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NLSA accredits 106 Lutheran schools for 2013-14

Comments (3)
  1. Florence Johnson says:

    I saw this as your Fb post from Synod this morning. What follows is the ‘comment’ I left with there..
    “Your post prompts a brainstorm this morning, forgive me for the length, but I must respond, this topic brings up several related issues:

    I am an alumni of a Lutheran school. I am a grateful at having graduated from a Concordia where I received training as a teacher.
    Lutheran education has always aimed for excellence. However when I read:
    “…The new evaluation process embraces 21st-century teaching and learning methodologies, and will encourage our teachers to even better serve their students…” it causes me to pause and reflect on the exact meaning of your words.

    There was a time when I would have seen this as simply good… before “public or government” education became a disgrace. Christians measuring success (with our children) by receiving the approval of a confused and corrupted system is not as comforting a thought as it was, even just five years ago. I am not anti-accreditation, but does this “encouraging” you mentioned include our embracing the deeply flawed “Common Core”? If so, how do we reconcile that with the whole reason Lutherans started schools in the first place? Christ is the most important element – He is our “core”. But you know that.

    I look across the spectrum in Lutheran schools, and many don’t even “call” Concordia-trained teachers any more (as we personally have seen in Arkansas, California and Idaho). I see sloppy-to-non-existent-veering-into-sheer-sentiment theological teaching. Some have dropped the name “Lutheran” altogether. Our kids are being cheated from receiving the deep and sound theological training that has always been our trademark.

    Speaking of which…
    Except for Wisconsin and Irvine, do any of the Concordias teach Biblical Creation as truth? We do so as a Synod. Why is that not a huge talking point in what we aim to do academically? Kids leave the faith over this issue, and it isn’t necessary when there are GREAT resources for teaching how science and the Bible can be taught together, with eyes wide open.

    There is a danger that our children exit the church because we have done such a poor job catechizing them in our quasi-government schools. A potential hazard in our marrying Common Core to Luther’s Catechism is that instead of promoting positive indoctrination into the true faith, we are inoculating children against that faith.”

    1. Florence Johnson says:

      I meant to say “I saw this as your Fb (Facebook) post from Synod this morning. What follows is the ‘comment’ I left over there..” (Typing on my cell phone means that sometimes editing gets tricky)

  2. Holly Reynolds says:

    Florence Johnson, I totally concur with your post. I had the exact same thoughts when I read “…embracing 21st century teaching and learning methodologies…” in the article by Viiki Biggs.

    I enrolled my son in a Lutheran/Christ based school as a way that he would learn not only 2=2=4 but that “with Christ all things are possible”. I am afraid that the schools are bending to the way of secularism in their teaching and will eventually fail to teach anything Christian.

    Also, I did NOT want my son to be harassed by government testing nor have teachers short changed by not being allowed to teach what they want (so to speak) but what will be on the tests.

    I would think this would be a VERY cautionary tale for any church based school who wants to align with the very entity that is trying to get rid of them as a whole.

    First and foremost, I am my child’s educator. I am in charge of what he learns, from who and where. That is MY responsibility given to me by God. If I choose to abdicate that responsibility and LET those who care more about the money they will receive from implementing “common core” than my child’s best interests, then I would be a denier of all things Christian.

    A government run school, by any means, will not allow it to remain Christ centered.

    If this is what the new accreditation is all about, I want no part of it.