells us man was created outside of the Garden of Eden and women inside. That is an interesting distinction. It is not men are from Mars and women are from Venus. It is, according to scripture, that they come from different places, so they are indeed very different.

Men and women reflect the image in different ways. Male and female is not just a biological thing, it is an image thing. Men reflect something of the image of God that women do not and visa versa. Some have suggested that men reflect the strength and warrior-ness of God while women reflect the beauty and allure of God. God is neither male nor female, so as people we are reflecting only aspects of our Lord. But maleness and femaleness reflect something of the image of God.

So how does this relate to a philosophy of education? What kind of people are we working with each day? Our children are unique, image bearers. They are young men and women image bearers. Each one is showing us something of God in both a general and specific way. Allowing them to be who God made them is major responsibility along with helping them to develop their God given talents and bent. These truths must inform our activities and relationships with our children. We are not dealing with a bell curve of individuals looking to put them in a pigeonhole. We are dealing with entirely unique image bearers who reflect God in ways like no other person in history and we are working to help them bring glory to God in being who God made them to be.

August 2009

Discipling Children

Our mission states that we partner with parents in discipling students. Discipleship is a very common term in Christian circles. It has come to mean so many things to people, we ought to examine it.

Jesus said in his great commission (Matthew 28:19, 20) that we were to go make disciples of all nations. What was a disciple in Jesus day? It was a person who was a follower and learner of a particular rabbi. The key idea was that the disciple followed the rabbi and learned from him and imitated him! So the context is that Jesus is telling us to go make followers of Christ Himself who would learn from Him and become like Him.

From a practical stand point, we want people to become obedient to Jesus, listening to Him and obeying Him along with growing to act like He does.

June 2009

Trusting in God

In Galatians 2:11-21, Paul relates an event between Peter and himself about Peters’ actions toward the Gentile believers in Antioch. Paul confronted Peter saying, “you are not acting in line with the Gospel”. Peter knew the Gospel and in this particular circumstance did not act consistently with the truth of the Gospel. If an apostle could make this mistake, we most certainly can as well.

One of my favorite books on living out the Gospel is ‘True Faced’ by Bill Thrall, John Lynch, and Bruce McNicol. In this book the authors ask a very important question of each believer. At a core level do we want to please God or do we want to trust God?

Romans 8:1 tells us that there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! What an amazing truth. Those in Christ will not be condemned! The Gospel proclaims that the work of Christ has saved us and God is not angry with us. We are loved and accepted by God because of Christ. As a friend of mine said recently to me, “I am always the object of His pleasure and never its cause”! Wow! God is pleased with me in Christ and that is not changing. I did not make that happen nor do I sustain it. This is at the core of the Gospel!

Yet like Peter it is possible to know the truth and then not act accordingly. So at school we can act in ways that do not confirm the truth of the Gospel for the child. As my friend asked me, “Is my conduct and attitude toward that student an "Amen" to what God says about her, or an "Ahem, I think you could have done better."? This is where I see the motivation of pleasing God or trusting God coming into play.

Pleasing God sounds so good, so right, and so holy. Who in their right mind would not want to please God? My pleasing God though, as the starting point, is a problem. You see your pleasing God is about you getting it right. The focus is on you and what you are doing to make God happy. If I obey, God is happy with me and if I do not obey, He is not happy, therefore I need to get to work obeying and doing what makes God happy. Isaiah 64:6 says, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment”. Our works can never in this life meet God’s standards of perfection. We will strive and work and be worn down, and never make God happy. God is already happy with us in Christ! That is why if I start from the point of trying to please God I become like the Galatians Paul wrote to saying, “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Trusting God, as the other option, does not sound so clear. It seems to imply nothing gets done, sort of let go and let God! Synonyms for trust include; rely upon, depend on, have faith in. To trust God begins by relying upon what God says or has done, to depend upon it, to believe it! Faith is not something I do, it is something I choose to rely on, depend upon or trust in. To trust God is to humbly choose to believe what He says about anything. When I feel God does not like me I am faced with a decision, to trust my feelings or believe what God has said, like Colossians 3:12, “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved”. Trusting God requires that I depend upon, trust, rely on what God says is true and not on what I feel or think. Trusting is about God not about me.

You see Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” The only way to please God is to begin by trusting God. Trusting God is the beginning point! This is what I want our community to understand and live out. I want our children, our parents our staff to learn what it means to trust God, to believe Him. This is part of what I see it means to be a community of grace, that we all, however imperfect, begin from the point of wanting to trust God. To live out daily the dependence upon and thanksgiving for God’s indescribable gift to us!

May 2009

Traditional Liberal Arts

Our schools’ mission statement asserts that we provide a ‘traditional liberal arts’ education. What do we mean by traditional liberal arts? Tradition has developed somewhat of a bad reputation in the modern United States. We look on traditions as something old, out-of-touch, and irrelevant. Our culture wants new, exciting and cutting-edge stuff, so tradition must be bad.

I read an article a few years ago where the author pointed out the problem with conservatives is that they hold on to things that they should let go and the problem with liberals is that they change things that they should not change. There are traditions we should hold on to and maintain because they pass the test of time and benefit succeeding generations. There are things we should change and do away with as well.

Traditional Liberal Arts is meant to describe the original view of liberal arts education. In the western tradition, liberal arts involved a broad offering of subjects to develop a well-rounded person able to discuss and deal with a variety of subjects and topics. A Renaissance person was the ideal here: someone who could do many things and do them well.

You see, Christianity had influenced learning and schools in Western Europe. People understood there was a diversity of subjects and areas of learning: art, science, math, history, and theology to name a few. Universities were first started by Christians who saw there was a Universal that unified all the diversity, hence the name Uni - versity. That Universal was God! That is why they saw theology (the study of God) as the queen of all subjects. Everything flowed out of God who had created such diversity. Scholars saw the benefit of studying the diverse subjects in the context of studying God.

At Desert Christian we hold on to that idea. We know that all teaching and learning comes from a view point, or a worldview. There is much diversity in the world around us that piques our curiosity and is worth learning. In fact, there is not only much diversity, but endless diversity! There is also a unity behind all diversity that we want to study. To develop well-rounded individuals who know about relating the diversity to the unity and visa versa is what we mean by ‘traditional liberal arts’ at DCS.

March 2009

Beauty

The third and last great idea that I want to address is beauty. Like truth and goodness that I have written about before, beauty is an absolute. Just as we know that there is truth and there is a lie, that there is good and there is bad, we know that there is that which is beautiful and that which is ugly. These ideas have subjective aspects where discussion takes place on issues of taste, yet there is a line in each area where you cross over from what it is to what it is not.

Beauty is all around us. The physical world from places to plants to people is filled with beauty. Likewise we recoil from the ugliness we see in our world. The presence of beauty and ugliness, truth and deceit, good and bad lead us to ask many questions. Why are both there? Where did they come from? Where am I related to these issues? Can I identify the differences between them?

One of the objectives of education is to develop the ability to identify and appreciate beauty. Beauty is not just a one dimensional, surface thing, but there is also inner beauty--a depth to beauty that the trained eye can learn to see. Developing our eyes to see true beauty and appreciate that beauty must be a part of our education.

Oscar Wilde in ‘An Ideal Husband’ has Miss Mabel say “…to look at a thing is quite different from seeing a thing, one does not see a thing until one sees its beauty.” This captures the essence of the depth of beauty and moving beyond just the outward appearance. Peter tells women in 1 Peter 3 to not just deal with the outward trappings of beauty but to cultivate inner beauty which is of great value.

Beauty can be cultivated and destroyed. This is why people can learn to appreciate beauty. One can also see and listen to junk and impair one’s ability to recognize beauty. Beauty is unique. In ‘That Hideous Strength’ C.S. Lewis shows this by how evil wants to diminish beauty by replacing it with of so much uniformity.

February 2009

Goodness

Another concept we want to emphasize at Desert Christian Schools is the idea of goodness. Like the idea of truth, goodness is an absolute. There is good and bad! There are degrees of good but there is also a line where good crosses over to bad. We want students to learn the difference between good and bad and how to distinguish that and wrestle with the shades of good.

