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Christian School Comment

Association of Christian Schools International
Volume 39, Number 9

It Is Worth
the Cost!

We are in the final weeks or days of the school year, depending on your
location. It is my hope and prayer that this school year has been a blessed
one for you and your family, particularly as you reflect on the role of
Christian schooling in the lives of your children. As I stated in last month’s
Christian School Comment, we live in economically, politically, and
spiritually challenging days.
Many of you wrestle with harsh and frightening economic issues as you
consider the coming school year. I urge you to contemplate the impact of
the culture on our lives and in particular on the formative aspects of your
children’s lives. Consider prayerfully what resources you will bring to bear
when you see the culture molding—subtly and brutally sometimes—the
development of your children.
I need hardly mention the seductive power of the media as they fuel
our minds to indulge in every want and desire—converting narcissistic
wishes into seemingly essential pursuits. Consider further the influence of
entertainment mockery as it grinds away to destroy many of the Christian
values that followers of Christ hold as dear and essential. As we sense the
impact of the media on mature adults, we can only imagine how it works
on kids in their growing and developing years.
The nation was stunned recently when nine third graders in a Waycross,
Georgia, elementary school were alleged to have put together a plot to
knock out, handcuff, and stab their teacher in response to the teacher’s
discipline of a classmate. People in the field of psychiatry gave responses
that ranged from utter disbelief to casual dismission. In an April 2 article
headlined “3rd-Graders Plot Against Teacher Doubted,” USA Today.com
reported that “Dr. Louis Kraus, a child psychiatry expert at Rush University
Medical center in Chicago, said he doubts they would have actually
attacked.” One might have at least a slight concern about such a seemingly
dismissive statement.
The brazen attack on faith-based stances, particularly those with their roots
in the Christian faith, are astounding. somewhere amid that noise and
clamor, our national heritage—which has deep roots in Christianity—often
languishes. Our court system has come to interpret separation of church
and state to mean that faith-based thinking must be kept out of the public
arena. In What’s So Great About Christianity, Dinesh D’souza addresses this
matter by writing, “Somehow freedom for religious expression has become
freedom from religious expression. secularists want to empty the public
square of religion and religious-based morality so they can monopolize the
shared space of society with their own views. In the process they have made
religious believers into second-class citizens” (2007, 53). And for some
reason or other, too many of us have allowed that deception to become
acceptable and even to prevail.

Consider prayerfully what resources you
will bring to bear when you see the
culture molding—subtly and brutally
sometimes—the development of your children.

It is the intent of Christian schooling to support your family in a serious
focus on developing your children’s Christian worldview—intentionally
working through every aspect of the school’s curriculum and school life
to develop Christ followers who are willing to stand against the negative
influence of a powerful culture.
It is worth the cost!

Reference

D’souza, Dinesh. 2007. What’s so great about Christianity. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.

Ken Smitherman, President

Association of Christian Schools International

Enabling Christian Educators and Schools Worldwide

PO Box 65130 • Colorado Springs, CO 80962-5130

719-528-6906