I have been writing a series of articles on education in America. I’ve presented a number of problems and offered few answers. Here at the end of this series, I take time to suggest some solutions for making the best of our challenging educational situation.

Let’s remember that we are doing some things well:

(1) We spend a lot of money to educate our children in this country.

(2) We fill our classrooms with cutting edge technology.

(3) We’re having success teaching our students to be creative. In the twentieth century, more Americans won Nobel prizes than citizens of any other nation in the world. We’re teaching “out of the box” thinking.

(4) With the passage of Title 9, the number of girls in grade school and women in college benefitting from organized sports programs has increased dramatically since the early 70s (about a 400 percent increase in college sports participation).

(5) Our tendency to be a nation of second-chancers has caused educators to make it possible for non-traditional, returning students—those older people who really want to go back and learn—to do so.

(1) Effective teachers must be heroes, and heroic sacrifice begins with saying goodbye to the 40 hour work week and hello to 60 hours or more. You may suffer for it, along with your family. But hundreds of students will be blessed for it.

(2) Private and charter school teachers: get with your parents and take control of your curriculum. Make it purposeful. Plan it out. I recommend the approach taken by schools of classical learning as outlined in the book Wisdom and Eloquence (Good News Publishing, 2006) by Robert Littlejohn and Charles T. Evans.

(3) Private school teachers: consider your personal finances a part of your ministry. If you can figure out how to live by humble means, you can survive on private school salaries. Let every purchase be a part of your life as a teacher.

(4) Private school administrators and parents: find funding to pay teachers better. Publish a salary scale so supporters can see the sacrifice teachers are willing to make for the ministry of Christian education.

(5) Public school teachers: be the person who hosts Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Show up to See You at the Pole. When kids ask to use your room at 7:30 in the morning for a Bible study, get there early with donuts and juice.

(6) Public school teachers: explore religious content areas. You can often talk more about religious truth in public school settings than you think.

(7) Public school teachers: look to adopt a Virtues curriculum. This can be done apart from religious studies through the teaching of classics in literature and philosophy (and will often lead students to religious discussions as well).

(8) Public school teachers may also need to prayerfully consider those moments when religious freedom means taking a stand, even at the risk of getting fired.

(9) All teachers: once a year go back into your discipline and read or study for the joy that learning about it gave you when you were a student.

(10) All coaches, public and private: hold your players to higher moral standards than even student handbooks require, and practice the art of speaking loudly without losing your temper.

(1) Make the private/public/home school choice together and recognize that each has responsibilities. Students need to know, for example, that their parents may have to make many personal sacrifices for private school tuition.

(2) Home schoolers: practice discipline! This applies to both parents and students.

(3) Home schooling parents: don’t just accept a curriculum because it’s popular—study it out. Again, think about a classical curriculum.

(4) Private school parents: slash your personal budgets to afford tuition costs.

(5) Private school parents: get involved in curriculum development and fund-raising.

(6) Public school parents: eat dinner with your kids around the table and talk about the day. Look at their curriculum and content. Deal actively with issues of morality, bullying, and persecution. Join the PTA and booster clubs. Go to games and performances. Monitor anti-Christian bias in textbooks.

(7) Public school parents: encourage teachers, call and ask how you can help, create support groups of Christians who pray in or near the school, and volunteer to help teachers.

(8) Public school parents: get your kids into PSAT or PACT to measure how they stack up to national standards for college testing—and respond accordingly before the SAT or ACT tests come along.

(9) Public school parents: spend time teaching your kids the Bible and encourage youth ministers to systematically teach the Bible, not just deliver inspirational devotions. (If a youth minister offers such classes, make sure your kids are there for them!)

(10) Public school kids: hold yourselves to a higher standard than the kids around you—in morality, grades, and especially in respect for your teachers.

(11) Public school kids: be the ones who start the Bible study, recruit for See You at the Pole, and attend Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Be the light. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells