“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” This query of Israel’s sacred singer is one which keeps ringing through the souls of Christian believers in our day. It is not a question prompted by pessimism; rather is it a challenging call to look to the God of the covenant who loves righteousness and […]
During my childhood, a sermon in August on Christian education was not uncommon. There was no doubt that the minister was speaking about the local Christian school that had the Reformed faith as the basis for this education. It was preached unashamedly as the right thing to do for the training of covenant children in […]
The Christian school movement is passing through a period of unprecedented growth and progress. The 1950 Christian School Annual reveals startling enrollment increases. From 1949 to 1950 the total enrollment in the Christian schools belonging to the National Union of Christian schools increased by 4 1/2 percent, from 1945 to 1950 the increase was 36 percent, […]
The most widely discussed subject in Christian school circles at present is the publishing of Christian textbooks This widespread interest is significant. It indicates the reaching of a new stage in the growth or—the Christian school movement. During the first period of Christian school history there was considerable emphasis upon promotional activity. This is but […]
This article is based on remarks made to Christian Schools International (CSI). District 8, administrators’ meeting, April/93. The Editors Christians are school builders. Our history as school builders reaches back many centuries and continues today. We build schools for our covenant youth close to home, and we build schools on foreign mission fields to support the […]
For a couple of years I heard comments about a book I was not eager to read. The book’s title put me off: it is called Profscam. The subtitle tells us more: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education. The author of this book is Charles J. Sykes. and it was published by St. Martin’s […]
During the early fifties, I read a pamphlet by Roland Allen, a British missionary with long years of experience in the Far East, dealing with education in the mission field. In his critique of educating children of unbelievers in mission schools, he wrote: Christian education is far more the teaching of Christians than teaching given […]
Over the years of my ministry, I have prayerfully tried to be a teacher. In previous congregations, I was grateful to have been able to teach most, if not all, the catechism classes for the students who spanned the range from Grade 3 through Grade 12. I was grateful for the opportunity to establish good and […]
In his book, The De-Valuing of America, former Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, exposes the mediocre performance of American educational institutions and their inability to produce students who can compete world–wide. The reason he gives for the American educational decline is that many educators have forgotten the purpose for their school’s existence. Statistics show that […]
In a previous article we traced the staunch historic commitment of Dutch Reformed people to provide authentically Reformed Christian schooling to covenant children and youth. We saw how in North America, God richly blessed both Reformed church and Reformed school through this commitment up to the mid-twentieth century. Let us now survey what has happened […]