Westminster Christian Academy School Board Handbook Preamble
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Preamble
The God of the Old and New Testaments is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists. He possesses absolute authority over all things. God is the God of the Bible. In the Bible, God has revealed Himself, His will and His way to us. Through the Bible, we learn to understand the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and God's created, natural world and the principles He has placed therein.
Schooling must use the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the infallible basis and interpreter for all teaching and learning. Schooling must guide the child to an understanding of God's centrality to all of life and learning. No academic discipline or schooling activity lies outside this quest.
God has loaned children to their parents-not to schools, churches or governments. The school exists to assist parents in the godly rearing of their children as an extension of their home.
B. Statement of Purpose
Westminster Christian Academy is a parochial school, a ministry of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. It is committed to the education of children and strives to implement a curriculum that reflects
the variety of needs of these children, one that is based upon and faithful to the Holy Scriptures as interpreted in the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. Secondarily, Westminster Christian Academy attempts to meet the needs of children of other professing Christians, regardless of race, color or national origin.
Committed to a believe that the responsibility for the educating and nurturing of the child rests with the parents, Westminster Christian Academy also recognizes the necessity for the church and school-together with the family-to provide a unified worldview. The school is not to take the place of the home or the church but, as an extension of the home, is committed to help both fulfill their Christian responsibilities.
C. Philosophy of Education
1. True Education
God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-reveals Himself in His world and in His Word. He is the Sovereign Lord of History, the Author and Revealer of Truth, the Creator, Sustainer and Consummator of life. Without Him, life is meaningless and education is misdirected.
God the Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, has given us truth in His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Scriptures, the only infallible and authoritative basis for faith and practice. Education is the process of coming to know the truth of God, applying that truth to all of life, and evaluating all of life by that truth. God is ultimate in understanding that pattern of life.
We are naturally blinded to the truth because of the disintegrating effect of sin on each of us in every area of life. Because of sin, our minds are darkened and we are incapable of understanding or obeying God's truth. Freedom from this blindness comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. He alone has paid the penalty for our sins and has taken our deserved judgment and death. He offers us the free gift of eternal life because of His immeasurable grace and calls us according to the purpose of His own will. Only through faith in Jesus is the human being at last set free to hear, understand and obey God's truth and to become a part of God's family.
At Westminster Christian Academy, we seek every opportunity to know and share this truth and to experience its effect upon our lives and upon our approach to education. In all of its activities, the School submits itself to the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit who has been sent by God to guide us into all truth. All things are to be done to God's glory-our primary responsibility is to Him. Therefore, true education has God alone at its center.
Education in the Reformed tradition is education of, by and for the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Christ's kingdom is not only a future kingdom for which we hope, but also a present one in which we participate. It is a kingdom present not only in the quietness of the heart, but also publicly; public not only in the life of the individual, but also collectively; collectively not only in the worship and work of the church, but also within ordinary society. It is a kingdom in which Christ's people are to be led not only to a righteous stand against certain behavior and societal structures, but also to work for the transforming of that behavior and those structures through our present and future priestly endeavors in the basic spheres of family, vocation and culture. It is a kingdom requiring ultimate and final allegiance to Jesus Christ in all of life.
Above all else, Christ's kingdom is not an austere power and rule imposed impersonally from afar and requiring repressive servility. Rather, it is a covenantal relationship of encounter and response wherein Christ's people experience the intimacy of God's empowering and sustaining presence.
2. The Learner and Learning
We recognize and affirm that every person has been created in the image of God with a unique identity. Within each person exist individual strengths and weaknesses, capabilities and limitations. By grace through faith in Jesus, the individual enters that relationship with God whereby he is nurtured and matured. Thus, we want every person in our school to grow as an individual, acknowledging, appreciating and utilizing the identity which God has given him and following the course which God has established for him.
We recognize that this unique identity is only fully realized as a person in a community with other Christians. Within the Christian community there is a blending of selves without the loss of individuality. Here we accept and are accepted, affirm and are affirmed, encourage and are encouraged; here we find strength as we give our lives to Christ and to each other. Within this community, we learn to recognize, accept and prepare ourselves for the responsibilities God has given us. In this learning process, we experience times of success and failure. Throughout our effort, we will be upheld and guided by the loving support and discipline of the community of Christ.
Living out these beliefs at Westminster Christian Academy includes educating the whole person for a whole life by providing experiences which educate the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and physical areas of life.
- We believe that the individual is a spiritual being, created for fellowship with God. This relationship is only initiated through a personal encounter with Christ. Subsequent growth in the Christian life is a progressive development nurtured by prayer, study, obedience to Scripture and participation in the Christian community. This development leads to a concern for the family, church, nation and world.
- We believe that the individual is an emotional being who acts, reacts and interacts according to a God-given set of affections and feelings. Only through a relationship with Christ can a person find emotional wholeness. As he grows in this relationship, he recognizes the talents and limitations God has given and learns to accept himself as he is. He reaches out to others whom he learns to accept and with whom he shares his life and experiences. Through this sharing, he learns the joy of giving, loving and trusting. Sometimes he experiences disappointments and frustrations in himself and with others. The relationship with Christ allows the Christian to act honestly and appropriately in all circumstances.
