1991 White Book, P.136:­ AD HOC COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AUTHORITY: 1990 Blue Book Minute 219.3 (a) (b) &(c).

1991 Assembly Report on Educational Alternatives

In last year's report the committee commented on various schooling alternatives for P.C.Q. children including the support of existing Christian schools, the establishment of P.C.Q. schools, home schooling, and distance education. This year because of the perceived difficulties in establishing traditional type schools in the present financial climate, the committee focused its attention on the Accelerated Christian Education and home schooling alternatives (these two are not mutually exclusive). The committee believes that both alternatives are worthy of consideration to all Christian parents in that they create opportunities for Christ-centred parent directed education that are generally lacking in conventional systems.

The committee also succeeded, in accordance with 1991 B.B. Minute 219, para 8 (c), to organise a seminar on the subject of “Primary And Secondary Education From a Christian Perspective” in the Brisbane Room of the Brisbane City Hall from 7.30 pm to 9.30 pm on Tuesday the 28th May, 1991 with Dr. Noel Weeks as guest speaker. It is expected that notices of motion will be brought to the Assembly relating to matters raised in the session.

WHAT IS CHRISTIAN EDUCATION?

Before we answer this question we must recognise that education is by its very nature religious. This means that before the educational task can get under way certain religious questions must first be answered: What is education? What is the nature of the child? What things are important for the child to know? Should knowledge be taught for its own sake or should it be taught purely for its practical use? Should the school be concerned about character development or simply the mastery of intellectual and manual skills? What is character and what traits are worth developing? Who is responsible for the education of the child and what role should parents play? How is knowledge integrated into a world view?

Our answers to these questions will determine the type of education we conduct, from content and methodology to classroom design. To claim neutrality in these areas is like the preacher who rejects all creeds because of his theology. If education is not Christian then it is humanistic or Buddhist or Islamic, etc. But it is certainly not neutral. Christian education therefore must unashamedly seek biblical answers to these questions.

This committee has taken a critical stance against the state system over the past couple of years, especially in regard to Human Relationships Education which teaches that the child is an authority unto himself. However, according to Richard Fugate ("What the Bible Says about Child Training"; Aletheia Division of Alpha Omega Pub.):

"God has established the institution of the parent as one of His ruling authorities on earth. To this position has been delegated both the right to rule children and all the power necessary to succeed in training children according to God's plan ...Because of God-granted parental authority, parents have the right to set their will above that of their children and to command them to follow their rulership... Parents must not allow government to usurp their authority in those areas in which God holds the parents alone account­able. For example, parents have the explicit instructions in the Bible to teach their children information consistent with God's word. The institution of government has no such instructions and therefore has no authority above the parents to teach children contrary information."

It is also suggested that much of what goes under the name of Christian education today is nothing less than an uncritical embrace of humanistic structures with a Christian veneer pasted over the top. For too long Christian schools have been built uncritically upon a humanistic foundation whose premises have gone unchallenged. For example:

1. The emphasis upon academia has more in common with Athens than Jerusalem. In the past, non-academically gifted children derived little from the system and were consigned to the scrap heap as "failures" (the dropping of "F" or "Z" grades and the substitution of verbal or numerical grades from one to seven hasn't fooled anyone, least of all the children!). We have come to accept that a certain percentage of students must fail every year, according to the dictates of the bell shaped curve. How does this fit into the biblical teaching on individual gifts and the unique place each member plays in the body of Christ? Any system which automatically fails a certain percentage of its students has morally failed those students, and thereby proves itself a failure. Who would fly with an airline which as a matter of course loses thirty percent of its passengers in mid flight?
   
   Do we have the right to rank academic ability over other types of ability? The current "accredited" system does. The offering of less academically demanding and even non-academic subjects has done little to alleviate this problem given the relatively low status of these subject within the school environment. Education that is truly biblical and covenantal therefore will take seriously the unique God-given talents of each child. It will develop these gifts to the point where each child will be able to make a contribution that is valued and respected by the school community and the church.

