Adventist Education

[Dr. Shane]

I am a strong supporter of Adventist education for at least grades 1-8.  I believe more needs to be done to make this affordable and accessible.   The schools we have need to be promoted more among our churches and should be involved more with the churches.  The facts in the NAD are not pretty.  While our denomination is growing in number, the number of children attending our schools is decreasing in number.

I have mixed feelings about it once kids get to high school.  High school grades are very expensive and undeniably take money away from other ministries.  Many churches have been very successful with after-school programs for their high school members.  Some evangelical churches even train their high school students to be missionaries.  The high school years are a time when many children start questioning authority.  While it is good to protect them from the world, the strict rules at Adventist high schools can turn a child's attitude against the church.  

I have two children and two step children.  All four of them are attending a non-denomination Christian school.  The grades are 6th, 7th and 9th.  I have two 7th graders.  I didn't force my 9th grader to go to the school but gave him a choice between public school and this private school.  He wanted to get into a charter school for medical careers but it was full so he decided to go to the Christian school. 

 

Edited August 12, 2015 by Shane

[Outta Here]

Is there no Adventist school for your children to attend?

[Kevin H]

We need to make our schools available and affordable. We need to work on our high schools to avoid turning our youth against the church.

[Deaconess]

Homeschool.      I know its not possible or even desirable for some families and each family is so different that it has to be a personal family choice.     However, I could not bear to send my kids to boarding school and those I know who went encountered difficulties in many areas.   A local 1-8 Adventist school, day academy, or an e-link to a boarding school would be my second choice.   I worry where our Adventist colleges are headed, too.  

Edited August 12, 2015 by Deaconess

[Kevin H]

Deaconess: Just wondering what you mean about being worried about where Adventist colleges are headed? There are different directions we can go there. There are those who are against education and want's our colleges to only continue to reteach what some of their favorite theologians taught 100 years ago.

My concern is that too many of our schools are focused on topics like Church growth or church history and have gotten away from the Bible. There was a level of Bible study with people like Thiele, Horn, Wood, Heppenstal, Leona Glidden Running etc. that continued into the 1980s  but which we have been getting away from. Even the Desmond Ford issue would not have been an issue if people read a book that has probably been in most of our libraries, by Henri Frankfort and others: Before philosophy. http://www.amazon.com/Before-Philosophy-Intellectual-Adventure-Ancient/dp/014020198X  I am worried as to how we know the writings of Chuck Swindell, Joel Osteen, and other popular writers (which is not that bad in itself, but who are too superficial) but at the expense of knowing William Foxwell Albright, Carol and Eric Meyers, Yagel Yaden, John Bright, Yohanan Aharoni, Abraham Joshua Heshel etc. who were deep Bible scholars and who can lead us to studying the Bible deeper than we do.

 

[Deaconess]

What I mean when I say I worry about our colleges is when false doctrine seeps in and instructors (and others) are warping what truth is and teaching according to their own worldly agenda.  It is important to avoid limiting what topics can be discussed, but that they be discussed with an eye firmly on the Lord.   They need to be educated from the past, present, and for the future so that they have a wide education and preparedness for life in the real world and the world to come.   Sadly, I wonder if some kids wouldn't be safer going to a secular college with their guards firmly up expecting to set an example to others than a college where it is expected that they will be led safely only to their lose their salvation.   

Edited August 15, 2015 by Deaconess

[Dr. Shane]

We had two SDA schools in our county but one closed down.  It was a K-12 and the Conference planned to open a new K-8 school but a law suit has prevented that so until it is settled, that campus will sit unused.  The other school is on the other side of the county and not close to the expressway so it would be about an hour drive each way for our kids to go there.

I wish our denomination would have a homeschool program available for parents.  Communities without a school could form a homeschool association.

 

[Liz]

There are no SDA schools in my area. I like teaching my kids, so we homeschooled, while there are SDA homeschool materials, we couldn't even afford them. Sadly an SDA education is unaffordable for many, we've had preachers preach about stewardship and then turn around and say it was okay to go into debt over education. I disagree. I think it should be made available and affordable to all. But even an all SDA education doesn't guarantee that your child will turn out SDA, just like an all public education won't necessarily turn out secular kids; remember we all have our own path and we all have to make a choice.

[Gregory Matthews]

Much of what is said about our schools teaching false doctrine is simply gossip.  It may have partial truth.  It may substantially misrepresent what is actually being said.  It may contain much that is false.

I once took a Seminary class from Dr. Heppenstall.  The gossip all claimed that he did not believe that there was a real heavenly sanctuary.  From the first day of the class, and throughout the remainder of the class, he made it plain that there was a real Sanctuary in heaven.

