Hello fellow educators,

Welcome to podcast number ten. I continue to enjoy many of your comments regarding the podcasts. We are sending out many copies of my book, “Discipling this Generation for a Digital World.” If you will email a comment we will continue to send out free copies.

We have been speaking about the Learning Outcomes or goals of Heritage Christian Schools, both our campus program (what many call our “brick and mortar school,” although I personally hate that distinction) and our online program that works with home educators and distance learners throughout the Province of British Columbia and beyond.

Before I get to our final set of Learning Outcomes I had a very interesting conversation with one of our Online teachers about how the Online School faired in the Foundational Skills Assessment Test that were recently collected and scored by our teachers. These tests, known as the FSA’s are given every year to grade four and seven students in our Province. They are very helpful to both our schools and families to see how our students compare to kids throughout the Province. Our campus school received recognition last year from the Fraser Institute because of five consecutive years of improvement in our FSA results. This was the first year that teachers from each school were called upon to mark the tests. I believe this will help our teachers know exactly how our student’s are responding to the specifics in these tests. Pat Mackesy was one of our markers and her main experience is with Grades 5 and 6. I was able to chat with Pat via Skype about her observations and I found them very insightful for discussions regarding discipleship based Christian education. Here is a part of that discussion:

Only in the Audio Version

In this last group of learning outcomes we come to the most practical outworking of a discipleship based Christian education. In these outcomes we take a different direction from our liberal arts approach to education. As we pointed out in last week’s podcast the “Artes Liberales,” or the freeman’s education was intended to give the learner a broad scope of understanding about language, the humanities, mathematics, science and ultimately philosophy and theology. The freeman as contrasted with the serfs, servants and slaves could afford to think broadly and did not need to focus on the vocational education that was for the lower classes. I love that our children can marvel at the wonder of God’s creation and begin to learn the intricacies of this world. I love that the language oriented student must master the difficulties of algebra and geometry. I love that the science oriented student can appreciate the prose of Dostoevsky or the poetry of Walt Whitman. This broadens our lives and enriches our perspective. The strict vocational approach will eventually end in a class based system where the plumber begets a plumber and the lawyer begets a lawyer. Life is diverse and so should be education. A liberal arts approach will open new vistas and opportunities for our children.

This being said, we cannot forget the clarion call of our Lord and Savior. God has created us with a purpose that has been spiritually programmed into our lives just like DNA has the encoding for every cell of our body. I love the verse of scripture found in Ephesians 2:10:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.”

We have a job to do in this earth and God has created us for this purpose. We must go beyond the pure enjoyment of learning for learning sake. We must prepare our children for their God given tasks and callings.

The word vocation is also very important. We deliberately use this word in contrast to the word and idea of a career. A vocation implies a very specific calling to become something. It is something we are to give our life to, it implies an altruistic motivation beyond ourselves. A career, on the other hand, is something we serve. Working towards career advancement always has a selfish element to it. Serving a career will always be about getting ahead, making more money and gaining in stature. Our vocation will lead us to serve and give because this is who we are and this is what we have been called too.

Here are our Vocational Preparedness Learning Outcomes:

• It is our goal, expectation and purpose that our students will have a broad and diverse understanding and experience of multiple vocational opportunities.

I recently read a statistic that people today are changing careers every seven years. When I shared this with our campus school staff last year one teacher demonstrated his agreement by his last three career changes exactly in seven year periods. In a digital world where change has become is the normative constant we cannot make the mistake of limiting our student’s view to a few vocational opportunities. This makes a good case for our liberal arts approach. But giving our students diverse opportunities often creates unique challenges for the small, budget strapped, Christian School. We have to develop creative solutions to give our students the variety of opportunities to experience different vocational options. Thankfully, this is becoming easier with technology and the opportunities of the internet. Nevertheless we should not just relegate our student’s vocational experiences to an online course. Our programs need to include work experience, apprenticeship opportunities, shop experiences and as many, “outside the classroom” opportunities.

Here is our next outcome:

• It is our goal, expectation and purpose that our students will seek out their specific spiritual and natural giftings and abilities. 