1. It would seem that present classroom teaching methods have more in common with the mass production techniques of the industrial revolution (remember the sausage machine) than with the inter-personal, though not exclusively one on one, discipleship method evident in the scriptures (see Deut. 6:4-9). As with mass production, the emphasis in this method is on economy, being directly proportional to the student/teacher ratio. And yet everyone knows that this same ratio is also INVERSELY proportional to the quality of education given to each child. Conventional classroom teaching therefore, by its very nature, is in perpetual tension between quantity on the one hand and quality on the other.

To explain this problem further, teachers in conventional classrooms are forced to teach to the middle of the class, boring the faster students and mystifying the slower. When the teacher/student ratio is something like 1:25 (an average ratio in today's schools) it is impossible for the teacher to give each student the kind of individual attention he/she needs, with the result that some children are inevitably overlooked. This "lock­step" approach where children are moved in bulk up the increasingly more difficult academic ladder means that a certain percentage of children are left further and further behind. Instead of being adequately addressed, learning gaps are only widened with time until the slow child reaches a state of uneducatibility in the secondary years. These children normally gravitate to a corner of the room where they spend their time either misbehaving or gazing out the window until they are old enough to leave school. There are no prizes for guessing who the real failure is here and yet we have come to accept such losses as natural attrition.

A truly biblical education system, on the other hand, will see its responsibility to develop each individual child in terms of the God-given talents latent within him/her and to be accountable for the end result. According to this system children will never be regarded as blank slates to be written on but as descendants of Adam with a bias toward sin and therefore in need of redemption and sanctification. A truly biblical education system will recognise the child's need of the Holy Spirit as indispensable for a proper apprehension of true knowledge and wisdom. It will recognise therefore that education is more than an intellectual process but a covenantal discipleship program conducted by a parent, or a teacher "in loco parentis".

We contend that Christian parents ought to be satisfied with nothing less for their covenant children than a thorough going Christian education of the type outlined above. Indeed, Christian parents are responsible before God to provide just such an education as the only type upon which they can expect God to add his blessing. In the words of Richard Fugate (op. cit.):

"If you desire for your child to become obedient and willing to accept God's standards as his own, you will have to utilize the process that God has designed to obtain these results."

That some children survive other systems only serves to highlight the sheer mercy and patience of God in putting up with our semi obedience in this area.

Finally, we consider some common objections to Christian schooling:

a) That a withdrawal of Christian children from the state system is a withdrawal of Christian witness. Several questions arise out of this argument: (i) since when were our children missionaries to the state system, or alternatively, what missionary impact have they had over the years? The answer to this question should be obvious. (ii) How many covenant children have been sacrificed to the state system, having been mislead down the path of secular humanism? Is there an acceptable casualty figure here? (iii) Of those children who have survived, how many of these have been poisoned with humanistic concepts about themselves and the world that have denuded their Christian lives of spiritual power?

b) That Christian schools are too expensive. There is no doubt that Christian schooling can be an expensive proposition but it is a mistake to equate lavish facilities with quality education. Our focus on A.C.E. is to present what we consider to be a soundly biblical and also affordable system that does not, as far as we can see, compromise quality in this area.

It is true that private schooling will always be more expensive than State schooling for obvious reasons. But we ought not be surprised that in an increasingly secular world there is a penalty for parents who wish to give their children a Christ centred education. We must bear it in mind that although there is a financial penalty here, the penalty for exposing our children to humanism is potentially greater. Perhaps a decision for a Christian school will necessitate a new set of financial priorities for most Christian families.

To conclude, we must understand that children are naturally in learning mode. This doesn't mean that they are going to learn their tables automatically, but they do learn attitudes, values, and behaviour patterns automatically. These lessons are learned from peers as well as teachers, as any parent with school aged children can testify. That some children survive an antichristian environment never justifies unnecessary exposure to it.

ACCELERATED CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Probably no system of education has been more maligned by rumour and bias than has the A.C.E. system. The committee believes that much of the negativity towards A.C.E. is due to its revolutionary approach to learning, namely, the individualised self-paced approach. This is not to say that A.C.E. is free from all difficulties; no humanly devised system of education is, and in the opinion of the committee, A.C.E. like most systems leans inordinately toward the academic side of the educational equation. Despite this however the unique individual approach of A.C.E. puts it streets ahead of most other programs that we are aware of, especially in the area of catering to individual diiff .

Probably the best way to judge any education program is to examine its fruits. This we have attempted to do, although not as comprehensively as we would have liked. The following are graduate statistics from the Toowoomba Christian College (T.C.C.) which is a relatively large A.C.E. school on the outskirts of Toowoomba with a history long enough to be able to supply this type of information. The information is current up to October 1990.

Details are available from the handbook "Toowoomba Christian College; Graduation Information".

An inspection of several A.C.E. schools around Brisbane and Toowoomba revealed a highly disciplined and well managed system of more or less autonomous Christian schools offering a comprehensive curriculum.             Learning approaches were flexible, combining the individualised approach with the more conventional group teaching approach. Some balance between academic and practical subjects was in evidence in every school inspected and the individual strengths and weaknesses of students appeared to be adequately catered for.

The committee believes that the individualised approach,. although a rock of offence to many, is actually the main strength of the A.C.E. system. Self paced learning ideally caters to the individual differences in learning rates between students and for this reason also caters for those students with special learning difficulties.

With the exception of spelling, the Australianisation of A.C.E. has continued since our last report and the upgrading of the Senior mathematics syllabus to Australian matriculation standards is expected to be completed within 3 years. Meanwhile some schools using A.C.E. have managed to offer matriculation standard mathematics as an adjunct to the A.C.E. program.

A.C.E. is available as a Christian School curriculum as well as a home schooling program. Although it is not distinctively Reformed, the program is sufficiently flexible to allow for different theological emphases within fundamentalist parameters.

A.C.E. can be operated by a Christian School in almost any type of building, partitioned or open, where students can work reasonably comfortably and without distraction. Naturally local council permission is needed but most church facilities in Queensland are already zoned for educational use anyway. Although fully equipped laboratories are a boon to any school, they are by no means necessary as much practical work can be done through the use of affordable laboratory kits. Neither are sporting fields necessary as off campus sporting and recreation facilities are available in most Queensland city and country areas.

It is conceded that a small A.C.E. church facilitated school will not have the hardware advantages of a large well equipped state or private school, but to understand why such small schools are springing up all over Australia by highly motivated Christian parents there needs to be a recognition that these parents have made a decision about what is important in the education of their children. Of chief importance to the Christian educator is the development of Christian character in his/her students. This is not to suggest that intellectual development is unimportant but that the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in Mark 8:36, "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" (N.A.S.B.) spell out a very different value system to that of the world. A.C.E. therefore, like other truly Christ centred programs, unashamedly puts character at the head of its learning objectives. This involves positive and explicit moral direction throughout the entire curriculum both vertically and laterally. Although this type of direction can be given in the home the school cannot be underestimated as a powerful shaper of values and attitudes. Indeed, the state system recognises this very implementation of Human Relationships Education.

In respect of recommends this success of many Australia. In pronouncements of their own believes that the home schooling program, the committee method as entirely feasible in light of the home schools in the U.S.A. and recently here in keeping with the 1990 Assembly's own on the right of parents to control the education children (Minute 219; clause 4), the committee parents ought not to balk at this alternative simply because they find themselves unable to meet departmental standards. We suggest that Christian parents do not even apply for dispensation. To do this is to concede to the government the right to deny what is a God-given and therefore inalienable right.

Other Home Schooling Programs

Other home schooling programs are available beside A.C.E. such as Light Educational Ministries (based in Adelaide) and Covenant Home Curriculum (U.S.A.). However the committee believes that the A.C.E. program is probably the best all round program to date given its Australianisation and availability.

Fairholme College

Following a visit to Fairholme College the Council of the college will be giving consideration to ways in which the college can assist parents seeking a Christian Education for their children. The matters of Fairholme acting as a centre for distance education and as a planter of "daughter" schools will also be considered.