Almost Obnoxious - Part 4 - Academically Equip, Challenge, and Inspire

Last week, I talked about how our school spiritually equips, challenges, and inspires our students as part of our mission statement.  We are aware, however, that our school is not a church.  It is a school.  Thus, the other part of our mission, to academically equip, challenge, and inspire.

Equip
The academic equipping of students is the mission of all schools, and it is no small task.  Let's first address what it is not.  Academically equipping students does not mean teaching them every skill they may need in life.  We are not in the business of teaching them to cook and sew buttons (though I have nothing against a good home ec class).  We are not teaching them to repair a transmission (again, no problem with schools offering a shop class).  If you are a parent who wants your kids to know those things, please teach them to your children.  We are also not attempting to teach every piece of content they need to know for any career they may choose.  For one thing, that isn't possible.  There would just be too many things to know.  Also, they may have careers that do not currently exist. 

What does it mean to academically equip?  It means teaching them how to learn.  A few years ago, our graduation speaker said, "An educated person doesn't know everything; but in a pinch, he can learn anything."  That perfectly sums up the way I see my job.  In the same way you don't lift weights because the weight needs to be off the ground but because it trains the muscle, academic content, while important, mostly serves as a vehicle for the training of the brain.  Equipping students with the ability to learn is how they become prepared for whatever life may throw their way.

Challenge
What does it mean to academically challenge?  Again, I would start with what it is not.  Academically challenging students does not mean giving them more work or harder work to do.  While GRACE does have a rigorous curriculum, our mission to challenge them comes from asking them to raise their level of thinking.  Creating a base knowledge is important in any subject, but asking them to apply that knowledge to the problems of the world is what creates the challenge.  Our science department asks students to examine their impact on the environment, create a plan for growing crops more efficiently, and propose solutions to some of the problems in the developing world (lack of access to clean water, electricity, etc.).  Our math department challenges them to design a tiny house and decide whether it might be a feasible solution for people experiencing homelessness.  Last year, our 8th-grade English teacher allowed students to put the book they were reading "on trial" to defend whether or not it should remain a part of the curriculum.  These sorts of projects push the knowledge students have learned far beyond the surface level of understanding that a simple multiple choice test measures.

Inspire
As I mentioned last week, inspiration is not something we can accomplish.  We can't write academically inspire into a lesson plan.  It's something that happens because of the magical combination of the right student having the right teacher learning the right content.  What inspires one student won't necessarily inspire the student next to him.  Every teacher has some students who think they are the best while others in the same class can't stand them (which is why you can't base your feelings about your career on their feedback).  God brings the right teacher into a student's life at the right time to help shape that student.  It's something that only He can plan.

Next week, I'll address the ultimate goal of all of this, that our students "impact their world for Christ."