  The issues with LSU and evolution also consist of partial truths, misrepresentations and more.

Personally I have a problem with critics whom I sometimes believe have problems with integrity and basic honesty.  NOTE:   I do not charge that to all.

What I mean when I say I worry about our colleges is when false doctrine seeps in and instructors (and others) are warping what truth is and teaching according to their own worldly agenda.  It is important to avoid limiting what topics can be discussed, but that they be discussed with an eye firmly on the Lord.   They need to be educated from the past, present, and for the future so that they have a wide education and preparedness for life in the real world and the world to come.   Sadly, I wonder if some kids wouldn't be safer going to a secular college

with their guards firmly up expecting to set an example to others 

than a college where it is expected that they will be led safely only to their lose their salvation.   [/quote]

 

[Outta Here]

Much of what is said about our schools teaching false doctrine is simply gossip.  It may have partial truth.  It may substantially misrepresent what is actually being said.  It may contain much that is false.

Agreed. Unfortunately, we did take the time to enroll our children in Adventist schools and find out for ourselves. In our experience, it was worse than the rumors. It was two wasted years of time for our children. For us, homeschooling was the better option for elementary grades and Lutheran schools were better for high school. 

 

[Kevin H]

Sometimes there are things that are crisis of heresy to people that you would not expect to be as critical. It was once pointed out that the dimensions of the image of Daniel 3 was that of a Babylon mythological animal not a human and students were horrified that the image might not be of a human. Another class had mentioned that while there are pottery shards to indicate that Jericho was occupied and destroyed in Joshua's time but that the walls may have eroded away and the walls we see there today might be older than Joshua's time has again disturbed some students. Both of these were seen as heresy being taught.  

[B/W Photodude]

While my time at La Sierra was long ago, it was a time when we had the liberty to discuss creation and evolution in class. That freedom of thought was sorely missed in the public universties where you had no freedom to discuss creation. I cannot say that evolution was ever taught when I was at La Sierra. But it is sad to hear that the heresy of evolution is now being taught there. 

I, to my last year of high school, only went to SDA schools. Some teachers were better than others, but I value my education in church schools. My kids hated their church school years and it has affected their religious life today. They refuse to darken the door of an SDA church. One goes to a "Christian" church that accepts gay marriage. The other goes to a strict Baptist church. Both are EGW haters. 

Part of the problem was one of their teachers, who was also the principle of the school. In a school with a mostly white and Hispanic student body with a few blacks, she couldn't leave her own blackness at the door. There was always black history this and black that, but nothing to celebrate the heritage of the Hispanic students. And forget about the white students! I now debate whether my kids "Christian" education did them any good. My kids have nothing good to say about their years in Adventist church schools. There are some other factors in this whole situation not written about it that played into it.

[B/W Photodude]

Regarding the poll ... the are no options to say anything good about SDA secondary education. 

[Dr. Shane]

My middle question in the poll should have had a fourth option to allow the participant to endorse Adventist high schools as they are at present time.  That was an oversight on my part.

The non-denomination school my kids are attending now is certainly doing something right.  They have tuition down to $275/month for 9 months.  Obviously it has a lot of outside support.  Their enrollment is booked.  They interview students and and families as part of the selection process.  Imagine if enrollment was so high at Adventist schools that we had to interview students and families and choose which ones could come.

[jbal7]

I was blessed to have been able to attend sda schools 1-12 grades. I had a positive expirence but I know many that after the graduation fell away. Honestly I can say I'd be a different person today if my mother hadn't sent me there. Would I have dropped the faith? I don't know. BUT I feel I'd have different morals and feelings now. I know there are lemons in every bunch. But I had some teachers who were amazing examples of Christ. I will say it's expensive. I didn't get my diploma until almost a year later because we were in debt to the school

[Outta Here]

Holding a minor's diploma hostage isn't cool. 

[Gerr]

I went to Adventist schools from the second year in high school through graduate school.  It was a very positive experience.  While in the US Navy, I took courses from a public university also.  It was not an enjoyable experience because smoking was permitted in the classroom at that time.  The professor was a chain smoker.  I sent my son to SDA schools from the first grade through high school, and it was such a disaster that I decided to send him to a public university after high school.

[jbal7]

I went to Adventist schools from the second year in high school through graduate school.  It was a very positive experience.  While in the US Navy, I took courses from a public university also.  It was not an enjoyable experience because smoking was permitted in the classroom at that time.  The professor was a chain smoker.  I sent my son to SDA schools from the first grade through high school, and it was such a disaster that I decided to send him to a public university after high school.

why was it a disaster? Seems like sda education is a hit or miss.