In Hebrews 5 the author states that these Hebrews he was writing to have not grown up in their faith, they are still babies, they need milk and not solid food. The metaphor of being a baby and needing milk is a powerful illustration of their condition. He contrasts being an infant and drinking milk with being mature and eating solid food. Mature people eat solid food. He explains that the mature person is one who has trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. The ability to distinguish between good and evil is the mark of maturity and wisdom.

Children being immature do not really know what is good for them. They would eat a candy bar for dinner gladly. They like staying up late and would only sleep when they fell over with exhaustion. The mature person knows what is good and what is not good and chooses the good. Disobedience, by the way, involves knowing what is good and willfully choosing the bad over the good. Knowing the difference between good and bad and choosing to do good is something a mature wise person does.

There are so many areas where good and not good apply in education. What is good to know and what is not, what is good to listen to and what is not. What is a good source of information and what is junk. Who is a good person and who is not. What is good behavior and bad behavior? The list of ideas, issues and behaviors that need to be distinguished is huge. Our students need to develop this skill.

Banks train their tellers to identify real bills over counterfeits by having them see and handle the real ones a lot. They learn what a good bill is by developing familiarity with what is good. Likewise, at Desert, we want our students to learn what is good by handling and becoming familiar with what is good.

December 2008

Truth

At Desert Christian, we speak about three great ideas that we want to focus on and develop in each child: truth, beauty, and goodness. Our desire is that each child would learn practically and experientially what each means; that they would learn to identify truth, beauty and goodness and at the same time be able to identify what is not true, beautiful, or good. Like Hebrews 5:14 says, “… that they would learn to distinguish good from evil.”

This month I would like to address the topic of truth. I want to address one part of the topic and its application to our lives. In Psalm 51:6, David declares something about what God wants of us, “Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.” God wants us to be honest with ourselves. He wants us to see clearly and precisely what we are thinking and what we think about. He wants our ideas to match reality.

Each of us daily lives through and interprets events. We try to make sense of the things happening to and around us. These thoughts about reality are what make up our worldview of events. Our interpretations though can be either true or false. We can lie to ourselves about the meaning of an event and we can firmly believe that lie. In Jeremiah 17:9 God says that the human heart is deceitful. We can and do lie to ourselves. We can also be lied to and deceived by someone outside ourselves. Satan is the father of lies and he lies to us. Our sinful behaviors are really rooted in the lies we believe and so vigorously cling to. As Lenin said, “A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

I recently read a quote, “The first step to bringing about change is to be brutally honest with yourself.” This is a Biblical idea. Romans 12:1,2; Ephesians 4:22-24 both proclaim the idea that one is to change life behaviors by stopping the behavior then working to change ones thinking (mind) and then begin to behave in an appropriate way. To change means we must be willing to evaluate what we tell ourselves and see if it passes the truth test. Remember that the feeling of something being true does not mean that it is true. God and His word are truth! So what God says and declares is what is true.

Turning from a lie involves two actions--repentance and faith! Repentance is the action of affirming what I believe is a lie and choosing to turn 180 degrees from that idea. Faith is the other side of the coin, it is the choice to believe what is true. For example, I might have failed in a subject as a child. I might have interpreted that event to mean that I am not smart. I do not feel smart! Yet what is true? Might I have misinterpreted the meaning behind my failure? What does God say about me? God wants truth in the inmost being!

Job says, in Job 12:11, "Does not the ear test words as the tongue tastes food”? So we need to learn what ideas taste good and are good for us and what ones are not. I want our children to taste ideas in a loving place and learn to be discerning on what to take in what is good and true.

November 2008

Great Expectations: The government's interest vs. our responsibility

I was listening to Barack Obama speak the other night on the news. He said that government should do what people cannot do for themselves. He then went on to identify those areas by saying protection, education and so on. I stopped listening at the mention of education. He was saying, education is something we cannot do for ourselves, that we need government to provide education.

This is an example about what I told you before in my writings, that it is good to listen to the candidates on the issue of education. Here is where I disagree with Mr. Obama on education. Education of ones children is not the same as building a highway or raising an army (both things Government should do). Home schooling is an example of doing education without the government.

I agree that there are individuals with special needs that a family cannot educate. There is a need for special assistance. Yet that assistance can be provided through private means without the government doing it.