As we read before in Eph. 2:10 God has created each of us with good works predestined in our lives. What God calls us to do he equips us to do. Probably one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is Philippians 2:13 from the Amplified Translation:  “…for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.” One way of saying this is: God is giving you both the desire and the ability to do his will. Often our spiritual abilities are mirrored by our natural abilities. Someone called to lead prayer and worship is often given natural musical ability. People called to lead often have inherit gifts of vision and persuasion. Most educators today are familiar with Howard Gardner’s theory of eight different types of intelligences: Linguistic intelligence ("word smart") Logical-mathematical intelligence ("number/reasoning smart") Spatial intelligence ("picture smart") Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence ("body smart") Musical intelligence ("music smart") Interpersonal intelligence ("people smart") Intrapersonal intelligence ("self smart") Naturalist intelligence ("nature smart"). Most of us have a stronger combination of two to three types of intelligences which enhances what we are gifted in. Understanding these intelligences within us will help us find our vocational direction.

Here is our next outcome:

• It is our goal, expectation and purpose that we help our students begin to discover their God ordained vocation and calling.

Let me talk about this outcome with a bit of a caution thrown in. God has a purpose for each of our lives. Our vocation needs to be a big part of that purpose but it isn’t necessarily at the center of our purpose. I believe God wants to use our vocation in the accomplishment of His purpose but it may not be central to how He will ultimately use us. Noah was obviously a gifted builder but his purpose was far beyond building a giant boat. Paul was a tent-maker but his natural vocation really didn’t have much to do with his spiritual vocation. That being said, I believe we need to inspire our students to see themselves in vocations that they would love and enjoy. Most of all we should help them see how they can accomplish God’s purpose in their lives through their vocation. I have always hated the idea of having a job just so that I can take care of my family’s temporal needs. Too much of our lives are spent in our vocation. To have my heart, my vocation, my provision all working for the will of God is to be a wealthy man.

I am always cautious about being to specific in guiding students in these directions. If we can at least point our students in the right directions then we have done our job. I have never fully agreed with educational systems concentrate the vocational learning too early. Life is too short to spend multiple years training in a vocation that we may not love or be gifted towards. Many of us are late bloomers and to lock into a trade or a direction can lead us away from the directions that God may be taking us. When I was in middle school I was encouraged in several of my shop classes and had great teachers. Because I did well early on I thought maybe auto mechanics might be for me. I failed auto mechanics in high school. Still determined that I could do this I got a job in an auto shop and was fired in three months, mostly because I was lazy but I really didn’t enjoy it. I ended up joining the US Navy and, I went into the engineering department as a boiler technician, or the guys who do the engine stuff. I spent two more years working in an area that I was not specifically gifted. Finally, I was moved to the fuel systems department that I could use my logical-mathematical intelligence and I was promoted to Petty Officer where I could use my people’s intelligence. My last two years became very enjoyable for me.

The most important word in this outcome is “discover.” Even God, in most cases, helps us discover our life purpose. He gives us hints and prophetic words but he rarely says, “Thou shalt be a carpenter.” I think, in most cases, he gives us a love for the things he is calling us too.

Here is our final outcome.

• It is our goal, expectation and purpose that our students are well equipped for post-secondary education or vocational training or apprenticeship programs.

Obviously we are not the end of the road in our student’s educational experiences. We have to work hard as schools to give our students the broadest possibilities to enter the schools they need for their future vocations. At Heritage we have always included the courses necessary for entrance to any of our BC Universities. This hasn’t always been easy, particularly with some of the entrance requirements for a Bachelor of Science program. In small schools this can be an enormous challenge. Thankfully our online program has made this a bit easier.

We also want our students to do well enough to make it into these schools. Unfortunately, that has often meant that we have had to “teach to the test” as we prepare students for Provincial Exams. I know that this can create difficult challenges as we seek to give our students a truly Christian education. But we cannot forget that a big part of why we are doing this is so that our student-disciples will be able to go forth from our schools and have a significant impact upon our world. In order to do this in many of the key professions of our world today, it will mean that our kids will have to compete with non-Christian kids for enrollment and ultimately the positions available. We have to find creative solutions so that we can still have academic rigor with strong Christian worldview.

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