What happened to your Christian School?

Our church has an active and growing Christian school ministry. However a number of churches in our fellowship have dwindled or closed their schools. A number of factors seem to be at play with regard to the decline of the Christian school:

* Home schooling has claimed many families who would otherwise seriously consider Christian school as an option. (Christian schools should consider partnering with home school families)
* Cost - Some families have been unwilling to make the financial sacrifice to put their kids in Christian school. In some cases wives went to work to put their kids in private school. Today more wives are working to have nice home, two cars, etc.
* Lack of challenge - Twenty-five years ago pastors were preaching the necessity of having your kids in a Christian school. Right or wrong that emphasis is lacking today in many churches.
* Failure of Christian schools - Some Christian schools have failed to provide distinctive Christian education and at the same time give good academic training, so families have not supported them and they have closed

There may be other reasons, but those are some of the key ones that I see.

 

We never had one, our town is very small, and there are christian schools in the surrounding area. Theya hve grown and two that I know of in recent years have had to get larger buildings.
I do agree there could be come cooperation between christian schools and home schools.

 

Our church has had a Christian School for 25 years and it is still going strong.

The people who choose to homeschool get their curriculum through the school at a discount and graduate with the Christian School students and are very involved in all of the activities.

Our school goes from Pre-K through 2 years of Junior College. We also have our own Student Convention each year with schools from all over Illinois attending.

We have been much blessed!
§ue

 

I have attended both and currently send my children to a Christian school here in MO. I had a problem with the public school and the way it handled my children and the way it dealt with me. I see and understand the need for public school and I also see and understand the need for private school. I am not convinced that homeschooling is a good choice though. When we move away from this area, the first place I will put my children will be the public schools. Why? because I believe that our children need to be taught how to deal with the world on a daily basis and not be so sheltered that they are inept at dealing with life and the philosophy of the world. I believe that homeschooling is even worse because it promotes isolationism which is not scriptural. I cannot reconcile how my children are supposed to be a light when they never leave the lighthouse.
I'm sure that many will disagree, and you are welcome to disagree, when we get to heaven and you find out that I am right you may appologize then. I understand why people put their kids into Christian schools, but I cannot justify it as a way of life for my family or promote it as leader in whatever church I am in.

The firing squad may commence.

 

No, no firing squad. I just don't understand your vehemence. Do you know homeschooling families where this "isolation" is the case?

My family has gone from public to Christian ( a VERY bad experience) to homeschooling. I still have one in public elementary school, but he will be coming home next year.

I've got to say socialization was the problem at the public and Christian middle schools. At the public, there was no discipline. Students treated each other horribly (I know, I taught at my daughter's school for a short time.). There were no consequences for bad behavior. The Christian school said it was selective, but was just as bad, if not worse, than the public school. Their problem was that they had rules that they selectively imposed. The students knew it, and any discipline was only on the surface.

My children are active in many church and community groups. They will continue to be so. I agree with you, they do need to learn to be in the world and still be a light. We found that sending them into the schools gave them 8 hours with authority figures who were not necessarily teaching them Christian principles. They learned to survive peers who were abusive because the school would not stand up for them. I had no control over what my children were being taught while they were away from me,and had to do "damage control" quite often.

That's my point of view. You don't have to agree with me, but since you put the subject out there, I thought I'd reply .

God bless!

 

My old Christian School closed because:

1. Poor administrative control. Pastors insisted on running the show instead of hiring Christian professional educators.

2. Dissention in the church. The Church split in to two rivaling factions.

3. The school began taking in problem kids that had been thrown out of public school, thinking they could turn them around.

 

This is by no means a conviction, it is a very strong preference. I have worked several churches either as the youth pastor or as the associate pastor and seen homeschooled children who are not able to relate to those who have no choice but to be in public schools. In general I don't believe that we should "protect" our children as much as we do. This is a detriment to their ability to relate to a world that needs Christ. If they, and even we as adults, do not relate to the world then they will not give us a hearing for us to tell them about Christ.

You mentioned damage control, I congradulate you for doing what most parents don't, but you seem put out by it. That is your job as a parent, to do damage control so the the kids will know what is true and right, but also what the world is teaching and how to correctly counteract those teachings in daily life.

As your children grow up they are going to be surrounded by non-Christian values 24/7 rather than 8/5. If we do not teach the children now how to handle the 8 hours a day of worldly values, how do we ever expect them to survive 24/7 as adults?

There should never be the assumption that ANY school or organization other than the family and local church should be teaching values to our children. That is not their job, it is the job of Mom and Dad and the Local Church they are a member of. This is why evangelism is so important.