The problem for education when you bring government into the equation is that you politicize education. Politicians have to appear to be doing something for education. The political solutions are almost always either throwing money at the problem or providing oversight over the actions of those doing something. They do not have much power to affect what is going on in the classroom or at home.

It is a bit like what we see in our current economic situation, government was part of the problem for the housing finance markets. In the same way, government becomes part of the problem in education. It is a noble sounding aim to want all people to be able to afford a house, but the economic realities do not make the governments aims reachable. The same is true in education. To claim that a government school will have every child at a certain level is a wonderful aim; it is just so difficult since people get in the way.

Government also begins to change education when they get involved. They start having the school do things it is not good at doing. Schools become day care centers, medical centers, feeding programs, community centers. These are all good necessary things but not what a school is about first and foremost. Education suffers when the school is used for things and to do things not related to education.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1785 stated that government has an interest in education. They do! The Northwest Ordinance set out things the government could do to foster education, to encourage education, to promote education and to pay for education. It did not put education into the realm of those things government needed to do. This is where we have changed from our ancestors, where I would disagree with Mr. Obama. Government has an interest in promoting education, not the expectation that they provide it.

October 2008

Politics of Educational Choice

Here is the continuation of my discussion on education issues in this political cycle. In the last article I began to speak about what should be the government's role in education. Related to the issue of responsibility in education is the notion of compulsory education. It was not until the rise and spread of public education (early in the last century) that the idea of compulsory education was added to the equation. Education for years had been a family decision and was completely voluntary. Involvement in education was changed from voluntary to compulsory with the arrival of large scale public education.

Students quickly figure out that education must not be too valuable if you have to make it compulsory. Does an education have value in and of itself? If so why do we force people to do it? College is not compulsory and people are free to go or not. Colleges seem to have a great many people choosing to attend and pay a lot to do so. They make the choice without it being compulsory.

It should be the same for a HS education. I would do away with compulsory education after eighth grade. If you want to go to HS, go; if not, live with the consequences. I do not see this happening, of course. It is too burned into our psyche that education K-12 has to be compulsory. The results of making HS education voluntary would then be seen in students' and families' attitudes toward education.

In Kenya, where HS education is not compulsory, families and students vie to get into school and take it very seriously. It changes the whole view of school and education for families when it is not compulsory.

It would change the climate and chemistry in the schools. Students who want to be there, or at least students from families who want them to be there, would be in school. Those who do not want to be in school would not be adversely affecting the students who want to be there. This is one of the reasons for the difference on the HS campus here at DC. Families value education (they are willing to pay for it!) and students on the whole want to be at school.

The decision to be in school should be a parental responsibility. Why is the government willing to take the responsibility of education away from parents? It seems the message is, ‘making educational decisions is hard, so we, the government, will take that responsibility for you.’ You do not have to make your child go to school, we will! You do not have to decide what goes on at school, we will! You do not have to figure out how to pay for school, we will! By surrendering these responsibilities each family loses the freedom to decide what they want. This way the government gets to control the money and content of the education instead of parents.

This is what is behind all the disputes between schools and parents on sex education, creation – evolution, literature choices. If parents had real control, these would not be issues. Parents would vote with their feet and schools would be responsive to parents choices.

Any candidate that wants to give parents greater voice and control over educational choices for their children is someone I would support. Are you aware where each candidate stands on the issue of educational choice?

September 2008

Rights and Responsibilities in Educating Children

Every four years I make it a point to watch the speeches of the Presidential and VP nominees of both parties at their respective conventions. I like to do this since it is the longest speech I will hear of either parties candidates all election. The media gives me three-second sound bites from that point on! J I like to hear each candidate explain their vision for the US and rationale for their seeking the office.

Being in the education field, I listen carefully to the candidates comments on education. This election both candidates acknowledge that US education is in trouble. McCain said we are operating with an old model, a 1950’s model. He stated that the US needs to change our approach to a model that addresses the issues and relevance of the new millennium. Obama on the other hand said the problem was a lack of funding and that increased funding would produce better results.

I see the problems in education going deeper than either of these explanations. Funding and models of education are problem areas, but not the root. If we want to change education we have to address the root issues. Then we can deal with the details.

