These are important questions, and how we answer them shapes the way we approach our work and our mission in Christian Education.
If we say, ‘it’s a system’, then the obvious implications are that everyone involved needs to align in unison with the structure. Students, staff, parents and the community. Each are required to adhere to the order and expectations of the institution. But if we respond that education is the goal, and schooling is a tool within that, then how do we adapt the tool in a way that fits the context it is being used within?
Any deliberation into that raises further critical questions. Why do schools look like they do? Is the model of education merely an economic proposal? What is driving the educational structure and shape of the school?
The underlying premise in Australia is that largely we are consumeristic, economic rationalists with a strong individualistic bias. Decisions are made to ensure we fulfil our needs and wants, and we place judgements that are often driven by the economic value that something gives. In contrast, Christ told us that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself. This is a relationship focus and not an economic focus.
As Christian schools within an Australian context we live with our feet in two different camps.
We acknowledge that every child is wonderfully and beautifully made in the image of God and at the same time, we must meet budgets to survive as a school. We say every child is a bespoke creation of God … but does God make mistakes? How far away from the average and outside of the normal, in any developmental sense, does it become that children are seen as abnormal or not able to fit into mainstream schooling?
So we come back to our primary question – why do we do education? Is it the process of helping young people become equipped to function in an economic capacity within society? To help them secure a job, pay their taxes and contribute to the financial health of our communities? Or is the goal loftier – the notion that we’re in the heavenly business of working to see the restoration of God’s creation and the flourishing of all?
The truth is that the answer is yes to both. We are called to be a part of the restoration, but we also have to live in the practical and fiscal realities of the here and now.
So where do we place the emphasis with our schools? Do we allow economic rationale to dictate what we can and can’t’ do? Or do we put the needs of the individual students as a high priority?
In my portfolio of Modes and Models of Schooling within Christian Schools Australia (CSA) the aim is to encourage schools to consider ways they can look again at what they are currently offering and consider what else or who else they could be providing for within their community.
Who currently does not access your school? Maybe it is a child that socially and emotionally is outside of the ‘normal’ ranges, which means they are not safe in a standard classroom. It could be a student with neurological challenges that require different learning approaches. It could be a financial matter - students from an economic situation that prohibits access to the education you offer. Pausing to reflect on these variances does require flexibility and self-appraisal about the format of schooling offered.
Schools are often very slow-moving machines without the agility required to keep up with a society that keeps marching forward. As an example, Covid pushed us to be different in our approaches to delivering education and to quickly adapt, but have we moved back to the old and familiar ways because it is easier? Did that season of change provide us with a window to consider, for example, if remote learning has a place to reach otherwise unreachable students?
Within the Australian education sphere, including some of our member schools, different approaches have been tried and are flourishing. Remote learning and distance education has been championed successfully, utilising the new and improving technologies that are readily available. Special assistance schools, who intentionally care for students whose social and emotional needs prohibit them from engaging in mainstream classes are making life enhancing differences.
Another excellent example is a school network in Western Australia that was begun 40 years ago by a group of Aboriginal parents who saw that the mainstream system wasn’t meeting the needs of their children. They created a model of schooling that did suit their needs: CAPS – Christian Aboriginal Parent Directed Schools. It was created by First Nations parents, for their kids, in their context, acknowledging their needs. Three schools now form part of this program – in Kurrawang, Coolgardie and Wongutha.
Their mission is clear: Impacting Aboriginal students through discipleship, strong relationships, quality education and training. To have Christ-centred, equipped, and empowered Aboriginal students who are confident, resilient, flourishing individuals who are life and work ready members of their community.
The Principal of CAPS Kurrawang is an Aboriginal woman from the area and one of first ever graduates from CAPS Coolgardie. She is passionate about instilling the love of language in her students.
Coolgardie is a largely mainstream school, but it is residential. They teach ATAR and are a culturally safe place for Indigenous students to gain an education and life skills that will help them thrive into the future.
Wongutha is one example of a school that has adapted the education tool to meet the needs of the students there – vocational education to develop confidence and practical skills with life-long benefits. This intentional approach has given young indigenous students, coming from predominantly remote communities in our northwest, opportunities that they would not have been otherwise able to access.
It’s a unique school that cares for the child – adapting the tool to meet the need but also caring for the individual child and helping them to understand their identity of aboriginality in the context of the wider community.
The above examples show that the equipping of our students for life beyond the classroom, whilst simultaneously fulfilling our mission to impact lives for Christ can be done. Transformation of our communities and the lives of children and their families is possible through the vehicle of schooling.
The challenge is laid out to each of us in Christian Education, in partnership with our churches and fellow believers, is to see who in our own spheres can’t access quality Christian Education and ask ‘why?’. The answer, and how we act upon it might not be easy and may require shifting some of what we have always done – but the possibilities are limitless, the potential enormous, and the contribution we can make into our communities, through education, an exciting opportunity.