Navigating Seminar

We are now entering the season when schools begin offering tours for prospective new students and parents begin thinking about where they will place their children next year.  As we enter the open house season, there is no better way to find out what questions to ask, what areas to probe, what to look for in a school, than to attend the January Navigating the Education Maze seminar at Idlewild Baptist Church in Lutz, Florida.  More details to follow ...

The Lost Art Of Cursive

According to this article, cursive handwriting is being deemphasized in Florida public schools.  When looking for a school, be sure to ask whether cursive is employed in the elementary school.

Florida Pastor To Defy Ban On Praying For Students On School Property

The secular establishment continues to tighten the noose on Christian visibility in or around public schools.  See this Fox News article about a Green Cove Springs, Florida pastor who has been told he and other members of his congregation cannot gather around the public school flagpoles in his community to pray for students and teachers.

Christian Teacher Persecuted For Her Faith

Does anyone still think it can't happen here?  In New Jersey, a Christian teacher is being "investigated" - and has been suspended from her position - for her faith.  What was her offense?  Calling homosexuality a sin on a private Facebook page.  Read about it here.

If the trend continues, no Christian teachers will be able to teach in the public schools.

They're Coming.

Here is a recent news story about the anti-Christian establishment effort to remove all references to God and Christianity from California public schools.  If you think they won't do the same in Florida, think again.

Christianity Today Surveys Students

According to a recent survey by Christianity Today, where your children go to school is vitally important in determining their future.  Here is a summary:

New Survey found that Christian schooling makes a difference—and that different kinds of Christianeducation produce different results among their graduates. The large study from Cardus, a Hamilton,Ontario–based Christian thinktank (formerly the Work Research Foundation), examined the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of Americans ages 23–40—that is, 6 to 21 years after high school graduation—and took into account more than 30 variables known to influence development (such as frequency of religious service attendance, race, and educational attainment).

Do you want your child to grow up to like new and exciting experiences, even if it means breaking the rules?  Send him to a non-religious private school.

Do you want your child to grow up to get divorced and lack clear goals or direction?  Home school him from a religious perspective.

Do you want your child to grow up to feel least prepared for a vibrant spiritual life?  Send her to public school.

Each option has its good points and its drawbacks.  You should learn which option has which positives and negatives and which option best fits your child.

Here is a link to a summary of the survey's findings.

Going Public

Tim Challies is a well known reformed Christian blogger who lives in Canada and who has his children in public school.  His blog, always worth reading, is promoting a new book, Going Public:  Your Child Can Thrive in Public Schools, by David and Kelli Pritchard.  In reviewing the book, Challies makes the following important point:

The most valuable lesson of all, at least in my view, is that public schooling is a family affair. The decision to place children in the public education system is a decision to have the whole family involved in this system. They say, “We should not think in terms of sending our child off by himself to ‘the mission field.’ We go there together. This is a family expedition. When we show up each August to enroll our kids for another school year, we are enrolling our family into the life of this institution. This is a joint venture.” This means that mom and dad are involved not just with the children, but with the school and teachers and leaders.

This echoes an observation Gordon Fuller, a public school teacher, made last year at our own Navigating the Education Maze event.  Gordon said that the most time-consuming option of all is public schooling, because Christian parents must make sure to know what was said and done throughout the school day every day and to be prepared to help children "unlearn" many things learned in school that do not match up with a biblical worldview.  This requires a tremendous investment.

You can read Challies' article here and find Going Public at Amazon.com.  

Distinguishing Principles and Methods

Sometimes, we Christians get caught up in the little things.  We classical Christian school parents recoil with horror at home school parents who don't teach their children Latin.  Home school parents shun Christian school parents who use Bob Jones University curriculum.  I don't like you because you send your child to, you know, that inferior school.  You don't like me because my kids' uniform has a button down collar and a string tie.

Silly, isn't it?

We get hung up on methods and lose sight of the fact that we agree on principles.  This article makes the point abundantly clear.  Here is an excerpt:

Principles are the things that God lays out for us. Love your children. Serve the Lord. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Children are a blessing. Be fruitful. Methods are the tools we use to try to accomplish these things. 

Methods vary, even when the people involved are all following God. Do not get caught up in method camps and chisel away at the number of saints you can fellowship with every time you read a new article about that thing that has become the most important thing. Do not build for yourself an arsenal of inflammatory topics. Do not be quick to fire off heated comments.

The thing about principles and methods is that if you agree on the principle, the method is not such a big deal.

We who are "navigating" the education maze need to remember the difference.  If friends and family are educating their children from a Christian perspective, that is the main thing.  Whether it is through a home school or Christian school is a dispute about method.  Not principle. 

New Jersey Public School District Pulls Books Containing Descriptions of Lesbian Sex

Read the story on the Fox News website.  Peter Spriggs of Family Research Council says:  "This just illustrates why a lot of American parents are not willing to entrust their children to the public schools anymore."  The sad thing is that a committee of teachers and librarians didn't recognize that the books would be controversial.  The even sadder thing is that only a handful of parents complained.

