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This is a portion of the psalm I shared with students and parents who attended an orientation meeting held at the new location of Heritage Christian High School on Tuesday, July 31. What fitting words David wrote, and we can share. We put our trust in God, who has delivered us and is our Rock. Looking back on all he has been given in his life, David sees God’s faithfulness and righteousness and determines to speak and sing and praise all the day long. His blessings are countless. These words are for young and old alike. The student can see how thankful David is for parents who have provided good education and instruction. Our children are to count this Christian high school a great favor provided by our heavenly Father. The parents, grandparents, and teachers can be thankful for their own upbringing, confident that God will not forsake them, and determined to leave a strong testimony to their succeeding generations. We are to show our children God’s strength and power. Let us go together in the strength of the LORD.
Since signing contracts to become part of the
first faculty of Heritage Christian High School, the teaching
staff has undertaken the task of preparing the curriculum with
all eyes focused on the first day of school. That day is rapidly
approaching. The staff has met frequently over the past two
months and used various resources available to us, including the
curriculum that had already been outlined, fellow teachers, the
Purdue-Calumet University library, some great websites, and even
our area ministers. Our course bases, goals, objectives, and outlines
are in place. August will consist of lesson planning and final
course preparations. As you can see, we have been busy- excited and anxious to begin the work of a new high school, and we are thankful to our heavenly Father for giving us this wonderful calling. Mr. Ralph Medema, Administrator
A seminar on bringing our distinctive Protestant Reformed worldview into the classroom was sponsored this summer by the Federation Board of Protestant Reformed Christian Schools and led by Mr. Jon Huisken, registrar and member of the faculty at Hope College, and a member of the Grandville Protestant Reformed Church in Michigan. This seminar was attended by all three members of our school’s teaching staff. Here is Mr. Dan Van Uffelen’s perspective of the events that transpired there on the mornings of July 25-27. Worldview? Before this summer, I had never heard
of the word. Yet this three-day worldview seminar at Hope College
in Holland, Michigan proved to be both fascinating and inspiring
for me as a brand-new teacher.
Day 1: Wed., July 25. Jon Huisken led our discussion as we delved into what worldview really is: a person’s view of life and the world’s origin, history, and meaning. Exploring the worldviews alive today, we talked about deism, naturalism, nihilism, and post-modernism in the light of Romans 1, which teaches that as sin progresses in the world, man pushes God farther and farther away. Learning about the godless worldviews of today’s society, I realized how very important it is for Christian teachers to have a strong sense of their own Reformed Christian worldview : to educate the next generation, defend the truth, and glorify God. Day 2: Thurs., July 26. Narrowing our discussion down to the Reformed worldview, we pooled our ideas to develop a worldview statement reflecting our own beliefs. The topic for the day was the Christian and culture. Defining culture as “ man’s activity with regard to the things God has given him”, I realized that this activity is not something to be avoided, but explored. Developing our Christian culture is an activity far different from the development of the world’s godless culture because our goal is different. Our goal is to use the things of God’s world to praise His Name. Day 3: Fri., July 27. Applying worldview to education in a more concrete way, I came to a better understanding of the Christian school’s job: leading students to a proper Reformed worldview ( Christian knowledge base) by challenging them to apply God’s Word to both different subjects and life in general. We also emphasized the importance of educating our children in a Reformed Christian worldview apart from the corruption and influence of the godless worldviews blowing about us today. This seminar was very beneficial to me. I came to understand the powerful influence that worldview has upon a student’s education. This point drove home to me the message that my teaching needs to be wholly grounded on God’s Word. This seminar deepened my understanding of the world around us, stressed the importance of a Reformed worldview in education, and redirected my goals and motivations in teaching to the glory of God.
The English teachers of Heritage Christian High School had an opportunity to engage in some cooperative learning this summer as we joined to work on a sophomore level English curriculum with our counterparts at Covenant Christian High School of Walker, Michigan. Covenant, established in 1968, presently has three sections of sophomore English, taught by three different teachers. The need was felt there to revamp the English curriculum to reflect a more uniform scope and sequence. Since we were preparing ourselves for the similar task of shaping an English curriculum for freshman and sophomore classes, Mr. Van Uffelen and I were invited by Covenant’s administrator, Mr. Rick Noorman, to join with Covenant’s teachers to discuss our distinctive Reformed philosophy for teaching English, major goals and objectives for English instruction, and particular methods and materials that might be used effectively in the classroom. Our own administrator, Mr. Medema, concurred, and offered his assistance as well. The group, which includes both administrators, Mr. James Huizenga, Mrs. Mindy Bergman, Mr. Van Uffelen and myself, has met twice for approximately nine hours of discussion and shared work. At the end of each session, the participants have left with lengthy “homework” assignments to prepare for the next session. The first two sessions took place in June and July at Covenant Christian; the third was scheduled to be held on August 21 here at Heritage Christian’s new facilities. Our work with teachers at Covenant Christian, as well as the sessions shared with teachers from across the country at the worldview seminar at Hope College brought us into contact with relatively new teachers and those who have been among the ranks of Protestant Reformed educators for many years. Their great enthusiasm for the opening of Heritage Christian High School and their willingness to share their experience and expertise with us has greatly encouraged us in our work over the summer. We thank God for them and for the benefits that the hours spent with them have provided. Mrs. Suzanne Looyenga
The ladies of Heritage Christian will put their newly practiced volleyball skills to the test in the near future as they open the season with a game against Illinois Lutheran High School. Following is a list of games, with other possibilities in the planning and to be announced. Watch our bi-weekly newsletter, the Headliner, for a complete schedule soon.
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