“systematically organized material designed to provide a specific level of instruction in a subject matter category.” The board interpreted this section “… to allow school corporations to use computers and other data devices, instructional software, internet resources, interactive, magnetic and other media, and other ’systematically organized material.’ As technology continues to evolve, Indiana’s broad and inclusive definition of a textbook will enable districts to evolve in their use of such materials, whether packaged for them or packaged by them.”

Read the Open Letter to Indiana Educators About Textbooks.

You can read more about it in this article.

Should we follow Indiana’s lead or are they off base?

Cyber Bullying Policy
GCA strives to provide a safe, positive learning climate for students. Therefore, it shall be the policy of GCA to maintain an educational environment in which bullying and cyber bullying in any form are not tolerated.

All forms of bullying and cyber bullying by school district students are hereby prohibited.  Anyone who engages in bullying or cyber bullying in violation of this Policy shall be subject to appropriate discipline.

Students who have been bullied or cyber bullied shall promptly report such incidents to any staff member. Complaints of bullying or cyber bullying shall be investigated promptly, and corrective action shall be taken when a complaint is verified.  Neither reprisals nor retaliation shall occur as a result of the submission of a complaint.

GCA shall annually inform students that bullying or cyber bullying of students will not be tolerated.

Definitions:

Bullying shall mean unwelcome verbal, written or physical conduct directed at a student by another student that has the effect of:

1. Physically, emotionally or mentally harming a student;
2. Damaging, extorting or taking a student’s personal property;
3. Placing a student in reasonable fear of physical, emotional or mental harm;
4. Placing a student in reasonable fear of damage to or loss of personal property; or
5. Creating an intimidating or hostile environment that substantially interferes with a student’s educational opportunities.

Cyber bullying includes, but is not limited to, the following misuses of technology:  harassing, teasing, intimidating, threatening, or terrorizing another student or staff member by way of any technological tool, such as sending or posting inappropriate or derogatory email messages, instant messages, text messages, digital pictures or images, or website postings (including blogs) which has the effect of:

1. Physically, emotionally or mentally harming a student;
2. Placing a student in reasonable fear of physical, emotional or mental harm;
3. Placing a student in reasonable fear of damage to or loss of personal property; or
4. Creating an intimidating or hostile environment that substantially interferes with a student’s educational opportunities.

All forms of bullying are unacceptable and, to the extent that such actions are disruptive of the educational process of GCA, offenders shall be subject to appropriate staff intervention, which may result in administrative discipline.

The term “bullying” and “cyber bullying” shall not be interpreted to infringe upon a student’s right to engage in legally protected speech or conduct.

Delegation of Responsibility:

• Each staff member shall be responsible to maintain an educational environment free of bullying and cyber bullying.
• Each student shall be responsible to respect the rights of his/her fellow students and to ensure an atmosphere free from all forms of bullying and cyber bullying.
• Students shall be encouraged to report bullying or cyber bullying complaints to any staff member.
• Any staff member who receives a bullying or cyber bullying complaint shall gather information or seek administrative assistance to determine if bullying or cyber bullying has occurred.  The principal or his/her designee will inform the parents or guardians of the victim and also the parents or guardians of the accused.

Complaint Procedure:

• A student shall report a complaint of bullying or cyber bullying, orally or in writing, to a staff member. If a parent initiates the complaint, the appropriate staff member will follow-up with the student.
• The staff member will either gather the information or seek administrative assistance to determine if the alleged bullying or cyber bullying conduct occurred.

A violation of this Policy shall subject the offending student to appropriate disciplinary action, consistent with the student discipline code, which may include suspension, expulsion or notification to the appropriate authorities.

So what is the big deal? Do we really need change in Adventist education? Are things really that bad? Change will be the theme of my posting over the next few weeks.

Watch this 10 minute movie and then answer the question for yourself: Why the call for change in Adventist education?

I find such an attitude to be totally inconsistent with our Adventist philosophy. From my perspective, good enough should never be acceptable. Adventist education should be the very best and still strive for improvement. Our small one-room schools should have the same high quality of instruction as the very best suburban school. Average teaching should never be accepted as good enough. God’s high ideal for his people can best be exemplified in the very best education for our Adventist young people.

As Adventist educators, starting a new calendar year is often a time for reflection and re-evaluation. Is the purpose of Adventist education clearly before us, despite detours in 2007? Have we prayerfully recommitted our lives to serve on whatever route God plans to best accomplish His purpose in 2008?

Reflecting on one or more articles in the Adventist Education Essentials topic of CIRCLE, the Adventist Curriculum and Instruction Resource Center Linking Educators, could be a helpful refocusing exercise. Each section has been recently updated, with topics such as how to integrate faith In the Classroom and On Campus, and The Ministry of Teaching.

One small gadget can change our experience on a road journey, focusing on the destination, more than the obstacles along the way. I recently read The Craft of Christian Teaching which refueled my journey as an Adventist educator. Van Dyk (2000) identifies true north for Christian education like this: “The purpose of our classroom efforts cannot simply be the transmission of classical intellectual insight, but rather, the whole-person equipping of our children for knowledgeable and competent discipleship in a hurting world.” This aligns with the Adventist philosophy of education aim and mission, to prepare “students for a useful and joy-filled life, fostering friendship with God, whole-person development, Bible-based values, and selfless service in accordance with the Seventh-day Adventist mission to the world”. Van Dyk provides practical tips, founded in a biblical worldview, on how to chart the best course between end goals and our 2008 starting point.

