Valuable Questions At Our Christian School

“Does it weigh more than a soccer ball?

To pass the time on a long family road trip last week, I introduced my children to the game of twenty questions. They quickly learned the value of a good question when they used up ten questions and were not much closer to correctly guessing the object I was thinking about.

Contrast that with the stories of Jesus’ ministry we’ve been reading at our supper table. It stands out to us how many times Jesus gives a stunning question that reveals truth as a reply to a question intended for undermining authority, attacking character, or achieving malicious objectives.

I’m convinced excellent questions lead to excellent learning. In a culture of information flow that leans much further toward passive consumption than active creation, it is exceptionally important for us to grow students’ capacity to formulate questions that do the following:

Connect. When students ask questions that attempt to see how one part of God’s world is connected to another, they understand more of how majestically it was created and appreciate it at a deeper level. A recent example of a question heard in a primary question recently was “What happens to all the leaves in the forest? Where do they go if no one rakes them up?”

Renew.  A deeper level question that asks students to see what God’s original plan was for a part of creation, how very good it was, and how they might be part of renewing it is transformational for their future communities. An example I heard of this recently as “Why are bee populations in decline and what can farmers do about it?”

Discern. Learning to ask as much about what isn’t being said as what is, what justice looks like in an area of life, and digging deep with questions to identify bias and perspective is powerful. An example I heard this week is “What is the author presuming everyone agrees about?”

I’m thankful for Christian Education at LCES that challenges our children to delight in God’s world and ask quality questions that leads them further in to it.

SJ

Duplo Blocks and Planning at Our Christian School

“What are you making?” I asked a young learner with a sea of brightly coloured Duplo books in front of him. “I’m not sure yet” came the quick reply.  “I will know when the blocks are finished being put together.”

I’ve heard the same kind of conversation in kindergarten about interesting or unusual items brought in to be part of the classroom or outdoor centres. What will the students make or do with them? They will show us!

This is perhaps an accurate picture of what the board and leadership of the school are busy with these next weeks. We’re putting the pieces of the 2019-2020 school year together without knowing, at least not entirely, what the end result will be. The Duplo blocks for the board are strategic plans, a budget, staffing, board plans, new family enrolment, existing family re-enrolment, and more.

I would suggest that starting with assertion we don’t know what the end product will look like is a good thing. But let us also start with what do know without question. This is God’s school. These are His children we love and educate. This is His world. He has plans for us that are intended for His glory and our good. They may or may not be what we initially think is best, however time in God’s story has a way of making things stand out with clarity.

At auspicious moments like weddings, anniversaries, retirements, or even funerals we are quick to speak of God’s faithfulness and provision. We are also wise to do the same when we start a new endeavor, moving forward boldly in full knowledge that God has “more than we can ask for or imagine” in store for us. (Ephesians 3:20)

Please uphold the work of school leadership in prayer. Wait expectantly for God’s blessings as they have been promised us. We pray that our upcoming Spring Break pause at the end of the week be restful and safe whether travelling far away or remaining close to home.

SJ

Tech and Teaching: Where do we stand on technology in our Christian school?

“We only get one life to live. Wouldn’t it be better spent enjoying and serving the world God made rather than a glowing screen?” Andy Crouch

“Technology is only very good if it can help us become the persons we were mean to be.” Andy Crouch

The quick association of technology in learning as being the presence of computers, tablets, Chromebooks, projectors, and more is understandable, but we are wiser to realize that everything from scissors to pencil crayons and whiteboards to ball point pens is technology. We know that all of God’s world belongs to him, and all of it can be used in faithfulness or disobedience. Technology doesn’t live outside that truth. Our task is sorting out the difference and being intentional about choosing wisely. It also seems true that technology is challenging us and our children and we don’t have a long history to count on for a tried and true response. It’s all relatively new and some trends are alarming.

Technology of any kind will never replace the value of excellent teaching and leading by parent or teacher. The presence or absence of technology alone in a classroom or school doesn’t indicate students will learn any better or be any smarter. The value of a skilled and committed teacher who is able to match learning methods well with student’s abilities, interests, and development is as essential as always. I’ve often thought that when technology enables us to do something we couldn’t otherwise do, then we’re accessing more of its God-created potential for our benefit.

These two matters understood, we do know that technology will be a part of children’s future and we want to prepare them well for its opportunities and challenges. Some of the goals I would hope for our students are to be efficient and highly effective in the tools they use, for them to push them for their high level capability for pursing wisdom and restoration of God’s world, and develop a life skill of being able to put it in its proper place.

SJ

Two items for further reading:

• Our staff has constructed a document called “LCES E-Device Guidelines” Please read it.
• I highly recommend reading “The Tech Wise Family” by Andy Crouch. This book is a short, highly relatable read authored from the viewpoint of a father of adolescent children. I’ve met and heard him a speaker several times. He’s excellent and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Fear and Wisdom at Our Christian School

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” Psalm 111: 10

SK students recently were challenged to talk about their fears and when they had shown courage. The answers were a window into the world of a child. Courage to sing in a Christmas program, bravery at the pool’s edge, and even courage to try a two wheeled bike were mentioned. A story exists in my family of a sibling who was incredibly scared of hot air balloons at a kindergarten age since it was believed, based on a party balloon popping, that the one in the sky might mean the end of the world.

Psalm 111’s mention of fear always perplexed me when I was a child, since fear was not something that I associated with God. I certainly knew what is was to have fear, but didn’t see the connection to a God who loved so unconditionally and completely.

