Of Greenhouses and Students at our Christian School

 “How do your students do when they enter the real world?” 

The question implied that what we do at LCES isn’t linked in a direct way to what happens outside of the school day for our students. 

The goal of Christian education is not to isolate students from life, but to enable them to fully understand what they are actually seeing. We seek to have students be able to peel back the confusion and distortion of God’s good creation that is caused by sin to see creation as it was originally meant to be, and one day what it will become again. The “real world” without the story of the mighty acts of God isn’t real at all, since it tells an incomplete story of what life is really all about. As C.S. Lewis said through one of his characters, we seek to provide students ample opportunity to “…go further in and go further up” as they deepen and widen their understanding of all things. Mixed in between math facts and poetry, gym class and art, Christian education fosters the ability to discern truth, seek reconciliation, and share love. 

I like to think of the students in our school as seedlings in a greenhouse. We shelter them, but never with the belief that is where they will permanently stay. We do it to give them the best means to grow and flourish where God plants them. Just like the wise gardener starts the seedlings in cold January under glass to give plants the very best chance of being healthy outside in June, we nurture our children in the wonderful space of a Christian school where we grow in wisdom and love each day. 

Bring on the warmth (eventually) of spring!

SJ