I am passionate on this subject but not dogmatic, more like molematic. I understand that not many will see this issue the same way as I do and anyone who read my post and felt that I was overly aggressive or vehement then I appologize. That is not and was not my purpose.

 

No, you were definitely not agressive in your opinions! I appreciate your honesty, and while I don't agree with you completely, I will consider what you have said in how I teach my children.

I am not "put out" by having to reeducate my children after they come home from school, but really dismayed that our culture has gone so far away from the Lord. While most of my children's teachers were excellent, a few were not acceptable. My youngest had a gay teacher who knew we were Christians and was very hostile toward my child and myself. As it was more attitude than action, the school would not allow me to move my son to a different classroom. It was certainly a learning experience for me, but I wonder what my son learned that I never heard about. Attitudes and values can be conveyed in deceptively quiet ways.

Praise God that we live in a country where we have the freedom to educate our children as we see fit. I do not advocate any one form of education as THE BEST for everyone. God bless you in your ministry, and don't apologise for being vocal about what you are passionate about!

 

I am 15 years old and go to public high school and have always wanted to go to christian school. Everyday I hear about stuff I wish I didn't have to hear about. There is violence. And I just wish I could go somewheres else.

 

God bless you Kayla, I will pray that God will make a way for you to have the desires of your heart. In the mean time continue being salt and light in the darkness. By the way thanks for posting, Don't be a stranger.
Murph

 

I attended a church school in the 10th grade that had it's origins based on the prospect of bussing black kids into the white schools. This was a IFBC that preached "seperation." While I didn't understand the motive at the time, I have since reflected back on those days and believe they had the wrong motivation and have since paid the price in a church split and the demise of the church school. I was told that this was "Hylesology" by the pastor at the time.

This is the factor that contributed to it's demise:

Romans 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Romans 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

This church distinguished between the races and paid the price for this sin.

 

Our church started a school a year ago. Many parents who were driving their children to other schools are now sending their kids, and several families that were homeschooling have put their kids in. Our school also has a homeschool support program. Any classes that the parents want the kids to get in the school, mostly high level science and math, plus phys ed, and sports teams they can be involved in. Still allows parents to have more control over the curriculum and the cost. The school has been a great addition to our church's ministry.

 

Congratulations! That is quite a commitment on your church's part. All the things you list often take years for a new school to add.

Karen

 

I have seen many schools fail over the last 15 or so years and I think racism or lack of it is the contributing factor. What I mean is this; many of the Christian schools I knew in the Carolinas and Georgia were founded in the late sixties when the public schools were integrated. Many parents sent their children to these schools not because of Christian values but because they were white.

Fortunately we have grown as a nation and we have parents today who did not grow up in a segregated world and are happy with integrated schools.

For the record every school I have been associated with as a student or parent has been integrated and is still in operation. My children are currently homeschooled which I have found is a better option than the Christian schools available locally.

As for the isolationist argument that my children can't relate well to others. They have sunday school, little league, soccer teams, music lessons, cub scouts, and neighborhood friends. How much more socialization do they need? Home schooling has given my wife and I the control over our family that many have lost today.

 

Sorry, double post

 

I believe it would be best if many church schools did fail. Not all, but many.

My teaching experience had been at the college level, but I came out of retirement to teach at a Christian high school. Thought I would enjoy, in my dotage, the opportunity to mingle with younger children. Wouldn't teach at a government school, even if I possessed all the extra requirements, but a Christian school looked inviting. My children went to Christian schools.

What a disappointment! First, I was told that I would wear a uniform. Wait a minute! I can understand why students might be required to wear a uniform, but teachers? Well, I learned this was all promoted as part of a "buddy" atmosphere. The principal's door was always open and, if he wasn't there, students were regularly seen sitting on his desk and in his chair, playing with anything they could find. I once came into my room to find a student going through my personal belongings. After all, I was just another of their "playmates," dressed in a similar uniform.

I addressed each student as "Mister" or "Miss" and used only their last names. The students complained that I was the only teacher to do so.

After administering and grading the first tests, I was called into the principal's office to meet some enraged parents. It seems that, though a student only answered 35% of the test correctly, I was expected to always adjust the numerical grades upward to correspond to the school's numerical/letter grade brackets. Before the year was up, I realized that the grading system was totally meaningless. It was maintained artificially high so that the transcript might appear more acceptable to college registrars. This, in turn, was necessary in order to compete with the government schools. Parents were not given credit for the ability to understand that a "C" from a private school might be better than an "A" from a government school.

I could go on and on, describing the lack of discipline and other matters, but I've probably already exceeded the post length limit. Suffice it to say that such a school has no reason for existence. Oh, one other thing: They looked upon their school as "an evangelistic ministry," allowing the enrollment of children of unsaved parents. What a perversion of Christian education!