No Education is Neutral
Mrs. Rose leads worship and delivers a beautiful message to the elementary students at Chapel where our students meet weekly to fellowship and learn together.
Our mission at TRA is to educate the next generation of Christian leaders. However, “Inspired leaders are not created in a vacuum; they are cultivated in a culture” (Hegseth and Goodwin, Battle for the American Mind, 127). TRA recognizes the importance of the culture and environment in which students are taught, as well as the ideas and values behind those decisions. We unabashedly operate and teach from a Western Christian Worldview that values reason, virtue, wonder, and beauty, and works hard to cultivate those values and attributes in our students by teaching them what is true, right, good, and beautiful.
Can kids be educated in this way - to discern truth, think critically, and grow in virtue - at any school? Not at public schools where God and the Bible have been fully removed from curriculum and replaced with secular humanism and a government ideology that teaches kids to find their identity in anything other than Jesus. Children in secular schools are taught to follow their feelings and act in ways they feel is best for them, regardless of what God (or their parents) have to say about their choices. Instead of modeling virtue for students and coming alongside of them in a relational way through classroom conversations, weekly chapels, and meaningful discussions with teachers who love the Lord and are passionate about sharing their faith, public schools have replaced virtue with “five pseudo-virtues to fill up the virtue-shaped vacuum in our hearts: tolerance, inclusivism, egalitarianism, multiculturalism, and environmentalism” (Hegseth and Goodwin 173). But our children should be raised and taught using time-tested Christian virtues, grounded in Scripture.
“We do not separate or categorize people by their different backgrounds, ethnicities, or abilities. Instead, we cultivate unity among God’s diverse people by focusing on and growing in our common identity as followers of Christ—not mere workers.”
TRA 3rd Graders love getting to learn about Ancient Greece!
TRA students are taught from the start (and reminded throughout their time here) that they were created by a loving God for a unique purpose, to do good works which God prepared in advance for them to do (Ephesians 2:10). We then teach them the basics of those “good works” - to love God and others well, God’s two greatest commandments. Loving God means spending time with Him, talking to Him in prayer, reading His Word and memorizing it so it can be recalled and applied to various situations. Loving others involves making good choices to act in loving ways. We do not separate or categorize people by their different backgrounds, ethnicities, or abilities. Instead, we cultivate unity among God’s diverse people by focusing on and growing in our common identity as followers of Christ—not mere workers.
We believe that a full education must be of the whole child, and it includes cultivating their spiritual growth while enriching their minds. The mission of The River Academy is big, and by God’s grace, we can achieve it together by keeping Jesus at the center of all we do and working to win our kids' hearts and grow their character, as well as train their minds. For more information on the importance of the culture and worldview from which children are taught, and the contrast between modern secular education and classical Christian education, I encourage you to read Battle for the American Mind by Hegseth and Goodwin. Let us continue learning together to strengthen our partnership in educating and raising future Christian leaders.
-Lisa Hysom, Interim Head of School