New Beginnings And New Mercies

It's the beginning of a new school year.  Parents are anxious to get their little ones back to school.  Students are ready to see old friends and make new acquaintances.  Teachers are ready to impart wisdom and virtue.  Everyone is happy.

As you begin the year, now is a good time to take stock of where your children are, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.  Are they where you want them to be?  Is their school environment what you would have it to be?  Take a few minutes and read over the biblical principles under girding a parent's responsibility to educate his or her children and think about these things.

And if you find that, as the year goes along, you find your answers to these questions unsettling, make plans to attend the Idlewild Baptist Church Navigating the Education Maze this January.  Get your questions answered.

Thought Crime Comes To The Florida Public Schools

Do you have your kids in public school?  Do they have a Christian teacher?  They may not for long if this story turns into a trend.  A Christian teacher posted on Facebook his personal opinion about gay marriage.  Now he is being suspended and possibly fired for exercising his First Amendment right.

But this is in California or Massachusetts, you might ask.  Nope.  Right here in Florida.  See the story here.

Columbine Comes To Tampa ... Almost

Today's Tampa Tribune reports that a teenager has been arrested for attempting to set off a bomb at Freedom High School.  The former student (who was expelled last year) had wanted to set off an explosion that killed more people than the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.  Yes, it can happen here.

Does Class Size Really Matter?

Research says ... maybe not.

Gallop Poll Reports Record Low In Public School Confidence

Read about it here.

Navigating The Education Maze - Part II

It's official.  Navigating The Education Maze will be repeated at Idlewild Baptist Church in January 2012.  More details to come.

Hillsborough County Schools Targeted For "Intervention"

Read about it here.

How Important Is Technology In Choosing A School?

This article so misses the point.  Many educators are emphasizing technology in the classroom as the answer to our nation's education ills.  The author reports:

“Technology is the way our students are learning,” she told FoxNews.com.

Like many other teachers around the country, she recognizes the growing importance of bringing technology into the classroom. "I believe that it will enrich our students experience in a 21st century school. I believe it will make us a global community and help our students to learn beyond our physical classroom.”

Having new technology is nice, but it is not the answer.

 

One of the blessings of God‟s common grace is the gift of technology. Technology may be defined as the application of man‟s creative abilities to industrial, commercial, or other practical objectives. Technology includes the electronic and computer products and systems that result from that application.

The Bible describes positively a wide range of technologies that are used to great benefit in various vocations. God is described in Scripture as being a Maker (Job 4:17; 32:22; 35:10; Prov 14:31; 17:5; 22:2; Is 17:7). Other passages describe God Himself as metalworker (Is 1:24–26) and tentmaker (Ex 25:9). Other vocations that involve the use of technology are the shepherd (Ps 23:1), the potter (Is 64:8), the builder (Ps 102:25), and the farmer (Ps 80:8; Hos 10:11).

 

On the other hand, technology may be used for evil. Technology is not pleasing to God when it is used by man to promote idolatry, pride, self-reliance, materialism, and the human illusion of unlimited achievement without consideration of God. (Gen. 11).

Thus, rightly used, as a blessing of God‟s common grace, technology can provide many benefits and conveniences. Technology also can be dreadfully dehumanizing, idolatrous, and promotive of sinful pride and self-reliance. If used wrongly, technology can be destructive of human dignity (part of the imago dei) as men and women feel themselves no longer persons with a name that expresses their unique dignity, but, in Arnold Toynbee‟s words, “serial numbers punched on a card designed to travel through the entrails of a computer.”

 

Crusades to revolutionize schools through technological advances have existed as long as education itself. We eschew academic fads that promise greater hopes (“It‟s new, easy and fast!”) but fail to deliver time and again. Instead, look for schools that are committed to the ancient, tried, and true methods of teaching.  

 

Computers have their dangers and deficiencies as well. Computers promote passive, as opposed to active, learning. They may promote isolated learning, as opposed to the relational, propositional, interactive, and oral learning essential to a sound education. Larry Cuban of Stanford University and former president of the American Educational Research Association has observed, "There is no clear, commanding body of evidence that Students' sustained use of multimedia machines, the Internet, word processing, spreadsheets, and other popular applications has any impact on academic achievement." Indeed, a number of studies have demonstrated that the pervasive use of computers in the classroom as an impersonal replacement for a living, breathing Teacher is detrimental to education.

Never forget that the best means of instructing Students is through qualified human Teachers. While personal computers can assist the accomplishment of work and studies, they are no replacement for capable Christian instructors who love the Lord, love their Students, love their subject, and have a passion to communicate that love to their Students.

 

 

Career Education Is NOT The Answer!

This article in the St. Petersburg Times has it all wrong.  Job training is not the proper goal of high school.  I repeat:  Job training is not the proper goal of high school. 