Some of you may know that this text is built right into our building in the form of a keystone installed as part of a wall. It was my pleasure to show it to several new families this week here at school for the first installment of Ready, Set, Learn. One parent was actually an alumni of LCES and clearly remembered its this keystone in its prominent spot, now outside the SK classroom.

A school formed around the fear of the Lord is a school that teaches students to know that God exists and is simultaneously all-powerful and all-loving. Fearing the Lord means that we collectively know our absolute dependency on him for all things, and celebrate his amazing care and faithfulness the gifts of each new day and all it brings. Fear of the Lord as the pathway to true wisdom means that we can’t truly know anything, unless we start with God.

How many students and parents have walked past that keystone through its many years of prominent position? Thousands, I’m sure. Lord willing I just met the next round of wonderful young image bearers that will come to know its truth.

SJ

Our Hope Filled Christian School

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 
1 Peter 1:3 

“I hope you remember to wear your snow pants.”
“I hope that treatment will work for her.”
“I hope we can enroll our children here.”
“I hope I get the part of Juliet.”
“I hope tomorrow will be a snow day.”


I’ve been noticing the word hope being used more frequently in my circles Most often when we use that word, it shares a desired outcome or wish but doesn’t communicate confidence in a certain outcome at the same time. A biblically grounded concept of hope runs deeper than a strong wish.
God's Word assures us that our hope is a sure thing. Jesus has already won, and we are renewed creations! This world belongs to God, in its entirety and we are assured that there is nothing we can do and nowhere we can go that we can escape the love of God. (Romans 8) What else do we need to know?

Christian schools, like ours, are places where that kind of hope is the anchor. Our Christian school teachers don’t see a group of students to manage for the day or even year, they also see future mechanics, engineers, mothers/fathers, social workers, electricians, politicians, web designers and accountants. They see them all with a grand vision implanted of hope for a world that is entangled with sin, but redeemed by Christ. Woven into the fabric of how the board of directors and administration sustains this school is confident hope that God will provide for our parents, and as result bless our school with all its needs. Our children are free to embrace a certain hope in learning in these things: that this is God’s world, that Christ is enough, that they belong, and that they have a purpose in God’s kingdom.

We know the future will be great, because Christ is already there!

 Please pray for the board, administration, staff and parents as we balance our faithful work and a hope filled trust in getting the 2019/20 school year organized.

SJ

Fruits In Winter At Our Christian School

Although they are leafless outside, we were talking about trees this morning in chapel. Fruits, students were reminded, are evidence of a healthy tree. Characteristics of Christian living are described as the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 3:22-23) because the tree image also applies here: healthy people produce healthy ways of living. This makes people flourish as God intended them to. Here is the list and some of my first thoughts of fruits evident at LCES:

Love: I listened to deep learning last week in an intermediate classroom on what love for God, others, and self looks like when they are balanced correctly. Profound thoughts for an emerging worldview.

Joy: Hearing grade seven students describe their experience trying out curling was evidence of their joy of being a community.

Peace: Junior students (grades 3-5) practice being peacemakers on the playground after having been

equipped with skills to see and resolve conflicts that can often be solved in simple ways.

Patience: Grade six, seven, and eight students help in the JK & SK classrooms and learn just how long it takes to eat lunch and get on snow gear when you are five or six!

Kindness: A Leave Others Encouraged bulletin board in the south hallway has names of students “caught” being kind by LCES staff by doing something as simple as sharing a lunch item for someone who forgot theirs.

Goodness: Through class devotions, novel studies, and class discussions I hear a vivid picture held before students daily of God’s “very good” creation and the good He wants us to experience.

Faithfulness: Students in several classes have personally signed and decorated LCES thank you cards that will eventually be sent to community donors who pray and give to support our school.

Gentleness: In December I watched a grade eight bus buddy walk past my office window patiently leading a kindergarten student to the bus in the middle of a temper tantrum. Graciousness and gentleness got the child on the bus.

Self Control: We work actively at LCES to help students understand academic and social expectations that are good for them and help them realize how to make things right when they have gone off the rails. It’s a joy to hear them self-report how they made a wiser choice the next time.

We do important work at LCES. May God bless our orchard!

SJ

The Big Pillars at Our Christian School

It is a very regular occurrence that I am asked by a student or teacher here at LCES to come to a classroom to appreciate the unique, meaningful things our students are up to. Whether it is creating and describing pizzas in French, wrestling with a unique math challenge, acting out a Bible story, or students intently focused on creating beautiful art – our classrooms are places of joy and discovery. It is a privilege to be a welcomed as guest to these precious moments where young minds and hearts are being shaped in such wonderful ways. I notice four main things during these visits:

Connectedness We aim for our students to see God’s creation as an intricate, complex, and amazing example of how purposeful God 
is. God’s world is something to be studied as a whole, as well as in its parts. 

Discernment We want our students to develop tools and have opportunities to practice, under the watchful idea of a passionate educator, figuring out what is God’s truth and what is means for them. God’s world is designed around God’s truth.

Service We strive to have our students live out the truth of biblically knowing as the study the Lord’s handiwork directs them to love their neighbor in every way, in everything they do and say. God’s world is one of community.

Wonder God’s world is a thing of beauty and we wish for our students to meet God in new ways as they learn. God’s world speaks of his greatness, of which we can never stop finding things to praise him for.

Big things guide our learning! What a joy that our children may experience this every day, whether its in the January deep freeze or the summer heat. Do you know of someone who should be coming to see us for a tour and consideration enrolling at LCES? I encourage you to have that direct conversation with them.

SJ