Seth Cohen is headmaster at Spruce Hill Christian School in Philadelphia
In the garden, Satan first told God’s people it was all right to do wrong for the sake of self (Genesis 3:4–5). Popular culture has always been Satan’s megaphone for delivering that message. Today it’s no different. He still insists it’s all right to do wrong if it makes you feel good—believe in yourself, climb the ladder, follow your dream.
Of course, culture isn’t all bad. It’s an area for common grace, so Christians should remain engaged in it. Unless we abandon the world, it’s impossible to avoid culture’s negative messages altogether. At Spruce Hill Christian School, we do not have a fortress mentality. We know God calls us to be light in a dark world, and we battle negative cultural messages with messages of another kind: believe in God, die to yourself, honor your parents, wash one another’s feet. In Christ, it’s not simply that the old has passed. Indeed, the new has come. Our strategy consists of a program in which godly teachers actively train students to stand their ground and even thrive in a hostile environment.
Right now, Spruce Hill’s program has six components. Last year it had fewer; next year it will have more. Popular culture changes constantly, and Christian schools must respond. Urban schools face challenges different from those of suburban or rural schools. Each school must identify and address the cultural messages that challenge its unique student body. What remains the same is this: we are all called to be in the world but not of it, agents of light repelling the darkness.
At Spruce Hill, the key ingredient is a spiritually mature teaching staff. Since healthy social learning happens best in the context of loving relationships, our classes are small and self-contained. Teachers train students in six components:
I. Dress: identifying
II. Devotions: worshipping, pledging, remembering, giving
III. Classroom: caring
IV. Playground: playing
V. Community: serving
VI. Home: reading
In practicing these, students learn to live by life-giving biblical standards:
I. Dress
Identifying
Popular culture mandates that we bow to fashion. It insists that we keep up with rapidly changing trends. At Spruce Hill, we are training students to think differently about dress. By wearing a simple uniform, students step out of popular culture and into a world of serious learning. With limited outward distinctions, students identify with the student body and respect one another for who they are in Christ.
II. Devotions
Worshipping
According to popular culture, religion is a cage, and God is a killjoy. At Spruce Hill, we’re training students to know God as the source of joy. Each morning, everyone gathers in the chapel for devotions. It is a happy time. In praising God, students turn their attention from themselves to the sovereign God of love.
Pledging
Popular culture encourages promise keeping—when convenient. Spruce Hill is training students to keep their promises every time. To close devotions, teachers and students recite our pledge:
We are called to be children of the King.
We want to follow Jesus.
Today at Spruce Hill Christian School, By God’s grace,
We will honor Him as we learn.
We will listen to His voice and speak the truth.
We will obey His word and act in love.
May the words of my mouth and
The meditations of my heart
Be pleasing in your sight
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
All day, students and teachers practice keeping their promises by living out the pledge. Classroom discipline is built around it, and school-to-home communications refer to it.
Remembering
Popular culture insists that new is better. People forget the past and look to the future to find purpose for the present— but not at Spruce Hill. Twice a year, we spend a month remembering our history as people of a faithful God. During Advent, we focus on the Incarnation as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies. During Lent, we ponder the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the culmination of God’s plan to redeem us. Thus students find purpose in serving the unchanging God of the past, present, and future.
Giving
According to popular culture, money is a personal commodity. According to the Bible, our money is God’s. At Spruce Hill, a weekly offering supports missionary friends. Students faithfully tithe the money God gives them.
III. Classroom
Caring
Popular culture pushes children to be self-centered, disruptive, and rude. At Spruce Hill, we teach caring. Instead of merely reacting to problems, we use the Responsive Classroom to train students to interact with authorities and each other in healthy ways. In Teaching Children to Care, Ruth S. Charney explains that the responsive classroom “establish[ es] an ongoing curriculum in self-control, social participation, and human development.... In a world filled with global violence and threats of environmental devastation, where drugs and guns are easily available, learning to be more decent and to build caring communities is hardly a waste of time” (Greenfield, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children, 2002, 18).
IV. Playground
Playing
Popular culture nurtures an appetite for fads, gadgets, and electronic toys. On Spruce Hill’s playground, kids dream, imagine, and play games that engage mind and body.
V. Community
Serving
Popular culture relishes the rich and famous and forgets the homely, lonely, and poor. But Jesus doesn’t. At Spruce Hill, we’re training students to value each person as a magnificent creation whether young or old, healthy or handicapped. Our students learn American Sign Language and dance with deaf students at the Pennsylvania Ballet. They sing with nursing-home residents in an intergenerational choir. They begin to view people in pain in the same way that God does.
VI. Home
Reading
Popular culture is enamored of technology. At Spruce Hill, students must learn to navigate technology, but more importantly they must read. Strong reading precedes strong writing, and both are necessary for successful intellectual and career pursuits. Strong reading is necessary for Bible study, a habit we aim to form in every student. God’s special revelation was given in book form. To be immersed in God’s Word is to read, and read, and read. Spruce Hill students learn to read in school but train for endurance reading at home. Each fall, lower grades take the One-Hundred-Book Challenge. Each summer, students take the Headmaster’s Challenge: 1,000 pages per student per grade. The Headmaster’s Challenge gives students a reason not to waste their summer in front of electronic screens. It is excellent training for lifelong Bible study.
As image-bearers of the most high God, children are in the forefront of Satan’s attempts to cripple the church’s work. The messages of popular culture are Satan’s choice weapons. As Christian school educators, we are uniquely positioned to take up the fight. Our weapons of choice are comprehensive programs for training students to stand fast and thrive in the face of cultural pressures. Our commander— Christ. Our ultimate victory—complete. Sound the charge!
Training to Stand and Thrive 8.CS