Reformed Education Is...
Reformed education is confessional in character
Reformed education begins and ends with confessing the Triune God. Teachers and students are constantly learning to say “amen” to all that God reveals about Himself in His Word and His works as the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of life. Reformed education acquaints students with different areas of intellectual pursuit to point out not only God’s sovereignty and His providential hand over all of life, but also the many gifts He has given to them in literature, mathematics, science, or art, etc. They are to receive these gifts with thanksgiving and delight, and are to use them wisely as stewards and caretakers who are responsible to God and to their neighbour. Teachers are to have a living faith and are able to speak of these truths to the students in a way which is suited to them. Confessional instruction seeks to build spiritual and moral character with a view to humility and service, rather than pride in success.
The Scriptures, as summarized and interpreted in the Three Forms of Unity and/or the Westminster Confessions, are the foundation for Reformed education and give it its confessional character.
Reformed education begins and ends with confessing the Triune God. Teachers and students are constantly learning to say “amen” to all that God reveals about Himself in His Word and His works as the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of life. Reformed education acquaints students with different areas of intellectual pursuit to point out not only God’s sovereignty and His providential hand over all of life, but also the many gifts He has given to them in literature, mathematics, science, or art, etc. They are to receive these gifts with thanksgiving and delight, and are to use them wisely as stewards and caretakers who are responsible to God and to their neighbour. Teachers are to have a living faith and are able to speak of these truths to the students in a way which is suited to them. Confessional instruction seeks to build spiritual and moral character with a view to humility and service, rather than pride in success.
The Scriptures, as summarized and interpreted in the Three Forms of Unity and/or the Westminster Confessions, are the foundation for Reformed education and give it its confessional character.
ALL SCRIPTURE IS BREATHED OUT BY GOD AND IS PROFITABLE FOR TEACHING, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION AND FOR TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
2 TIMOTHY 3:16
2 TIMOTHY 3:16
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TEACHERS AND STUDENTS... DO THEIR WORK BEFORE THE FACE OF GOD WITHIN THE RELATIONSHIP OF LOVE WHICH BINDS THEM TO EACH OTHER AND TO THEIR GOD.
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Reformed education is covenantal in character
Reformed education is for the children of believers belonging to the covenant community who have been claimed and set apart for holiness by God and have received the sure promises of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as signed and sealed in their baptism. The covenant is the Scriptural context or framework within which Reformed education takes place in school, home and church. The school assists the parents in educating covenant children by confronting them with their need for the redeeming work of Christ and by equipping them with skills and knowledge. This is done that they may grow as responsible Christians in accordance with God’s Word so that they might love God above all else and their neighbours as themselves. Teachers and students, therefore, do their work before the face of God within the relationship of love which binds them to each other and to their God. |
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Reformed education recognizes the unity of purpose between church, home, and school
Reformed schools are characterized by a unity of purpose with the home and the church. We are to tell the next generation about the deeds of the LORD so that they, too, may set their hope in God (Psalm 78). When home, school and church are united in this aim, the work of the one institution has life-giving consequences for the spiritual well-being of the others. As the school is an extension of the home, parents play a vital role in the formal education of their children. They are encouraged to be actively involved in the school through the work of the Board and its committees and through regular communication with the teachers. Communication between home, school, and church, will only help to increase the fulfillment of our united purpose to train up a child in the way that he should go [so that] when he is old he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6). |
OUR UNITED PURPOSE: "TO TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO [SO THAT] WHEN HE IS OLD HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT. PROVERBS 22:6
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Reformed education recognizes the antithesis
This is our Father’s world and He continues to govern and direct all things according to His plan. As a result of man’s sin, God established the antithesis between the seed of the woman over and against the seed of the serpent. The climax of this antithesis was met in the redeeming work of Christ as He conquered sin and Satan, death and the grave. At the same time, we believe that this world still lies in darkness in opposition to the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Students are to grow in their skills of discernment, testing all things by the light of God’s Word for in your light do we see light (Psalm 36:9).
Students are to recognize their three-fold office as prophet, priest, and king. They are to confess God’s name, present their lives as a living sacrifice of thankfulness, and fight with a clear conscience against their three sworn enemies: the devil, the world, and their own flesh. They are to be in the world, but not of the world. They are to learn that they are pilgrims and strangers in this world because we look forward to the world that is to come, the new heaven and the new earth where we will dwell with God forever.
This is our Father’s world and He continues to govern and direct all things according to His plan. As a result of man’s sin, God established the antithesis between the seed of the woman over and against the seed of the serpent. The climax of this antithesis was met in the redeeming work of Christ as He conquered sin and Satan, death and the grave. At the same time, we believe that this world still lies in darkness in opposition to the Light of the World, Jesus Christ. Students are to grow in their skills of discernment, testing all things by the light of God’s Word for in your light do we see light (Psalm 36:9).
Students are to recognize their three-fold office as prophet, priest, and king. They are to confess God’s name, present their lives as a living sacrifice of thankfulness, and fight with a clear conscience against their three sworn enemies: the devil, the world, and their own flesh. They are to be in the world, but not of the world. They are to learn that they are pilgrims and strangers in this world because we look forward to the world that is to come, the new heaven and the new earth where we will dwell with God forever.