First root problem in education I see is that we have taken educational decisions away from the people who should be responsible for the decision. Biblically and in principle, parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s education. They have the relationship and motivation to see their children grow and develop and learn. You will notice that at the college level we have none of the hand-wringing and complaints about education that we do in the primary and secondary levels. I believe this is because the decision of whether, where, and why to go to school is in the hands of the people responsible for that decision.

When I taught government I used to point out that rights are tied to responsibilities. A right to life has with it the responsibility to protect that right for other people. Parents have a right to decide their children’s’ education. When you take away peoples responsibilities you take away their rights. We have forfeited our rights related to education and that is at the core of the problem in US education.

Why would a government want to take on your responsibility? My cynical side believes it is so the government gets to decide what to teach and they get to control the purse strings. Look at the anger over tax credits and the false claim of the loss of money in education. The education establishment does not want anyone else getting money to educate. You can also look at the battles being played out related to sex education and who decides what to teach. Again, at the college level this is not a problem. People decide what they will pay and if they do not like what the college is teaching they do not go and go where what is taught is in keeping with their values and beliefs.

August 2008

True Competition in Education

The year has gotten off with a bang. I do not know if you saw the recent editorial in the Tucson Citizen about Public schools and vouchers and tax credits. The editorial called for an end to tax credits because now that desegregation has been set aside the public schools are now truly competitive. You can read the editorial at this site: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/opinion/93504.php

Besides the interesting idea that it was desegregation law that made public schools less than competitive the disturbing point they made was that tax credits are taking money away from public education. This is flatly wrong! It is disingenuous and misleading. As you can tell it made me mad! The tax credit law has not taken a cent away from state spending on education. State education spending has grown each year under the tax credit law. To imply that public school students are somehow being deprived because of this program is dishonest. In truth thousands of Arizona families are able to send their children to the schools of their choice because of the tax credit program.

In fact tax credits are actually helping public education in Arizona. This program is saving the schools money and allowing for a higher per student expenditure for students in the public system. The Goldwater Institute reported this in a policy paper they submitted a few years ago. You can read it at this site: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/ArticleView.aspx?id=18

Here at Desert more than 1/2 of our families benefit from the tax credit legislation. Many of these families would not be able to send their children to this school without the presence of this scholarship money. Tax credits have increased the economic diversity of our school family by allowing lower income families to attend DCS.

It was interesting that the editorial also said tax credits were in violation of the state constitution. That is completely untrue! The tax credit law has twice been ruled constitutional by the State Supreme Court and once by the US Supreme Court. The judiciary says it is in line with the state and federal constitution. One can be of the opinion that it should not be constitutional but that is different than saying it is unconstitutional.

There is a battle brewing over education. The state monopoly continues to try to remove any competitors in the arena of education. Let us all continue to expose the untruths being used to attach educational choice. Here, by the way, is an interesting article to read on the history of US education: http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v30n4/cpr30n4-1.pdf

You will not hear these things in the discussion on public education!

May 2008

Grading

Here we are at the end of the school year! Final exams are being taken and report cards are going out and everyone’s curiosity is focused on what grade did I get? It is like the air we breathe, we expect and anticipate grades in our classes. We are all very aware of grades. By the way (and this is true), I graduated in the top 75% of my high school class!

Where did grades come from? When did they begin? What is the history of grading? There has always been assessment in schools. Neil Postman in his book ’Technopoly’ points out that the first institution of learning to use numeric grades was at Cambridge University in 1792’s. The first US institution to use numeric grades was West Point in 1817. Prior to this there were no numeric grades, just anecdotal reports. Students either proved they knew it or they kept working on it until they did prove it. Mastery was the goal, not the grade. In 1877 Harvard set up the percentage (90% -100%, 80%-89% etc) system and in 1883 Harvard was the first to use a letter grade.[1] So grading as we know it is a somewhat recent phenomenon.

The modernist idea that anything can be measured is behind our use of grades. Grading is a form of measurement. But what are we measuring? Grades supposedly (as currently thought) show how much a student knows of a particular subject. So a student receiving a B+ or 88% for an English class supposedly knows 88% of English. We live in a day where we think that people who know lots of facts must be really smart. That guy who was on Jepordy for several weeks and won lots of money we think must be very smart.

