When:聽 Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Where:聽 91原创, Nacogdoches, Texas

Why:聽 Attempt to tame the savages (a.k.a. 6th grade students)

How:聽 After reading Sandra Boswell’s Prototcol Matters and finding that I have more gray hair than I care to own up to, I have realized that it doesn’t take a lot to raise children with high self-esteem.聽 It does, however, take much of the right thing!聽 The most important concept that our children must understand to have confidence in themselves is that Christ did it all for them on the cross.聽 Their sins were forgiven and they can’t work hard enough to make our Father pleased with them.聽 Their value, worth and salvation is found in Christ alone.聽 Christ has fought the fight for them and their sins are washed clean by His precious blood.

The next skill that children need in order to grow strong and grounded is manners.聽 A child who knows and has applied manners in a variety of situations and with people of mixed聽 age and gender has such an advantage in life.聽 When a young man knows that he shouldn’t sit before all the ladies at the table have been seated first, he is at a great advantage in life.聽 A young lady who knows how to graciously accept a door being held open for her is light years ahead of what our generation today breeds.聽 It is because of these convictions that I remind my students daily of Christ’s love for each one of them, and it is because of these convictions that I arrange to have an etiquette meal brought in to 6th grade once a quarter.

Using Protocol Matters as a diving board, I try to plunge as deeply as possible into all the do’s and don’ts that make up our world of manners.聽 It is tricky to present these rules as being something that will benefit my students in the coming years without it sounding like Mrs. Bertke is just trying to add more no-no’s to our life!聽 After a brief and joyful discussion about the importance of manners, we get down to the nitty-gritty!聽 I teach my students the details of how to approach a table, when to be seated, which hand is used to place their napkin in their lap as well as appropriate table talk.聽 I always tell my students that they will receive a grade for their attention to their own manners, and we proceed to partake of a delicious meal that a parent brings in.

The happiness and warmth that is shared during our etiquette meals is indescribable.聽 The students are actively thinking of their neighbor and how to include all those around them in the table’s discussion.聽 The gentlemen are actually acting like gentlemen!聽 The ladies are considerate of the food that is being placed in their mouth.聽 It is a time for their teacher to sit back (not literally) and enjoy watching my active, rambunctious, and occasionally gross students interact in a civilized and courteous way that is reflective of the wedding feast that we will partake of in glory.

Praise God for our school.聽 Praise God for our country.聽 Praise God for our headmaster that allows me to slightly disturb the regular rhythm of our school day so that we might send out straight and strong arrows into the world of darkness which, upon hitting their mark, may do so with graceful manners!

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Congratulations, Kelsey! You have made your parents, your church, and your school proud.

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The Bible very rarely speaks directly to children, but when it does so it is unequivocal. 鈥淗onor your father and your mother鈥� (Ex 20:12). 鈥淐hildren, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right鈥� (Eph 6:1). And parents are likewise unambiguously commanded to be in authority over their children, instructing them in God鈥檚 ways. 鈥淎nd these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them [God鈥檚 words] diligently to your children,鈥� said the Lord to His people (Deut 6:6-7).

But what does it mean for children to obey?

It is obviously possible to do what you鈥檙e told with a heart full of rebellion. Is the standard mere external, compulsory compliance? I am reminded of the little boy sitting in the corner who told his mother, 鈥淚 may be sitting down on the outside, but on the inside I鈥檓 standing up!鈥�

The biblical standard of obedience is captured well in the dictum, 鈥淲e obey right away, all the way, with a good attitude every day.鈥� This is something that children hear around the halls and classrooms of 91原创 quite often.

Obey right away. Slow obedience is no obedience. Prompt obedience is evidence of a heart that is willing and ready to obey. This heart-readiness to obey honors the authority and position of parents or teachers and therefore honors God.

Obey all the way. True obedience is complete and thorough obedience. If I tell my daughter to place the dirty glass in the dishwasher, but she places it in the sink instead, I don鈥檛 do myself or my daughter any favors if I say, 鈥淲ell, at least she got close. At least she didn鈥檛 leave the glass on the table.鈥� Obedience means obeying all the way, not just half the way or most of the way.

Obey with a good attitude every day. Sour-puss obedience is dishonoring to God. God desires our joyful obedience to those in authority over us, and He desires this same joy of our children. Obedience that says with facial gestures or posture, 鈥淚鈥檒l obey but I don鈥檛 like it鈥� may be compliance, but it鈥檚 not obedience.

