PERSPECTIVES
Adventist Education
Safe, Supportive, Collaborative
Who’s responsible for creating this culture?
A
At the heart of true Adventist education is the creation of a safe, supportive, collaborative culture where learners will choose to accept Christ as their Savior and demonstrate their commitment to Christ through service. The objective of Adventist education is for learners to grow in their knowledge and understanding of God’s creation and creatively apply their spiritual, physical, intellectual and LOUANN HOWARD is director of the Office of Education for the Mid-America Union.
social-emotional learning every day. This results in the balanced development of the whole person—spiritually, physically, intellectually. The Adventist school partners with parents and local churches in this education. Some might ask, “What is a safe, supportive, collaborative culture?” A safe culture is the creation of an environment with procedures, routines and policies where learners, parents, teachers and the community feel the school is safe and maximizes learning. Safe is where students feel they can ask questions, seek answers and collaboratively discuss without feeling minimized, bullied or scared. They feel supported. There is a relationship of trust and respect among everyone (parents, students, teachers and other stakeholders). An attitude of collaboration is encouraged as everyone works together. The school environment is safe, orderly and supports learning.
student population in MidAmerica. Many schools have community students enrolling in our schools. We have many churches who have applied to open a school in their area. The challenge we face is too few teachers. Many teachers are retiring and we do not have large numbers of graduating teachers in our colleges and universities. The challenge we face today is attracting young people to the ministry of teaching in Adventist schools and then retaining them in the profession. Teachers, as well as students, need a safe, supportive, collaborative work environment. It is time to recognize that there are many stakeholders who play key roles in developing schools where
students and teachers will thrive. Here are a few of those stakeholder groups: the constituency (church community), parents, pastors, school boards, students and teachers/principals. In the next few paragraphs, I’d like to review the various roles each group plays in the health of the school.
Role of constituents The constituency is members of the church(es) who support the school. The primary functions of a constituency are to establish and adopt a school constitution, provide adequate financing for school operations, approve financial plans for major capital improvements, and encourage the
A new challenge Adventist schools today face a challenge that is not a lack of students. This past year we were blessed and experienced a growth in our Photos: LouAnn Howard
4 OUTLOOKMAG.ORG JULY/AUG 2022