Yet, what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Which is better to possess? How do you measure wisdom? We can measure a person's knowledge of a set of facts at a particular point in time, but who says those facts are important or meaningful? To answer that question one must have wisdom.

I spoke with a child of a long-time friend who took AP US Government at a public high school. I asked this student what grade they received. They told me they received an A and passed the AP exam. I asked if they had read or studied the Declaration of Independence or Constitution. They said they had studied a few parts of the Constitution but nothing of the Declaration. Their grade says they have an excellent knowledge of Government, yet they knew next to nothing about the founding documents for the United States. So what does that grade tell you?

Certainly, there needs to be assessment in education. Students, parents and teachers need to know what their student has accomplished. I do not believe numeric or alpha grades effectively represent the accomplishments of a student nor do they really tell us anything worthwhile about their knowledge of the subject. I believe an anecdotal report from the teacher on the character, skills and mastery of parts of the subject by a student would be a truer reflection than a letter grade on a report card.

[1] http://www.indiana.edu/~educy520/sec6342/week_07/durm93.pdf

April 2008

Homework (Part 1)

Recently the topic of homework has come up in conversations I have had with different people. It comes up regularly with people here at Desert and with my extended family who have children attending public schools around town. There has been a lot of discussion in print about this topic. It seems everyone has an opinion on it. So here is mine!

Homework is the academic work that children take home after school to finish and then hand in at school at some future time.

What is the purpose of homework? Why do teachers assign it? There are a variety of good reasons for its existence. Here are my ideas on the issue: Homework should enrich and expand a students’ knowledge of the ideas taught in class, or it can be an assignment that reveals the students mastery of a skill or idea being covered in class. At times it can be the work that was begun but not finished in class and is taken home to complete.

Homework should be supplementary. The work in class should be the focal point of the learning taking place at school. This is where I see the problem starts. Many schools and teachers use homework for other purposes than the ones listed above.

Homework can be used as a punishment; students are made to do more because of some disobedience or character issue. When you make work punishment you make a positive thing (learning) to be something bad and to be avoided. Work, by the way, is a creation ordinance (God ordained before the fall), something we are called to do so it is good. Other consequences should be used for discipline and correction, homework should not.

Some teachers use homework to fill up time or make it look like they are difficult teachers. The assigning of lots of work which most of the time is busy work is just mindless activity that is boring and repetitious and takes the fun out of learning. To require a person to keep showing their mastery of a topic after they have demonstrated proficiency is also discouraging and disheartening.

Some schools use the volume of their homework as a sign of their stated rigorous academic standards. Being busy for busy sake is disingenuous. Rigor is demonstrated in creative and original work by the student. The amount of homework is not the sign of rigor, creative thoughtful scholarship is a better measure of rigor.

April 2008

Homework (Part 2)

Last week my thoughts on homework came from the perspective of the teacher on the reasons for homework. This week I want to approach the matter from the perspective of the student and parent.

To review, homework assignments can either be good or bad. If it is assigned with the benefit of the student in mind it is good. Assignments that practice concepts or ideas learned in class or assignments that develop or enrich and add to what is learned in class would fall in that category. Any assignment given without thought to the betterment of the student would be a bad assignment. Assignments that are simply busy work, or punishment or mindless repeating of topics covered in class would not be constructive homework assignments.

Based on this idea, it is the teacher who determines whether a homework assignment is good or not. Knowing their motivation and reason behind the assignment would help one evaluate any assignment. We all do things for a reason and as sinful people we can do things for good or bad reasons. This is why I would encourage any person, parent or student who is curious or concerned about an assignment to go and ask the teacher respectfully their rational for this assignment.

I assume that if a good answer is given that most people will then proceed to do the assignment with a better attitude now that they know the reason for that assignment. Since education is a partnership between the family and the school, it is appropriate and reasonable for a parent to ask their child’s teacher the rational for any assignment. The parent can then help motivate their child to do this work, when they are complaining or neglecting the assignment. Older students can ask their teachers privately the purpose of an assignment to satisfy their curiosity.

It is not prudent to question every single assignment; this would come across as complaining or nit picking. Having said that, I would expect every teacher to be able to explain the purpose of any assignment they give. What is their objective and how does it fit with the classroom objectives is a good question.

