| Choices: Considerations When Choosing a School |
To successfully bring a child up to be a healthy young Christian in all areas (which only God can really do), each area of need must be addressed. The whole child should be considered, for each area of a child’s environment is important. If one area is viewed as a concentration to the exception of others the incomplete training will leave an adult with a skewed view of life and purpose. Each area must be considered vital.
However, each school does not offer the same program. Each school makes judgments and decisions on curriculum and practice based on the desired student outcome, what they want the ideal student to leave with at the end of eighth grade. By necessity those outcomes are not the same for each school, depending on how they see their role in the life of the child, what special needs are to be met, and the economic, legal, and practical limitations of their institution. Parents need to research each option to make the correct choice for their family.
This is an extremely serious undertaking, and not one to be made casually. The Lord places great responsibilities on parents, and a child is one of the greatest of earthly gifts bestowed. As we are stewards of all other gifts, we are also stewards of our children. Each decision we make for them has life changing consequences, both temporal and eternal. And we will be held accountable for our actions. Fathers, especially, are given responsibility for the training of their children. This is made clear in passages such as Ephesians 6:5, Colossians 3:21, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, Matthew 18:5-6, and Proverbs 22:6. We have a great responsibility to bring up our children to be well-rounded young Christian men and women.
This is why your choice of school is so important. The school acts as a proxy for the father’s instruction, assisting him in fulfilling his God-given responsibility. For education to be successful the parents and school must work closely together, communicate often, and support each other. The school you choose must reflect the will of God and the parent’s best judgment. Conflict between what a child is taught at home and what they are taught at school not only causes confusion, but can also lead to instability later in life. And not only for our children. We, as humans, tend to raise our children in the way we were raised. This means that our behaviors and predispositions, healthy and unhealthy, will affect generations to come. What awesome responsibility to be a parent... and what a blessing of opportunity to bring up the next generation of believers in Christ!
With that said, and before we begin to evaluate, we must examine and understand the affective needs of a child’s education:
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