What is the goal?  Or at least what should it be?  It is to develop the skills necessary for life-long learning.  This is the central thesis of the Dorothy Sayers essay on which classical Christian education is founded.  Learning is to be life-long!  Therefore, the goal of education is to teach how to learn, not just what to learn.

Job training programs emphasize, on the other hand, specific task-oriented skills.  But this is so shortsighted.  The jobs of today will not necessarily be the jobs of tomorrow.  As a society, focusing on job training may well end up teaching skills that will be obsolete by the time the student graduates.

What is the goal of a sound education?

• To point to salvation and personal service to Christ.
• To prepare the graduate for lifelong scholarship by giving him or her the ability to expanding the intellect, purifying the passions, and fortifying the will.
• To encourage the graduate to be a helpful churchman and contributing citizen, no matter what his or her occupation.
• To equip for constructive engagement with the community.
• To promote benevolent service to others in society.
• To prepare students to enter into the Great Conversation of Western Civilization.

None of these aspirations are job-specific.  Wanting students to have goals is a good thing.  But we as Americans are far too easily pleased.  By focusing on job-training, we are not raising our sights high enough.  To change our culture and advance the cause of Christ.  There is a worthy goal for education.

Christian School or Home School?

Douglas Wilson takes on this question here.

School Choice Expo - Today!

There is a school choice expo going on at the Florida State Fair Grounds today!  For more information, see this website.

Public School Insanity

Yesterday, NaplesNews.com reported that the Collier County public schools will offer a Religious Freedom Day on January 19.  Representatives from various groups will have literature available for students.  According to the article:

Among the organizations having district approval to participate in Religious Freedom Day are the Unitarian Universalist Church, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), the Islamic Center of Naples and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Organizations had to notify the Collier County School District by Jan. 10 if they wanted to participate in the event.

Read the whole thing here.  Do you want your kids to be exposed to this?

Is Your School A Failing School?

Do you know how well your neighborhood public school is doing?  The State of Florida ranks schools.  Find out where your school stands at this link.

Of course, this tells you next to nothing about any specific classroom or teacher.  But it is something.

Paideia School Open House

If you are interested in classical Christian education and live in the Tampa Bay area, The Paideia School is having open houses January 12 and January 19 at 8:45 a.m.  For more information, call 813-988-7700.

On Intentionality

The message of this post is simple:  Be intentional.

You have education choices.  Perhaps too many choices.  Maybe you long for the days when you could unthinkingly send your kids to the local public school, leave the education up to the professionals, and not worry about it.  As a parent, you have many options, but not thinking is not one of them.

The days of unthinkingly sending your child to the neighborhood public school are (or should be) over.  What if the local public school teacher is not competent?  Would you know it?  Have you observed the classroom setting?  Do you know your child's teacher on a personal basis?  Do you know her temperament, her teaching style, how she interacts with the children?  How well does she manage the classroom?  How well does she discipline?  What is her attitude toward Christianity?  Is she a believer?  Is she hostile?  You need to know these things before you let your child set one foot in a public school classroom.

But in the same vein, you must be intentional and involved in the private school setting as well.  These same questions must be asked of the private school teacher.  Be intentional.  Be involved.  And if your involvement is not welcome, that in itself is a tip-off that something is really wrong.

What about the home school?  Can parents be unintentional even while directly teaching their children at home?  You betcha.  Many home school parents rely on textbooks, workbooks, and computers to do the teaching.  Then, they fail to adequately test the child to be sure he or she has truly learned the material.  What is more, at the end of the year, they do not ensure that their child's portfolio is closely scrutinized periodically by a classroom teacher to ensure that the child is performing adequately.  As a result, many home school children perform at a subpar academic level.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that every parent believes her little Johnny or Suzie is an absolute genius.  The vast majority of children -- I hate to break it to you -- are not.  They are average.  This means that you as a teacher lack objectivity.  You must gain it in another fashion.  You must hold yourself accountable for how well you are doing.  You must give others permission to hold you accountable.

Think about it!  We all insist on holding the classroom teacher accountable for doing a good job.  In the school setting, teachers are observed and evaluated.  In the same vein, you need to ensure that others hold you accountable for doing a good job.  Have you heard the horror stories about homeschool children who attempt to go to a day school only to find that they are two grade levels behind?  I have.  Be intentional.  Find a teacher who will review -- truly review -- your child's portfolio.  Even better, pay to have your child tested  to be sure he or she is on grade level.  (If you need help in these areas and live in Tampa, Patsy Hinton of The Paideia School can assist you in this regard.)  It all boils down to intentionality. 

That's all I am trying to say here.  You are responsible for the result.  Be intentional and accountable.  No matter what decision you make, make an informed decision.

2 Million Homeschoolers

According to this report, there are over 2 million home schooled students in the United States.  Home schooling is a viable option for Christians who are called to it.  As Holly Brown said at Navigating the Education Maze in November, however, be sure you are called to it.  Home schooling takes a tremendous commitment.  Fortunately, there are a large and growing number of resources available to assist parents.