RFPA Blog News

September 1, 2020 Standard Bearer preview article

This article is written by Prof. Barrett Gritters and will be published in the September 1, 2020 issue of the Standard Bearer.  Click to read pdf as printed in the September 1, 2020 issue. ________________ Preserving our good Christian schools We can truly say about our good Christian schools, “The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad!” (Ps. 126:3). The more I think about what God has given us, I want to say this. Even the heathen, if they would look at our...

A book for supporters of Christian schools

As a new school year begins, it is good to meditate on the reason for Christian education. We make sacrifices to support Christian schools, but why? Reformed Education lays out the “why”—God’s covenant of grace with believers and their children. This book also reminds us what Christian instruction looks like: lessons based on scripture and the creeds, and a biblical perspective on culture in every subject. Other topics include the qualifications and calling of the Christian school teacher and the goal of...

Mrs. Zajac Isn’t Coming Back

Mrs. Zajac wasn’t born yesterday. She knows you didn’t do your best work on this paper, Clarence. Don’t you remember Mrs. Zajac saying that if you didn’t do your best, she’d make you do it over? As for you, Claude, [hopefully] you should [n]ever need brain surgery. But Mrs. Zajac hopes that if you do, the doctor won’t open up your head and walk off saying he’s almost done, as you just said when Mrs. Zajac asked you for your penmanship, which, by the way, looks like you did it and ran. Felipe, the reason you have hiccups is, your mouth is always open and the wind rushes in. You’re in fifth grade now. So, Felipe, put a lock on it. Zip it up. Then go get a drink of water. Mrs. Zajac means business, Robert. The sooner you realize she never said everybody in the room has to do the work except for Robert, the sooner you’ll get along with her. And… Clarence. Mrs. Zajac knows you didn’t try. You don’t just hand in junk to Mrs. Zajac. She’s been teaching an awful lot of years. She didn’t fall off the turnip cart yesterday. She told you she was an old-lady teacher.[1]

Mrs. Zajac was only thirty-four years old, but she liked to call herself an “old-lady teacher.” Her hands were always in a flurry of busyness as she accentuated her words in front of the class. When they temporarily stopped and rested on her hips, her hands looked as if they were in holsters. She was a tough teacher, but her students knew she loved them.

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FRIDAY DEALS!

Friday Deals will run from October through early November. Today's Friday Deal is Reformed Education. Use code RE13 to get 30% off the retail price!   Reformed Education The Christian School as Demand of the Covenant by David J. Engelsma Reformed Education is an explanation for the people of God of the fundamentals of Christian day-school education. The book demonstrates that the basis of the Christian school is God's covenant of grace with believers and their children. Treating such vital subjects as the place of...

Christian Education and the Reformed Baptism Form (5): Meditation at the beginning of a new school year

What is a world view? It is an overall guide for life. However, a world view is particularly interested in our life on earth before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, our view of the creation. Prof. David J. Engelsma picks up on this point when he writes, "By world view, I understand a comprehensive, unified view of the whole of creation and its history, including the creation's origin, meaning, and goal and including my own life, in...