Less than a year and a half ago, the Conferences, Unions , and the NAD put a tremendous amount of money into a meeting of Adventist educators called the NAD Teacher’s Convention. The keynote address a this convention was delivered by George Knight. For those of you that were there, you remember a deep, thought provoking look at these very challenge being discussed here. Many of the breakout sessions provided opportunities to look at these issues. I’ve looked online for the text of the speech, or a recording of it, but haven’t found it.

In April of 2001 they held the International Conference on The Seventh-day Adventist Philosophy of Education. George Knight also presented there with similar themes. His presentation at that event as well as other items published by him can be found here:
The Aims of Adventist Education in Historical Perspective
The Devil Takes a Look at Adventist Education
More at Circle: http://circle.adventist.org/search/?search_type=all&search_query=george+knight

The title of the another item, Online resources provided to help teacher and schools be better: (yes, that’s us)
Adventist Education Forum (yes, that’s us)
Circle
Journey to Excellence
Technology and Distance Education Committee resources

Speaking of resources, did you know that the NAD has provided ever school with free licenses to WordPerfect office and other Corel software? Oh, and I just heard that they have purchased Encyclopedia Britannica online for each Adventist School and Student – at no cost to the schools.

Just last school year a NAD Marketing meeting was held with representatives from Conferences and schools across North America studying how to better market our schools as we face the challenges we have been talking about here.

I’m sure there is more than this, but that’s what comes to mind at the moment.

I think it important to remember though, that we are not fighting against apathetic parents, church bureaucracy, or unprofessional teachers. We are fighting against the Host of Darkness who knows just how valuable our our young people are! Prayer is the first line of attack.

Secondly, as Tom said so well in his posting on The Ants, what are we doing? We can meet until our seats our sore, talk until our mouths are dry, but if we don’t act with the information we have with the resources available to us… well as the saying goes, “If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll be where we’ve always been.”

I ruled out all of those. Do those things contribute to a strong campus and strong culture? Yes. Do they cause it? No, they are symptoms. The culture of a campus, or any institution for that matter, is created by the staff of that campus. We are blessed here at UCA to have some staff who have been here, 8, 10, 15, and almost 20 years. Each of these staff members, no matter how long they have been here, contribute to the culture of the institution – both the culture the students see, and the interpersonal culture of the staff. Some staff add tremendously to the culture, from the coach who take no gruff from any student – but they all know he loves them, to the cook who loves the kids and does everything possible to have great food the kids will eat.

But we are all human. Each of us also subtracts something from the culture as well. Maybe it’s our intolerance to change, our harshness in the classroom, our oversensitivity to things that annoy us in other staff members, or maybe our expectation of absolute perfection in others. No matter how we justify our position, we all subtract something.

Take a look around at your school, church, or even family. I think you will find this law of culture to hold true. As I look back at the various schools, churches, and institutions with which I’ve worked, I can see this holding true. The leadership is very key in fostering the culture, but often it happens in spite of the leadership, not because of them.

Now to get personal. What do I add to the culture of the the school/church of which I am a part? What do I subtract form the culture? Do I add more than I subtract? Our human nature is to subtract. We want to take from the those around us, but not give. Only Christ can change that for us.

Regardless of the wisdom of their upper management, ants do some very impressive things as a group (check out the Nature Channel). First of all, most ants do not complain and do not lollygag in self pity. I do not know a pious ant, each one is willing to work hard especially for the group cause. The blame game in an ant community is almost unheard of. Ants hold no grudges and are careful not to attack their own kind. Ants are not into big studies, detailed analysis or political correctness to solve obvious problems. Regardless of the size of the devil, ants repeal as a coordinated team.

Ants have different job titles but realize that everyone is important to the organization. Ants are appropriately social, like hanging out
with other ants of good character and often bring other critters home for lunch hoping to convert them.

All ants are aware of their individual responsibility for marketing; when they are in town everyone knows it. Ants, much like us, use food as a conversation starter. Ants are very effective at evangelism and working their cause, for example the average person knows more about ants than Seventh-day Adventists.

Most ants do not swear, drink and drive or have credit card debt. Ants are always trying to add value without adding cost to the organization by volunteering. They have learned that a good reliable volunteer is worth more than a sporadic donor. They spend less time talking and more time doing. Ants are typically running around with a nice grin and have kind encouraging words for each other as they impact a new community. Ants like working together to get the job done especially on big tasks by breaking it up into smaller pieces.

Ant schools are excellent private institutions with most graduating with honors and therefore having good job prospects. All pastoral ants visit campuses on a regular basis to encourage the young to be good by example and personal friendship. These visits make the parents very happy and as a result the grandparents usually donate more money to the school. Teacher ants always smile, are always
personally warm and are great representatives for their campuses by being visible in the community. All ants know that without God, they would not be here.

Lastly, congregational ant leaders are really smart; they make sure that all young are taken care of at any cost or sacrifice because without healthy motivated young there will be no more ants to do God’s work.

Your Brother in Christ
Tom Krazan
Central California