We must train our children to obey. Our children are sons and daughters of Adam and are born with a bent toward selfishness and rebelliousness. But we must seek to capture their hearts and win their loyalty. Children who are thankful, joyful, loyal to their parents are children who obey from the heart. Only the gospel of Christ produces this kind of heart obedience, so we are reliant on God to give us and our children His grace. We must pray for our children diligently.

This year at 91原创 teachers are joining parents in this training process, training children, both young and old, to obey from the heart. Like any training process, there is pain involved 鈥� the pain of correction and discipline. But there is also great joy when children are heartily obedient and readily loyal to those who are charged by God to instruct them.

You love your children and want the best for them. That is why you have them at 91原创. We are aware of that great trust, and we will do everything in our power to love our precious students and strive daily to train them toward obeying right away, all the way, with a good attitude every day.

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Originally from Washington, Miss Hoffmann spent the last four years in Moscow, Idaho, as a student at New Saint Andrews College. A graduate of NSA, she has a bachelor of arts in Liberal Arts and Culture. She aspires to give her students a love of the written word and train them to see themselves as characters in God’s story of the world.

Miss Hoffmann has three siblings, loves horses and horsemanship, and is excited about East Texas humidity and mosquitoes (the first two have been positively verified). She will arrive in Nacogdoches a bit later in August.

Welcome, Ruth!

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Manners are minor morals. They are the everyday ways we respect other people and facilitate social relations. They make up the moral fabric of our shared lives. They need to be taught.

— Author and education professor Thomas Lickona

Children do not naturally come by manners. Leave them alone, and, well, have you read Lord of the Flies? Manners must be taught, trained, reinforced, modeled, corrected, and then trained some more.

This is an essential component of a Christian education.

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The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.

Notice how all-embracing this definition is. Notice how it includes not just an intellectual, rational component, but also “temper” and “manners and morals.” True education, true Christian education, is all-encompassing — it teaches the whole child in obedience to the whole Word of God. If we think of education merely as what goes on when students are learning subjects or merely as a rational exercise or merely what goes on at a school building, we are thinking wrongly.

Education is all-encompassing. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reminds us of this reality:

鈥淗ear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.聽 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.聽 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.聽 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

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What do we do in Christian education? We ask enduring questions that fuel wonder and spark desire for wisdom and understanding. An unboring life, indeed.

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The newest face in the 91原创 faculty is Mr. Roy Bradley. The Lord’s guiding hand has been evident as He led Mr. Bradley and his family to our school, and we are indeed thankful.

Mr. Bradley will teach omnibus, logic, and government in our Logic and Rhetoric schools. He is a graduate of Sam Houston State University with a B.A. in philosophy and music, and he has completed graduate work at Truett Seminary in Waco and B.H. Carroll Theological Institute in Arlington. Roy and his wife Christy have two children: Aaron (2) and Claire (5 months).

They moved to the area from Houston, and if you are at the school these days, there is a good chance you will see him around. If you do, introduce yourself and take a moment to begin getting to know him. He is a bright, energetic, personable man who is going to do a great job in the classroom.

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Here you can see the project from unloading to completion. The last picture is of the smaller playground piece for the KPrep and Kindergarten students.

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Economist Richard Weaver wrote a book titled: Ideas Have Consequences. We might consider this the “practical” side of philosophy. It matters what we think. Every idea produces a particular kind of fruit. Every culture is the product of ideas. We can look at this from the other side: consequences also have ideas. When we see a culture and its fruit, which is what we often see first, we must ask, “What ideas produced this?” Many times the ideas have not been thought about in a systematic way. We either do not evaluate the culture at all (it just is), or else the ideas seem to be random and unconnected.

This is true for us individually as well as corporately. We all do philosophy, but we don’t all do philosophy well. Our philosophies are often haphazard and inconsistent. As a result, the fruit of our philosophy is also haphazard and inconsistent. Since we are inevitably philosophers (i.e., we have ideas), we must strive to be consistently Christian in our philosophy. In our context we need a distinctively Christian philosophy of education. Remember, each of us already has a philosophy of education; the question is whether it is distinctively Christian. It’s not enough to be a Christian teacher or to have a school full of Christian teachers (i.e., those who are personally going to heaven when they die). A school building full of Christians still might not be a Christian school.

In order for us to be a “Christian” school, we must have a school founded on and practicing a distinctively Christian philosophy of education. We must be epistemologically self-conscious Christians. We must know what to do and why we are doing it: what are the children being taught? (content), and why are they being taught that way? (philosophy).

Pastor Randy Booth (from his blog )

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