What do you do with bad homework assignments? A couple of things, first for parents; if after talking with a teacher a parent is not satisfied with the ‘reason’ then I recommend they talk with the school administrator to express their concern and desire to see constructive assignments for their child. Secondly, I would have the child go ahead and do the assignment to learn to “do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus”, without “grumbling and complaining”. (Col. 3:17 & Phil. 2:14) You also do not want them to ‘learn’ to blow off something just because you do not like it. This is a discipline thing and of value in itself.

May 2008

Homework (Part 3)

One of the important underlying issues related to the topic of homework is the character of the child and their work ethic. The past two issues I dealt with the idea of good vs bad homework and how to deal with it as a parent. This time I want to look at the character of the child.

One of the character issues that all parents contend with in training their child is their child’s approach to work. Children seem to all realize early on that work is sometimes hard and they do not like hard. Students sometimes run into subjects or concepts that are difficult and hard to grasp and the immediate response for most is to give up and say it is too hard and make no effort. Like water many children want to take the path of least resistance.

There seem to be two characteristics that need to be developed in a child in this area, perseverance and diligence. The value of these characteristics in a person is obvious to any mature person. Children do not see or appreciate this value nor are they interested most times in developing these characteristics. Dallas Willard says that we fall into legalism when we emphasize ‘trying’ rather than ‘training’. This applies to the development of character. Homework is a tool that we can use to help develop character rather than a legalism that deadens our children.

To do something one must know what needs to be done and have the capability of doing it. When looking at a homework assignment, a good place to start is to ask, do we know what needs to be done? Is the assignment clearly understood? One way to train your child is to help them make sure they know what needs to be done. If they are confused, what do they need to find out and clear up the confusion? Is there someone who can clear it up for them? The discipline to ask and seek answers develops diligence. One of the next issues is to take stock in what materials will be needed. This again is an excellent skill for a child to develop. There are many humorous stories of students who need to do a project and announce it to the parent at 9pm the night before it is due. A parent then chooses to rush off and purchase all these materials because their child has procrastinated or forgotten about the assignment. So sit down with your child and think through what will be needed to complete assignments before starting.

Lastly, difficulty is often seen as a curse by most children. Maturity sees it more as a challenge or test, not a curse. When a child encounters difficulty in an academic assignment how are we guiding them and training them to deal with it? As an adult, how do you deal with difficulty? Do you complain? Do you give up? Do you throw contempt at God or people? Why does God allow difficulty in our lives? In the scripture, God often says it is to test what is in our hearts. James says to consider it all joy when you encounter various trials; it is a test of our faith. The test presents an opportunity to produce perseverance and maturity.

In conclusion, we do not want to encourage laziness but diligence in our children in their homework. We want to train our children how to face and deal with difficulty not just tell them to try harder. We want them to grow in character and perseverence.

Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

March 2008

What is the real problem with people? (Part 1)

We live in a culture that says the reason we have problems is that people are ignorant and unlearned. Regularly we are told that if people only knew they would choose to do the right thing. Through the years people have come into the school office saying they have become aware of some activity that DCHS students are involved with that is wrong. Drinking, smoking, immorality and so on are happening out there.

I am not so naïve to believe that some Christian school kids do not do these things. When the school knows specifics, names and events, then we can deal with that person. The fact that some know of situations does not mean we all know and are choosing to not do something. We can only deal with what we know about. But I digress!

Many times people come in and tell of what they know and imply that we should address the issue in a chapel or assembly. It seems that people think the problem is a knowledge issue. If these kids knew what was right they would not do it! I can tell you that the students at DCS know far more about our communities standards on these issues than we can imagine. They know what is good and not good!

The problem is not lack of knowledge, but sin! Sin is that willful defiant choice to find life on my own terms, rather than trust God. We have all rebelled against God (Jeremiah 2:13), forsaking Him and turning to our own sources of life. At the core we trust ourselves more than we trust God. We believe we know better than God and by golly we are going to make life work for us on our terms.

Loving discipline confronts the foolish and offers them a way out. We will talk about that next time.