- We believe that the individual is a rational being capable of developing and exercising those mental disciplines necessary for life in contemporary times. The human intellect, blighted and warped by sin, is set free through faith in Jesus Christ to know God, to look at life from God's perspective, and to think God's thoughts after him. Through training, discipline, encouragement and exposure to the various branches of learning, the human intellect grows and develops according to its own unique capabilities and limitations. Through this intellectual growth, the individual takes his place in society and makes his own positive contributions to that society. Faith and the intellect are compatible. In God's scheme, neither can adequately develop nor function without the other. The man of faith, therefore, takes seriously the intellect; the truly rational man, faith.
- We believe that the individual is a physical being. Throughout history, however, mankind has promoted two errors concerning this physical being. One demeans man's physicalness, viewing it as hindrance, a type of prison to be endured. The other worships the body, making its care, development and well-being the central issue of life. We reject both extremes. The physical body is a definite part of man's essential being and is a gift from God. Therefore, the Christian has a duty to understand it, care for it and develop it properly. The body is to be disciplined and not worshiped, to be nourished and not rejected. The physical body of the Christian is the dwelling place of God's Holy Spirit. As such, it is offered up to God for His use.
Education, therefore, is concerned with the whole man. It seeks to bring the whole man to God through Christ and to aid man's subsequent growth in that new relationship. It also seeks to give the whole man training for a productive life in a contemporary society.
3. The Teacher
We believe that teaching is a godly, priestly vocation reserved for those specially equipped and called by the Lord, and who evidence a love for children and a mastery of the essential teaching skills. Teaching is a spiritual ministry reserved for those who give evidence of a personal embracing of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who receive the holy Scriptures as their sole rule for faith and practice, and whose faith goes beyond a mere tacit agreement with particular theological positions to an exemplary spiritual life that qualifies the teacher to be model and mentor, as well as instructor. In accord with the traditional concept of in loco parentis-in the place of parents-the teacher is engaged by the parent to enter the child's life in a position of honor, obedience and reverence.
4. The Parents
We believe that parents are charged by God with the responsibility for their child's education and nurture. We also believe that the home is to be the center of all learning, for worship and work, devotion and discipline. In a highly technical and specialized society, parents voluntarily engage godly teachers to assist them in the educating and nurturing of their child. Because parents are given the primary responsibility for the educating and nurturing of their children, and since that educating and nurturing is to be Biblical both in its purpose and content, Christian schools are to be established with freedom from the permission and control of the secular state.
5. The Christian Community
We believe that Christian schooling is a Biblical mandate. Thus, it is the obligation of the entire Christian community to establish, maintain, pray for and financially support Christian schools, and to encourage and assist Christian parents to enroll their children in these schools. We further believe that Redeemer Presbyterian Church, as the founding and governing church of the School, and other local churches whose parents and children benefit from the School, should so engage themselves in the support of Westminster Christian Academy.
6. Educational Objectives
- To teach the student that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe as literally interpreted in the Bible, which is His infallible Word.
- To teach each student the Gospel message--that the Lord Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God who came to earth to die for us.
- To inspire each student toward life which reflects that commitment and to encourage each student towards a growth in the Christian life that depends upon the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live a Christian life, the Scriptures which teach us how to live, and other means that God has placed at our disposal.
- To provide opportunity for each student to develop a healthy devotional life.
- To teach each student the application of Biblical principles to every part of daily life and to inspire each student to develop and embrace a value system centered in Christ and obedient to the Scriptures.
- To provide an environment in which the student learns to love God and to enjoy Him forever.
- To develop in each student an understanding of the cultural mandate and a participation through a proper exercise of time, talent and vocation, the fulfillment of God's command to fill the earth, subdue the earth and to rule over and care for the earth in a manner that brings God glory.
- To encourage each student to communicate in love and understanding with non-Christians and with Christians who hold differing views.
- To enable each student to understand the Bible and its doctrines as summarized in the Westminster Standards.
- To help each student recognize his uniqueness as an individual and to identify his own strengths and weaknesses, and learn to appreciate and develop those unique qualities and capabilities which God has given to him.
- To develop awareness in each student that all behavior has consequences and that he is accountable for the choices that he makes.
- To develop in each student a respect for and an appreciation of authority and discipline, as well as for the individual who holds the position of authority.
- To develop in each student the decision-making ability and to encourage the use of that ability in dealing with life's problems.
- To develop in each student the ability and desire to nurture friendships.
- To give each student the ability to recognize one's worth and function in the community of Christians, regardless of age or position.
- To develop in each student the appreciation for and the skills necessary for wise use of leisure time.
- To develop in each student patience for God's plan being manifested in his life, and to provide support, guidance and discipline in helping the student identify and accept his unique course in life.
- To encourage each student to enter into commitments intelligently, and to honor and submit himself to them.
- To show each student his present civic responsibilities and to prepare him for adult responsibility as a Christian citizen of our nation.
- To help each student understand the relationship between the physical, emotional, spiritual and rational aspects of life and to recognize such as gifts from God.
- To help each student appreciate his body as a gift from God, to be used for His glory, and to provide the student with an understanding of his body and its care and appearance.
- To teach each student to work both independently and cooperatively.
- To develop the creative abilities of each student, as well as an appreciation for the fine arts.
- To develop effective communication skills in each student, including the ability to express himself clearly, as well as the ability and willingness to listen.
- To develop in each student a love for learning and help each student develop the skills necessary for study and lifelong learning.
- To provide opportunity for each student to learn problem-solving and develop the ability to think critically.
- To provide opportunity for each student to learn practical arts and skills as well as the knowledge and skills necessary for future study or occupational competence.