April 2008

The real problem with people (Part 2)

Last time we talked about sin being the root problem in our lives and in the lives of our children. The root problem is not ignorance! How does God want us to address the sin we see in the lives of children?

Giving children more information will not solve the issue. We are called to love one another, and love does not ignore the problem. The example of how God deals with us is our model for dealing with our children.

In Hebrews 12:4-11 the author encourages the Hebrews with the truth that God disciplines His children. God is motivated by love to discipline. So the Lord’s discipline is a sign of His love for us. Discipline is hard and painful and not pleasant. God does not discipline out of anger but out of love.

So the first thing loving discipline does is to confront the behavior and the foolishness behind that behavior. Loving discipline then calls for repentance; a turning away from the sinful behavior and attitude. Loving discipline chooses an appropriate consequence in keeping with the offense. Loving discipline offers forgiveness and relationship toward the offending person.

Discipline administered out of anger boarders on abuse. Getting angry at a person for a sin, or holding a grudge is not a sign of love to that person. A persons’ sin ought to break our hearts as we move to discipline and correct their sin. God is not angry with his children (Romans 8:1); He loves them and disciplines them so they might share in His holiness.

So how does this fit with education? Education is about developing the whole person and seeing the child disciplined in good character. We cannot change hearts but we can provide consequences and discipline to join God in His work in their hearts.

Proverbs 2:22,23 - The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

Proverbs 6:23 - For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life.

Proverbs 12:1 - Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, But he who hates reproof is stupid.

Proverbs 13:24 - He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

March 2008

Why get an education? (Part 1)

So why do you send your child to school? Why do you want them to get an education? These fundamental questions are very important in the educational decisions parents make.

Society tells us that the reason to stay in school (read, "why get an education?") is so you can get a good job. Neil Postman pointed out in his book The End of Education, that this reasoning means we do not have a culture anymore but only an economy. If this is the reason to get an education then we are only preparing kids to be employees.

Why isn’t the reason to stay in school so that individuals can go out and create work and develop an independent business? Why only be a good employee? My cynical side says our society only wants kids who can obey orders and not think creatively. God forbid we would create creative thinking, independent human beings. Adolf Hitler said, “Blessed is the leader whose people do not think!”

One reason I believe you should get an education is to develop one's ability to think--to think deeply and well about things.

Why get an education? (Part 2)

A second part of what I think should be developed in an educated person is their ability to relate with other people. When we home schooled our youngest during middle school, we constantly were asked, “how will he be socialized if he is home schooled?”

The concept of socializing appears to be another reason people think children should be in school. I find most people understand socializing to be that their child can relate with other children. That they learn to find their place in the social pecking order and learn to live with that position.

This value of being socialized in earlier grades becomes a fearful and undesirable thing in secondary school. There, it is called 'peer pressure'! No parent of adolescents wants their child to be influenced by their peers. Why is that? Well, most adolescents are immature and irresponsible and not good role models. I want them to learn who they are and for them to be able to relate with confidence in who they are without the shame or pressure to conform to how others think they should be.

High numbers of peers and low numbers of adults in a child’s life tends to lead to the latter. We tend to look to others to reflect to us who we are. I do not want children to primarily look to other children to define themselves; I know there will be some of that, but the more important issue is to get a true view of themselves from the adults in their world.

Why get an education? (Part 3)

In my previous two installments I addressed the ideas of thinking and relating as good objectives of education. There is a third one – communicating.

We are beings that communicate with each other almost all the time. We were designed to communicate with God. You see this all over, from people wanting to communicate with extra terrestrials, to our desire to solve problems by communicating rather than by force, to lovers sharing their souls with each other. This is the most important of the three. One can think well, but if one cannot communicate what they are thinking the idea dies. To relate with others without communicating will keep the relationships shallow. Good communication carries ideas and relationships to new heights and depths.

Communicating well is not easy! In my 14 years as a missionary overseas, the major reason behind problems on the field was poor communication. We are not naturally very good at it. It is a skill to be developed. I have learned that to write well one must write and rewrite and rewrite to hone the message. There are fundamentals to being a good speaker.

An educated person should be trained to communicate in all areas of communication, from reading and writing to speaking and listening. They should be afforded the opportunities to practice and develop these skills without fear of ridicule or rejection.

Parents: