What Can the People of Laish and Hobbits Teach Us?

clip_image002

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

One of my favorite novels (and movie) is Lord of the Rings, a classic and wonderfully told tale of good versus evil. An interesting sub-plot in the Lord of the Rings is the danger faced by those living in peace and prosperity, oblivious to embedding doom. The Hobbits are peaceful and hardworking, blissfully ignorant of the rise of Mordor[1] and the danger that it poses to them and the inhabitants of Middle-earth.

There is a similar and troubling description in the Bible of another group of people living in peace and prosperity, unaware of their impeding destruction:

Then the five men departed and came to Laish and saw the people who were there, how they lived in security … quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing that is in the earth and possessing wealth … and how they … had no dealings with anyone ... But the people of Dan … came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, and struck them with the edge of the sword and burn­ed the city with fire. And there was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone... (Jdg. 18:7; 27-28)

Lessons to be Gleaned from Hobbits and the People of Laish

Peace and Prosperity can be Dangerous

When our lives are characterized by peace, tranquility, and prosperity, we are prone to be lulled to sleep. The Hobbits were unaware of the looming danger and were not prepared for Sauron's[2]assault with his armies from Mordor. The people of Laish thought all was fine—their lives were quiet, peaceful, and prosperous. They did not suspect a thing—then, they were attacked and destroyed.

clip_image004

This happened to Americans prior to September 11, 2001. Few suspected that evil men were planning to crash planes into the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon. Evil did strike—unexpected and horribly on a beautiful, peaceful September morning. Many lives were lost and destroyed.

What is true nationally is also true of our souls. Complacency through preoccupation with the material and temporal at the neglect of our souls leads to false security and spiritual danger. We naively assume that everything is fine when in fact we and our students face two mortal dangers.

Danger from Within

We have evil natures

In Genesis we read that Cain was angry when the Lord rejected his offering. God responds by saying to Cain:

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. (Gen. 4:7)

Our sinful natures are always crouching in our hearts—ready to destroy our testimonies, our marriages, our careers, and our students. We must be keenly aware of the sin within us that, like the dark forces of Mordor, seeks to rise from within to devour our lives. This is why Jesus taught us to pray: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Mt. 6:13) He also tells us to: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt. 26:41)

Self-deception

Peter was convinced of his loyalty to Jesus—he proclaimed confidently that he was willing to die for Jesus. Jesus knew Peter better than Peter knew himself.

Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same. (Mt. 26:33-35)

The tendency for us to think more highly of ourselves than we should sets us up for failure. If we think we are strong enough to overcome our own sinful natures in our own strength we are destined to fail and to fall.

Dangers from Without

Satan is a real and active enemy

clip_image006

Satan is not a metaphor—he is real. Satan is the Sauron of our souls. He seeks to destroy us by seducing our evil natures or through various trials and tribulations.

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Pet. 5:8-10)

We must not, therefore, slip into a comfortable complacency. We must in fact be sober-minded and watchful—looking for Satan’s attacks and snares—from within and from without. He is crouching, looking, and ready to rip us and our students apart. He is ready to have us and them for dinner. Only the ignorant and complacent walk about unaware and unguarded.

Our Protection—Christ, His Word, and His Shepherds

In the end, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, and Pippin Took, and their allies saved Middle-earth and the Hobbits. In the end, only Christ, His Word, and His Shepherds will save us from dangers within and without.

Christ Prays for Us

Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you,that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. (Lk. 22:31-32)

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. (Ro. 8:34)

The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb. 7:23-25)

We must pray for each other and our students

Finally, brothers,pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. (2 Th. 3:1–5).

Christ will finish what he has begun

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 1:3)

We must work as God works in us to both will and to do

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, forit is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Phil. 2:12-13)

We cannot isolate ourselves from the church

We cannot isolate ourselves spiritually like the people of Laish. The Bible describes them as having no allies, “And there was no deliverer because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone.” We need each other for encouragement and accountability. Attendance at worship and engagement in Christian community are essential. There are no Lone Ranger Christians. We need each other!

What This Means for Our Students

• They must be taught not to flatter themselves. Contrary to everything they hear from the world, they are not good—they have sinful natures that will lead them astray and destroy them.

• The world is not neutral nor a friend—the value system in this world is used by Satan to entrap and destroy. They must be alert to the dangers, they cannot be like Hobbits. They must lean on Christ and his word so that they are “not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of their minds.”

• They must nourish their souls in God’s word and through engagement with God’s people. A malnourished improvised soul is no match for a sinful nature, Satan, or his allies in this world.

[1] Translated Black Land or Land of Shadow and in Chinese “a place where demons are many.”

[2] Tolkien noted that the "angelic" powers of his constructed myth "were capable of many degrees of error and failing,” but by far the worst was "the absolute Satanic rebellion and evil of Morgoth and his satellite Sauron.

You Have to Watch Out for the Pork on Thursdays!

By Mark Kennedy, ACSI Canada

My childhood friend Bill grew up to be a respected and successful bank executive- a man who occasionally helps financial institutions beyond our borders. A few years ago while consulting for a bank in Dublin he made his temporary GHQ in a small hotel that boasted a dining room for its guests. On a Thursday evening he ambled down to this quaint eatery for a taste of Celtic cuisine not suspecting the violent conflict that would arise later in his stomach.

“I was sick all last night after eating in your restaurant!” He told the manager the next morning.

“Well what did you have for dinner?”

“Roast pork!” said Bill.

“Ah yes,” replied the manager philosophically in a lilting Irish brogue, “You have to watch out for the pork on Thursdays.”

You can imagine the questions in my friend’s mind when his initial shock wore off. Maybe foremost was

“Why didn’t someone tell me?!?”

Sheltering someone from reality can be dangerous. And sometimes the consequences can be much more serious than a minor case of food poisoning.

Consider the effects of an education that intentionally shelters students from the most important realities about life and living- a secular education where the daily presence of the living God is ignored and the authority and guidance of scripture is dismissed- an education that edits out the creator and sustainer of the real world.

Paul warns about a day when:

Men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away from truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Tim 4: 3 & 4. That time sounds uncomfortably familiar.

It’s not that a secular education necessarily speaks out against the God of the Bible or openly denies the authority of the scriptures. It simply remains silent about them. And that’s the problem. If a student from a Christian family receives a consistently secular education how surprising can it be if he comes to think that God can’t be very important? ‘After all they never talk about Him at school’ he might reasonably say to himself- and his logic would be pretty hard to refute. He got the silent message.

Robert Louis Stephenson expressed it plainly,

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence.”

So when important, even vital truths are kept from people who desperately need to hear them, Stephenson says it is a cruel deception.

The silence in secular education has implications for the way children learn, believe, think and face life’s challenges. When students are sheltered from God’s reality they are prime candidates to be “taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” 2Col 2:8. Philosophies produce actions, and actions produce consequences. So it should be no surprise that sex education that ignores biblical standards produces ever growing rates of sexually transmitted diseases, abortions and accompanying psychological problems; that a purely mechanistic and evolutionary view of humanity convinces some students they are worthless genetic accidents so that suicide becomes a reasonable option; and that when personal troubles for which secular minds have no real answers overwhelm students they turn to illicit drugs in an attempt to escape. The world of drug and alcohol abuse and promiscuous or perverse sexuality is so often a false refuge for people who have not been equipped to deal with the real world.

In Christian schooling we don’t shelter students from reality. We prepare students by telling them the whole truth about the real world and by honoring the presence of the source of all truth and by teaching future generations about his standards for living. As the Psalmist says,

We will not hide them from their children; We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done. Psalm 78:4

In the early 1990s after Russian Communism collapsed I found myself on a team of North Americans instructing hundreds of Russian educators about how to teach the Bible to Russian public school students. Evgenity Kurkin of the Russian Ministry of Education explained why we had been invited to do that,

Seventy years ago we closed Him (God) out of our country and it has caused so many problems in our society we cannot count them…..We must put God back into our country and we must begin with our children.

One evening as I walked with some of our Russian hosts down a snowy street in St. Petersburg, a translator told me about his life in Chernobyl after the nuclear accident – the one that killed and crippled thousands.

“For three years after the accident nobody told us what had happened, all we knew was that our children were getting sick. We finally learned about it through BBC radio.” Those people in Chernobyl knew the cost of being sheltered from reality – and it was far too high.

And what about the future cost for students who have been sheltered from the realities that matter most for living now and for the life yet to come?

We shy away from sounding a warning to families in our churches. “Try to focus on the positive aspects of Christian schooling and don’t offend anyone” we tell ourselves. But maybe the time has come to tell the whole story to Christian families for the sake of their children and the future of the church in North America.

When Times are Difficult Consider Said Musa

Mean_Angry_Call_Phone_Cell_Yell_Conflict

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Leading a school can be a tough business!  I joke with my parents that my job is easy;

I only deal with people’s children, money, and religion!

People can be complainers, inconsiderate, gossips, stubborn, resistant to change, and just downright mean and ornery.   Such people can make our jobs and lives miserable.

Before you and I start feeling sorry for ourselves, consider Said Musa’s situation.  After reading of his plight I believe we will gain a little perspective on our troubles.

Said Musa’s Story

A terrible drama is unfolding in Afghanistan: There are reports that Said Musa, whose

situation I described at Christmas, will soon be executed for the ‘crime’ of choosing to

become a Christian. (For background, see here.)

Musa was one of about 25 Christians arrested on May 31, 2010, after a May 27 Noorin TV

program showed video of a worship service held by indigenous Afghan Christians; he was

arrested as he attempted to seek asylum at the German embassy. He converted to Christianity eight years ago, is the father of six young children, had a leg amputated after he stepped on a landmine while serving in the Afghan Army, and now has a prosthetic leg. His

oldest child is eight and one is disabled (she cannot speak). He worked for the Red Cross/Red Crescent as an adviser to other amputees.

He was forced to appear before a judge without any legal counsel and without knowledge of

the charges against him. “Nobody [wanted to be my] defender before the court. When I said

‘I am a Christian man,’ he [a potential lawyer] immediately spat on me and abused me and

mocked me… . I am alone between 400 [people with] terrible values in the jail, like a sheep.”

He has been beaten, mocked, and subjected to sleep deprivation and sexual abuse while in

prison. No Afghan lawyer will defend him and authorities denied him access to a foreign

lawyer.

Any and every human being who is imprisoned, abused, or tortured for the free and peaceful

expression of their faith deserves our support, but Musa is also a remarkable person and

Christian. In a letter smuggled to the West, he says, “The authority and prisoners in jail did

many bad behavior with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did

sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head.”

He added a thing much more important to him, that they “mocked me ‘he’s Jesus Christ,’

spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day… . Please, please, for the sake of Lord

Jesus Christ help me.” (See the full letter here)

He has also stated that he is willing to give his life for his faith. “Please, please you should

transfer me from this jail to a jail that supervises the believers… . I also agree … to sacrifice

my life in public [where] I will tell [about my] faith in Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, [so]

other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith.”

… The Wall Street Journal reports that “Afghan officials have been unapologetic:

The sentence for a convert is death and there is no exception.

said Jamal Khan, chief of staff at the Ministry of Justice.

They must be sentenced to death to serve as a lesson for others.

Here is Said Musa’s handwritten letter (click on the image to see a larger version).

image

Our Response:

• Let’s pray consistently for Said Musa and other persecuted Christians.

• Tell these stories to our students so that they understand the price that many Christians are called to pay to follow Jesus—a price that we and they may be called upon to pay as well.

• Use this story in Bible classes, chapels, and staff devotions as an antidote to the false prosperity “gospel.”

• Our struggles are real and they hurt but keep them in perspective.  Said Musa lost a leg, has a disabled daughter, has been imprisoned, beaten, humiliated, spat upon, and abused.  He will likely be executed for being a Christian.  There is no hint of blaming God, claiming God is unfair, etc.  Instead, he is willing to die publically to be a witness for Jesus.  I don’t know about you, but my meager struggles pale in comparison—in fact there is NO comparison.

• Let us learn to suffer hardship, of whatever sort, for the sake of serving Christ and his kingdom in and through our schools.  May God grant us the grace to joyfully endure hardship and to be counted worthy to suffer for his sake.  May we mirror Said’s commitment to Christ before our students and parents.

Does Success Spoil or Sanctify Our Students?

Spoiled_brat_selfish_parent_child_beg

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

By most measures you and I are "successful." We live in a land of freedom and opportunity. Notwithstanding any financial stresses in our lives, we have shelter, clothing, and food. We have family and friends. Most of us are in good health. Compared to most people in this world, you and I are very "successful." We live in relative ease. So do our children!

And therein lies one of our greatest dangers. We and our children are easily spoiled. Success and ease tend to make us self-absorbed, self-sufficient, self-righteous, and self-seeking.

• We come to believe that "we are owed a life of success and ease."

• We and our children come to believe that "life is about us."

• We come to believe that "we produced our success."

We become autonomous, thinking that we do not really need God. We may not say we don't need him but the way we live?a weak prayer life, a weak devotional life, inconsistent worship on the Lord's Day, and the constant compromises we make in disobeying God's clear commands?all reflect what we really believe.

This is the danger facing Israel. They have won great victories and are now preparing to settle down in peace and prosperity. The danger is that their success will spoil rather than sanctify them.

There is a wonderful passage in Joshua following the wars in Canaan. The Israelis have just conquered their enemies and are preparing to settle in the new land flowing with milk and honey. They have been successful and are now preparing to enjoy the fruit of their labor. Matthew Henry describes the scene this way, "The war being ended, and ended gloriously, Joshua, as a prudent general, disbands his army ... and sends them home, to enjoy what they had conquered, and to beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks ... And, now ... Joshua publicly and solemnly ... gives them their discharge."

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and towalk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve himwith all your heart and with all your soul." (Josh.: 22:5)

Although these are somewhat synonymous for the purpose of emphasis, there is value in considering the particular meaning of each verb: Observe, Love, Walk, Keep, Cling, and Serve.

To Observe

To notice, watch attentively, fulfill and comply with. We are to spend time knowing, understanding, and complying with God's word. How is your Bible study? How is your attendance at worship?

To Love

: to have a great interest and pleasure in something. This exhortation is the essence of the "first and greatest commandment," to love God passionately, with every fiber of one's being (Deut. 6:5; Matt 22:37-38). The primary purpose and chief end of our existence is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, to take pleasure in God.

Do you enjoy God? Are you more passionate about God or something/someone else?

To Walk

Walking means to order the whole of one's life by God's word and to be filled with his Spirit. When we rise up, walk through the day, and lie down at night, in ALL his ways?even those that are narrow and up-hill, in every particular instance?God's word is to be our compass.

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut. 6:7-9)

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be likea foolish man who built his house on the sand.And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Matt. 7:24-27)

To Keep

To honor or fulfill, to observe or pay due regard to God's commands. There is no "BUT" in the believer's response to God's commands! Believers are never to say, "I would obey but....." If we love God, we keep his word.

If you love me, you willkeep my commandments.And I will ask the Father, and he will give you anotherHelper, to be with you forever,eventhe Spirit of truth,whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him ... Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves mewill be loved by my Father, and I will love him andmanifest myself to him. (Jn.: 14:15ff)

To Cling

To hold tightly to, to be hard to remove from; to adhere to someone, to remain persistently faithful to God and his word. We cling both out of love and need. He is our life! He is our life and our treasure?we grasp him tightly!

"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." (Jn. 10:10)

To Serve

Life is NOT ABOUT US. Life is about loving and serving God; life is about serving his kingdom.

Share in suffering asa good soldier of Christ Jesus.No soldiergets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.An athlete is notcrowned unless he competes according to the rules.It isthe hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Remember Jesus Christ,risen from the dead, theoffspring of David,as preached in my gospel,for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. Butthe word of God is not bound!ThereforeI endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtainthe salvation that is in Christ Jesus witheternal glory.The saying istrustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will alsolive with him;if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us;if we are faithless, he remains faithful forhe cannot deny himself. (1 Cor. 9:10)

Our success in this life will either spoil us and our children or it will motivate us to show our gratitude by renewing our commitment to Observe, Love, Walk, Keep, Cling, and Serve!

Should Teachers Text, Facebook, or Twitter Students?

Texting_Ariana_Cell_Phone_text

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Do you think electronic communication between teachers and students should be forbidden or restricted? What are the benefits and risks of texting with students? How have you used texting and/or social networking as an educational tool.

What about Facebook?  Twitter?

Share your thoughts with the hundreds of educators who read this blog.

How To Find Time to Focus, Think, and Work

Future_plan_Strategy_telescope

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

It is hard to find it hard to find time to focus, think, and work on important projects.  We are constantly interrupted and distracted.  The immediate crowds out the important. 

In his excellent article Who Else Needs More Mental Focus?, Michael Hyatt, Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the world's largest Christian publisher, offers very helpful tips for improving one’s focus. (see a short excerpt and link to his article below)

I have used many of the same practices for years.  In addition to Mr. Hyatt’s recommendations, I also do the following to carve out time for focus, thinking, and working on critical projects.

• I schedule several hours every Friday morning off campus to focus and think.  I do not come into the office.  I can be reached by cell phone in an emergency but my administrative assistant has been instructed that I am not to be interrupted.  This is some of the most productive time in my week.

• Each year I take several days for a “Think Week.”  I got this idea from Bill Gates who pulled away each year for an extended time of research, reading, and reflection.  I have adopted this practice.  I spend these days praying, reading, reflecting, and writing.  I take a substantial amount of reading material with me.  Because I use my iPad exclusively for reading I am able to carry an entire library of books and research articles with me.  I read and reflect from morning to evening only interrupting my reading for eating, running, and showering.  It is usually during Think Week that I come up with long-range initiative such as our BCS SMART SCHOOL program.

Click here to read Mr. Hyatt’s article, Who Else Needs More Mental Focus?

A few weeks ago, I had to prepare for a board meeting. I really needed an extended period of time to review the material and prepare my presentation. In doing this, I realized that I go through a similar pattern whenever I need to increase my mental focus and get a lot of work done in a short period of time.  Here are ten tactics I use that may help you…

What do you do to improve your focus and creativity as you lead your school?

Reflections: Revolution, Egypt, and Our Students

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Have you been watching the news lately?  The Arab world is in an uproar, Egypt is in crisis, and journalist and pundits are wringing their hands with anxiety. How should we respond?  Remembering that at the heart of our mission is to teach students to use the Scriptures as the foundation and framework for interpreting events in this world; what should we communicate to our students about the events in the Middle East? 

This is not comprehensive but here are some thoughts for your prayerful consideration.

• NOTHING happens outside of God’s sovereign decrees and providential care. From the smallest detail of life to monumental events in human history, our Holy, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient, loving God is in control. Consider:

• The smallest of animals are under his care

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father ... Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  Mt 10:28–31 

• The smallest details of our lives are under his care

Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell … even the hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.  Mt 10:28–31

• The nations are under his sovereign control and care

So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.  Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.  Gen. 11:8-9

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. Deuteronomy 32:8

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us ... Acts 17:26ff

• We are to pray for the Egyptian Christians being persecuted and killed

Finally, brothers,pray for us, thatthe word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.  2 Th 3:1–2

• Pray for the persecutors

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  Mt 5:44–48).

• Use current events as teachable moments in appropriate classes. 

For example, the crisis in Egypt lends itself to teachable moments in history, geography, and Bible.  Discussions of biblical truth, geopolitical issues, implications for U.S. foreign policy, the role of believers in seeking peace, etc., are worthy topics to explore.

• We are to care

Our sinful natures and everything in our culture screams at us to be self-centered, self-focused, self-absorbed, and narcissistic.  If it doesn’t affect us, we ignore it.  But this is unbiblical.  Jesus said the second greatest commandment was to love our neighbors as ourselves.  He also told us “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”  Mt 5:9

Our students are being prepared to be leaders.  These means, among other things, that they are to care about what happens in this world, to believers and unbelievers alike and they are to actively work for peace and justice in this world.  They are to be salt and light as they bring the truths of God’s word to bear on contemporary issues, reflecting the character of Issachar:

Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.  1 Chron. 12:32a

Avoiding Burnout Over Your Board Members

By Mr. Zach Clark, who serves as the Director of Advancement at Westminster Christian Academy, St. Louis.

One of the questions I'm most often asked by other advancement leaders, school administrators, and even the occasional head of school, is:

"How do you relate to your board effectively?

This question is followed often by an emotionally-charged story, punctuated by groans of frustration.

Lurking behind this question are the unspoken, "How do I get the board to better support what I'm doing? How do you mobilize the board for positive impact? Or, how can I get along better with my board?"

This is an area where many school leaders openly admit a great deal of insecurity and frustration. I do have some key principles that after much prayer, some mistakes, and ongoing struggle I try to apply consistently.

0. I recognize that I am a person under authority, and that God purposefully places me under specific authority for my own good. That is the Head of School. His/her authority comes from the Board, so I am ultimately under the authority of the Board which holds in trust the mission of the school. I believe that God not only calls and equips you and me to advance His work, but positions us as well within a structure and under authority uniquely suited to accomplish His purposes for our role.

1. My “role” as director of advancement does not include any formal responsibility or role to influence the board nomination process. I do prayerfully seek the Lord for wisdom and opportunity to do the following on occasion: a)suggest a potential individual to a board member, asking if they have every been considered for board membership; or b)add individuals to various volunteer committees that might grow to make good potential board members in the future, should the board so lead.

2. I focus my primary board-related energy on growing and maintaining a great advancement committee (which is a board committee) rather than worrying about the board overall. I’m not sure if I do a great job with the advancement committee, but I have successfully grown the advancement committee, which has led to the addition of key new board members. I continue to serve alongside the committee members to shape the role of the committee and grow the committee with great individuals, some of whom might make great board members someday.

3. I also try to spend a great deal of time with individual board members. I don’t do this as well as I’d like, but I am committed to this approach and believe that God has been blessing my efforts in spite of myself. One expert I know suggests that you interact with board members as often as you would your most faithful and generous donors. This seems a good rule of thumb in evaluating the amount of time to invest in the board.

4. Lastly, and this goes along with the point about investing time, I work to keep my focus on learning as much as possible from each board member. It's easy for relationships between staff and board members to become acrimonious. Taking the time to know their families, prayer requests, skills and talents, and involvement in our community inside the school and out, helps keep my focus on them as people who God has called as a part of His plan for our school.

I'm sure I'll continue to add to this list as God provides new opportunities to learn. But for now, applying each principle with tangible habits and the investment of time is bearing fruit in my efforts to serve well.

Question: What habits to you live out in working with your board members?

Are You Spread Too Thin? How to Thrive and Not Merely Survive as a Christian School

image

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

I recently read an interesting article by the CEO of Yahoo! titled The Peanut Butter Manifesto. Click here to read the memo. I highly recommend it to you.

For the purposes of this blog article I want to focus on the following statement from the memo because it is instructive for us as school leaders.

"We lack a focused, cohesive vision for our company. We want to do everything and be

everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics ...

I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular."

Spread Too Thin: Strategic Allocation of Limited Resources

The Christian school movement is not particularly healthy. Based on recent statistics that I have seen, the number of Christian schools and overall school enrollments are stagnant or declining.

image

Although there are external forces beyond our control that affect our schools, many of our problems are self-inflicted. One of our self-inflicted wounds is similar to that articulated by the CEO of Yahoo!--we are often not strategic in the allocation of our tangible and intangible resources and as a consequence we are not offering a substantial marginal value to our current and potential clients. I am referring to our parents a clients because notwithstanding our missions as Christian schools, our parents are essentially paying clients who make economic calculations in deciding whether to enroll or re-enroll their children in our schools.

School Finance 101

image

If there is one unalterable truth about school resource management, it is this: the laws of economics do not discriminate. The laws of economics apply equally to both religious and non-religious institutions, regardless of their mission. The laws of economics are not religious.

Economic laws, like physical laws, apply universally to all regardless of one’s religion, one’s motives, or one’s hopes and dreams. Economic laws can no more be circumvented than the law of gravity because the laws of economics are as much a creation of God as the laws of physics.

The laws of economics are the laws of God. They are in the same way that the laws of physics are the laws of God … They are the laws of God because it is He that decrees the existence of the entities whose nature it is to obey those laws: had He wanted other laws He would have had to create other things ….Like physical laws they are necessary but only hypothetically necessary. They work positis ponendis. In other words, these laws are formulated in terms of “if then” statements. Economic laws do not tell us what human beings will or will not do, how they will behave, [nor how they ought to be behave]. They tell us rather what will happen if human beings behave in certain ways.... [Emphasis added] (Sadowsky, 2005, p. 3)

Assuming that God will suspend the laws of economics because the school is a ministry, too many Christian school leaders believe they can violate those laws with impunity. With the best of intentions, usually with the goal of making Christian education affordable for everyone, many administrators and boards establish financial policies that violate basic economic principles, good business practices, and common sense.

School leaders have a responsibility to understand and to apply economic laws and sound financial practices to the management of their schools. Failure to do so is a failure to apply the very biblical worldview to school management that is its raison d'être.

The Cost of Excellence

A basic law of economics is that for an organization to survive, let alone thrive, its revenue must equal or exceed its costs. This is just as true for “Pearly Gates Christian School” as it is for IBM. Common sense enough but it is surprising how many intelligent people violate this basic axiom of economics when filling a leadership role in the Christian school. Motivated by the laudable desire to provide a Christian education to as many children as possible, many school leaders abandon common sense. Sadly, such well-meaning intentions threaten the survival of the very ministry they so earnestly believe in.

image

Artificially low tuition is one example of violating basic economic law. Yet many administrators and boards routinely establish tuition rates below the actual cost to educate and compound the problem by providing multi-child and vocationally-based tuition discounts regardless of parents’ ability to pay. With inadequate revenue, programs are often under funded, limited, and of mediocre quality. Shallow fine arts programs, out-dated and/or underutilized technology, limited foreign language offerings, and limited or non-existent programs for gifted and special needs students are common.

Providing a world-class Christian education cannot be done on the cheap, it is expensive. According to the NCES (2004a), expenditures for public and private education were estimated at $866 billion for 2003–04. Expenditures for elementary and secondary schools alone were estimated to total $514 billion.

Public school per pupil expenditures for the 2001-02 school year averaged $8,259. By comparison, tuition per pupil in ACSI member schools in the same year averaged $4,642, a difference of $3,617/student . The figure below illustrates per pupil expenditures in public and ACSI member schools.

clip_image003

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, current expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance in public elementary and secondary schools, by state or jurisdiction: Selected years, 1959-60 to 2001-02. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/tables/dt04_168.asp. Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) 1990-01 to 2001-02. By using non-tuition revenue, such as fund raising and church subsidies, actual per student expenditures are higher than tuition levels may indicate. In many Christian schools, tuition levels are set below the actual cost to educate.

This 44% differential is “funded” by paying below market compensation, through fundraising and/or church subsidies, by offering programs of limited scope and marginal quality, and/or by incurring debt.

From Cartoonstock.com

Cartoon from Cartoonstock

Many Christian schoolteachers bear the burden of subsidizing below cost tuition rates through low salaries and poor benefits. Sixty-eight percent of teachers employed in ACSI member schools with at least 10 years of experience earn less than $30,000 per year, (Association of Christian Schools International, 2005). By contrast, statistics from the NCES (2002) show that the average starting salary for teachers with no experience in public charter schools that used a salary schedule was $26,977, compared with $25,888 for public school districts.

Education is a labor-intensive enterprise with labor costs typically representing 65 to 80 percent of a school’s entire operating costs, (William J. Fowler & Monk, 2001). The combination of below cost tuition and high labor costs results in artificially depressed salary levels making staffing the school with highly trained and competent teachers throughout the program difficult, especially at the secondary level.

image

Low salaries and poor benefits often produce high staff turnover creating discontinuity in the academic program. The applicant pool is small, forcing the administrator to hire the “best available” from a pool of relatively mediocre teachers. The result is poor to average instructional and academic quality, the loss of parental confidence, low student retention rates, especially at the upper school level, and a reputation for mediocre quality.

Many Christian leaders find themselves caught in a vicious and self-defeating cycle. Under funding produces poor quality, which in turn restricts enrollment levels and school revenue. To increase revenue, school leadership needs to raise tuition rates but many current and prospective parents do not believe that the school’s quality justifies the higher cost. Parents choose to leave or not to enroll their children in the school in the first place. In a desperate attempt to stem the loss of students or to stimulate enrollment, tuition continues to be set below actual cost thus perpetuating the cycle.

Supply and Demand

image

The theory of supply and demand is one of the most basic in economics. Simply stated, supply is the amount of product or service that a business or organization is willing or able to provide at a specified price. Demand is the amount of product or service that a consumer is willing to buy at a specified price, (International Society for Complexity Information and Design, n.d.). Modifying this definition for the Christian school market, the definition may read as follows; supply is the quality of education that a Christian school can provide at a specified tuition level while demand is the amount of tuition that parents are willing to pay for the perceived value of the education provided. Everything else being equal, demand (enrollment) will be strong when the market (parents) believe that the school provides a quality of education valued at equal to or above the tuition charged. If enrollment is stagnant or declining this is a sign that the market does not perceive the value offered to be equal to the tuition charged.

Common sense enough, but things are a bit more complex than the foregoing definition implies. To grasp more fully the economics of Christian schooling, two other economic principles need to be considered; price elasticity of demand and marginal value. Relax; this is not as bad as it sounds!

image

Elasticity refers to market sensitivity to price changes. Demand for very price elastic products or services will vary significantly based on price. Relatively small increases or decreases in price will have a significant impact on demand. On the other hand, demand for products and services that are price inelastic is relatively stable even with relatively wide swings in price. For example, farmers face a relatively inelastic market; modest increases or decreases in groceries have only a modest affect on consumer demand for staples. However, airfares are elastic; even slight price increases or decreases in airfare can dramatically affect ticket sales.

There are several factors that affect elasticity of demand (QuickMBA, 2004):

· Availability of substitutes, the more possible substitutes, the greater the elasticity,

· Degree of necessity or luxury: luxury products tend to have greater elasticity. Some products that initially have a low degree of necessity are habit forming and can become "necessities" to some consumers, e.g., the microwave and the cell phone.

· Proportion of the purchaser's budget consumed by the item: products that consume a large portion of the purchaser's budget tend to have greater elasticity.

For the Christian school this means that, other factors being constant, the availability of schooling options in the community will affect the administration’s ability to increase enrollments and what can be charged for tuition. The more options, the more elastic tuition rates will be. Likewise, the fewer alternatives that parents have, the less elastic tuition will be.

The quality of alternative educational options will also affect tuition elasticity. If area public and private schools are considered poor relative to the local Christian school, enrollment in the Christian school may be perceived as more of a necessity than it will be if the community is blessed with a large number of high quality public and private schools. In the latter case, parents have a smorgasbord of quality educational options. If parents perceive the local public schools to be safe, high quality learning environments, they are more likely to consider enrollment in the Christian school to be a discretionary “luxury” purchase. Only the most diehard adherents to a Christian philosophy of education will consider enrollment in the Christian school a necessity. If on the other hand, local schools are perceived to be unsafe and of poor quality, “purchasing” a Christian education is more likely to be considered a necessity, making tuition levels less elastic.

The Archdiocese of Chicago provides a compelling example of this principle. Faced with declining enrollments and a school deficit of $20 million, the Archdiocese commissioned a study to determine how to boost school enrollment. Boffetti (n.d.) reports that researchers discovered that:

Struggling schools, at the very least, needed to fill every available seat with tuition-paying students. Surprisingly, many inner-city parents, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, did not know that Catholic education would only cost them $1,000 a year, with the diocese picking up the rest of the tab. When they learned the facts, many said they would eagerly pay to get their children out of the awful and dangerous public schools they were in.

image

Suburban parents were more sanguine. Parents who believed in the importance of Catholic education already sent their children to Catholic schools. The rest of the parents did not think it would be worth the added expense because they felt that their suburban public school system was at least equal to, if not better than, the Catholic schools in terms of academics and amenities [emphasis added]. In other words, the “Catholic” in Catholic education was not worth an extra $1,000 per year to them. (pp. 7-8)

Marginal Value

image

A closely related concept to elasticity is marginal value. Simply stated, marginal value is the amount of benefit perceived by purchasing an additional “unit” of a product or service in terms of other goods or services. Several factors influence marginal value: price and perceived value being among the most important. Brimley and Garfield (2002) define the marginal dollar (a way of understanding marginal value) as the dollar that would be better spent for some other good or service. In other words, as applied to the Christian school, marginal value or the marginal dollar can be understood as the calculation that parents make that an incremental increase in tuition, either at the school their children currently attend or at competing schools, is worth more than say a nicer home, car, or vacation. That is, as tuition increases, parents make a calculation that the added cost is or is not producing an incremental value equal to or greater than the increase in cost relative to other educational options and other purchases. If parents do not perceive the quality of education provided to be of more value than other options, parents will choose those options.

The impact of marginal value calculations made by parents is seen in the typical attrition rate from junior to senior high common in many Christian schools. Many parents conclude that the added cost of four years of Christian schooling is not justified relative to the breadth of programs offered by local high schools.

The reflex response by many school leaders is to assume that the way to increase the marginal value of their schools is to keep tuition low. This is certainly an important element in maintaining value. Another approach, however, is to increase the incremental value of the education provided relative to tuition charged by improving quality, expanding programs, hiring better teachers, and enhancing facilities. In other words, value can be increased by giving parents more for their tuition dollars. The balance between quality and cost produces a perceived value; it is perceived value relative to other educational options and other purchases that determines the willingness of parents to purchase a “Pearly Gates Christian School” education for their children.

Strategic Budgeting for Marginal Value

image

There are many ways to increase a Christian school’s marginal value: three of the most important are:

• Hiring superior teachers,

• Effective integration of technology, and

• Careful stewardship of existing funds.

To accomplish these goals school leadership should engage in strategic budgeting in contrast to default budgeting. Default budgeting is budgeting based on current realities, existing exigencies, and existing allocations. By contrast, strategic budgeting aligns planned expenditures to strategic initiatives designed to enhance marginal value. Leadership allocates funds based on the school’s strategic plan, not merely on existing spending patterns.

Strategic Budgeting: Personnel

For example, because a school is only as good as its teachers, one of the most powerful ways to increase marginal value is to establish a long-term plan to enhance the school’s ability to recruit, hire, and retain superior teachers by offering competitive salaries and benefits. To accomplish this goal, prayerful, strategic, and sometimes hard decisions have to be made concerning the existing allocation of resources. Are there personnel who need to be let go? Are there curriculum offerings that need to be dropped? Are there programs that need to be eliminated or reduced?

image

image

Suppose the school offers a home economics course. The administration may have established this course several decades ago because it met a need at the time. This course is assigned a teacher and allocated resources. However, there are only 30 students enrolled out of a total of 500 high school students. Given cultural changes, marginal value would be increased by eliminating this class and allocating the funds for a media literacy or graphics design course. Such a course would serve a greater number of students and would increase the value parents are receiving for their tuition dollar.

Reevaluating the standard salary scale is another example of strategic budgeting. The basic idea is to create salary ranges designed to differentiate pay based on market supply and demand. Under such a plan there may be different compensation ranges for different classifications of teachers, e.g., for scarce specialty teachers and personnel such as advanced math and science teachers or technology specialists.

The idea of creating differentiated salary ranges whereby certain teacher classifications are paid more than others is counterintuitive for most educators. Educated and trained in a system in which teacher salaries are based on experience and credentials, regardless of competence and market conditions, is deeply ingrained in the psychology of school leadership and in the structure of schooling.

image

However, to put differentiated pay into a larger context, it is helpful to note the following research findings as reported by the Educational Research Service’s report, Teacher Compensation and Teacher Quality (Goldhaber & Eide, 2003).

Current teacher quality and staffing issues have affected some subject areas more than others. For example, studies have shown that teachers of math and science have some of the highest levels of attrition among all teachers. Additionally, some schools face teacher quality issues with the math and science teachers who do remain in the classroom….

The fact that teacher shortage and teacher quality issues affect math and science especially severely can be explained with the teacher labor market and the single-salary schedule. Lakdawalla (2000) found that the returns to technical skills have outpaced the returns to teaching skills. Teachers with math and science skills are most likely to be able to have high-paying technical jobs as viable career alternatives. This means that the opportunity cost for math and science teachers has grown more than the opportunity cost for all other teachers….

We find that the shortage for math teachers is greater than that for history teachers, because the wages of teachers are inflexible. Thus, schools will have more difficulty hiring math teachers with an adequate level of training and also face greater levels of attrition in the current math teacher labor force….

Goldhaber highlights the severity of the problem of finding and retaining highly qualified math and science teachers for most schools…

This leaves schools with difficult choices and challenges. They could procure and devote unprecedented amounts of money toward teacher compensation [or] differentiate salaries by teacher skills…[emphases added]

It is quite likely that schools will have to raise compensation for math and science teachers in order to compete with the private sector and attract individuals with technical expertise in those areas. The above point suggests a need to restructure teacher compensation and move away from the single-salary schedule…and should include concepts such as the supply and demand for particular teacher skills. (pp. 38-52)

When assessing teacher compensation, it must be borne in mind that money is not the primary motivator for teachers. If it were, many would have chosen a different profession. Hiring teachers intrinsically and passionately committed to the ministry of Christian education is critically important to ensuring that teachers are kingdom rather than self focused.

Nevertheless, the “workman is worthy of his hire.” Creating differentiated pay ranges has the benefit of positioning the school to recruit and retain the finest faculty available while not requiring the uniform and universal raising of all salaries. The result is that the school is able to attract advanced science and math teachers while simultaneously avoiding the large tuition increases that would result from adjusting the entire salary scale upward. It also enhances the marginal value of the school by increasing quality and minimizing tuition increases.

Strategic Budgeting: Technology Integration

image

Leadership can significantly enhance marginal value by enriching the academic program through integrated instructional technology. The key concept is integrated. The vast majority of both ACSI and CSI member schools offer computer classes. Very few integrate the technology into daily instruction.

Technology integration means that technology is an instructional tool, not merely a subject of instruction. Integrated technology is the seamless infusion of technology in both instruction and learning so that technology becomes a ambiguous tool used by both students and teachers. It goes beyond computer labs to the natural incorporation of technology into teaching and learning as naturally as a white board and notebook. Using technology for the sake of using technology is not the objective. The objective is to use technology to enhance teaching and learning when it is the most effective way to teach and to learn. Technology is not the end; it is the means.

The following abridged example of technology integration for a high school class illustrates the concept. Although designed for high school, this lesson could be easily modified for junior high students.

Lesson objective: Students will deepen their understanding of the relationships between social and human capital and the creation of wealth in a first and third world country.

Lesson Content and Assignment:

· The teacher will provide background reading and lectures on social and human capital, biblical concepts of economic justice, fundamental principles of economics, and the impact of educational attainment on the creation of individual and national wealth.

· Students are to use library and Internet-based resources to research economic, demographic, and educational data for both a first and third world country using resources just as the CIA Fact Book, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Census, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, etc.

· Data is to be collected using an Access database. Students will export the data to an Excel spreadsheet. Graphs are to be created depicting important data. Working with the math department, students will run a simple correlation analysis using Excel or a program such as SPSS.

· Students will use Word to write an eight-page research report. The report is to include embedded Excel charts and graphs. The report is to be in MLA format using Endnote for the citation of references and the creation of the reference section. This written report is to provide a discussion of biblical principles of social justice, a summary of research findings, and conclusions regarding the relationship between social and human capital to the creation of wealth in a first and third world country. Students are then to answer the following question: “What does this mean to me?”

· Students will use PowerPoint to present a five-minute summary of their findings.

Assessment:

· Students will be assessed using both a traditional assessment (test) and an authentic assessment. The authentic assessment is the quality of the research, the quality of the written report, the quality of technology use and integration, and the quality of their presentations. The teacher will use a rubric to evaluate the authentic assessment.

A useful middle school example is Was It Murder? The Death of King Tutankhamun: The Boy King. This lesson can be found at the following Internet site: http://www.pekin.net/pekin108/wash/webquest/.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence that Christian schools are integrating technology in a manner even close to the lessons described above. In a national study designed to assess the current level of technology access and integration, defined as Technology Level, in CSI and ACSI schools, Mosbacker (2005) found that the majority of CSI and ACSI schools are not characterized by the level of technology integration required to prepare students with the 21st century skills needed in an information-rich, global economy.

The majority of the schools are at a relatively low technology level as measured by the CEO STaR Chart definitions. The STaR Chart is one of the most comprehensive categorizations of schools based on their level and use of the technological resources. The CEO Forum’s STaR Chart identifies and defines four school profiles ranging from the school with “Early Technology” to the “Target Technology” school characterized by integrated technology throughout the curriculum. The STaR Chart also matches potential educational outcomes — the potential benefits — to the level of technology and integration in each profile category. Based on technology presence and integration throughout the curriculum, the STaR Chart provides a technology snapshot of a school in each of the profile categories.

Most CSI and ACSI schools provide access to technology, there is little curricular integration.

Consequently, the majority of the schools are at a relatively low technology level with 77% of the schools defined as Low to Mid Technology. Twenty two percent of the schools are classified as High/Advanced Technology schools and only one school is classified as a Target Technology school.

Many parents will immediately perceive an increase in marginal value through the addition of integrated technologies. For this to become a reality, leaders will need to develop strategic budgets that fund the necessary hardware, software, and staff training, the latter being particularly important. Simply adding the funds for technology development without a strategic review of the existing budget may increase total cost unnecessarily. Realizing increases in marginal value will require reassessing current budget allocations and may require eliminating or reducing other expenditures in order to fund technology development without adding significantly to tuition. A combination of strategic budgeting and fundraising for technology purchases can make technology affordable while improving marginal value to parents.

Strategic Budgeting: Strategic Allocations

An important way to increase marginal value is to control cost by the prayerful and careful use of the resources entrusted to our care—stewardship. Jim Collins (2001) provides a poignant example of stewardship from the corporate world.

When we interviewed Ken Iverson, he told us that nearly 100 percent of the success of Nucor was due to its ability to translate its simple concept into disciplined action consistent with the concept. It grew into a $3.5 billion Fortune 500 company with only four layers of management and a corporate staff of fewer than twenty-five people—executive, financial, secretarial, the whole shebang—crammed into a rented office the size of a small dental practice. Cheap veneer furniture adorned the lobby…instead of a corporate dining room, executives hosted visiting dignitaries at Phil’s Diner, a strip mall sandwich shop across the street [emphasis added]. (p. 136)

Twenty-five members of a corporate staff to run a $3.5 billion dollar company is, by any measure, good stewardship! Look around. Has the school incrementally added more and more staff as it has grown? Is it necessary to have such a large staff? Can things be done more efficiently, for example, by utilizing administrative computing system more effectively and through better staff training? One method to assess staffing levels is to compute the total number FTE (full-time equivalent) employees to students. If that ratio is consistently increasing, it may indicate excessive staffing levels.

Being cheap is not equivalent to wise stewardship. Increased value and marginal return on the investment are the marks of wise stewardship. Being “cheap” does not promote excellence nor does it add marginal value. The wise use of resources through the strategic allocation of scarce resources does both. Excellence is promoted by allocating funds to strategic initiatives designed to enhance value and expand programs, e.g., hiring better teachers and/or developing integrated technologies.

Strategic allocation is no more complex than seeking the “biggest bang for the buck.” What will produce the greatest educational return on investment for the dollar spent? The concept of marginal return complements the concepts of marginal utility and marginal value.

Although a financial concept, marginal return, as applied to the present context, can be thought of as the return or impact on the school that is realized for the dollars invested.

For example, if a school has been given an undesignated gift of $50,000, the question is; where will that $50,000 dollars produce the greatest results? Should it be spent on new textbooks? Will buying new computers or science equipment produce a higher educational return for parents than spending the funds for a new bus or designating the funds for financial aid?

image

It is notoriously difficult to quantify the marginal return in the educational context. Nevertheless, carefully aligning expenditures to a strategic plan will increase the impact (return) for every dollar invested. The problem is that pressing short-term needs or pressure from parents often trumpets the strategic allocation of tuition revenue and financial gifts. Rather than allocating the funds based upon a strategic plan or upon a careful assessment of what will add the most marginal value for parents, many leaders spend the funds to cover short-term needs or to placate the loudest constituency.

Stewardship

If our schools are to survive, much less thrive, we must stop "spreading the peanut butter too thin." We need to think far more strategically. Where should we place our resources? What is the basis for our decision? What programs should we eliminate? What programs should we add? The the marginal value of our schools been stagnant or declining?

These are important questions that we must answer with ruthless honesty.

Technorati Tags:

Economics

,

Marginal Value

,

Private School

,

Christian School

,

Christian School Enrollment

,

Technology Integration

,

Staff Pay

,

Staff Compensation

,

Teacher Pay

,

Value

,

ROI

,

Excellence

,

Survive

,

Thrive

Welcome to the Library. Say Goodbye to the Books

By Dr. Barrett Mosbacker

Things are changing!  For many years e-books have resided in the back waters of publishing.  Early adopters and gadget freaks have read them but the vast majority of the population were either unaware of them or didn’t care.

The lowly status of the e-book may be about to change—and radically.  David Weir, in a BNET (a business and management blog) article outlines five reasons why he believes e-book publishing and use is reaching their tipping point--becoming widely accepted and on the way to outpacing printed books in popularity.

1.  Screen reading now rivals paper reading, and for those of us in the over 40 set, screen reading is often easier on the eyes thanks to adjustable font sizing.

2.  Consumer awareness has increased dramatically.  A year ago, consumers were skeptical and resistant to e-books.  Today, consumers are doing a complete 180.  The early adopters have celebrated their Sony Readers, Kindles and iPhones to their friends, and now their friends want in.

3.  The amount of content is increasing.  Free books have served as a gateway drug to many early adopters.

4.  Ebooks are impulse buys.  I met a guy at the Las Vegas airport last month who told me he purchased a Sony Reader so he wouldn’t have to lug around 20 pounds of technical manuals.  Now he finds himself buying more fiction than ever before because it’s so easy and convenient.

5.  Value.  E-books are cheaper.

My Personal Experience

I love books.  My study is wall to wall books and I have spent thousands of dollars on my traditional library.  I love to read and I love the feel and smell of books.

Nevertheless, my reading habits are changing.  In fact, I recently finished reading Dr. Poythress’ excellent book, Redeeming Science (384 pages) on my iPhone version of the Kindle (Read a review: Amazon launches Kindle application for the iPhone).

After reading Dr. Poythress’ book on my iPhone, I have concluded that I would love to have the Kindle DX for the vast majority of my reading.  In fact, I would like to duplicate my printed library on the Kindle.

Hint to my wife: great Christmas present!

Although there are some drawbacks to e-books/e-readers relative to printed books (mainly sentimental), the advantages are numerous including:

1. The ability to read books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs anywhere anytime without the need to carry large books and dirty newspapers.  The Kindle DX for example is just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines.  This is particularly an advantage when traveling or when in waiting rooms.

2. The ability to literally carry a library in my pocket or laptop case.  I could carry to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents in the Kindle DX.

3. For those of us who are a little older, the ability to adjust font size is a big advantage (yes, pun was intended).  The Kindle DX has a 9.7" diagonal e-ink screen and reads like real paper and boasts 16 shades of gray for clear text and sharp images.  Additionally, the device has a display that auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages.

4. I can read PDF documents enabling me to read my personal and professional documents on the go.

5. With wireless 3G I can download books and magazine to the Kindle DX anytime, anywhere; there are no monthly fees, no annual contracts, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots.

6.  Currently, Amazon has over 300,000 e-books;many of which are only $9.99.

7. I can have subscriptions to U.S. and international newspapers including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal (both of which I read), magazines including The New Yorker and Time, plus popular blogs, all auto-delivered wirelessly.

house_on_fire

8. I could have an electronic backup of my library.  If there a fire in my house, I would find it hard and probably impossible to replace many of my out of print books.  If my library was on the Kindle, I could re-download my library from Amazon, Project Gutenberg, etc.

According to the Kindle Review, a lot of the books available at Project Gutenberg are already available in Kindle .azw format at ManyBooks (if you’re using your laptop). There are 19,505 eBooks available at ManyBooks and they’re all free! When you get to the page for an individual book, just click on the dropdown at the top right that says ‘Free Download’ + ‘ Select Format’ and the FIRST option is Kindle.

Note: You can browse and download Manybooks on the Kindle. @ mnybks.net

For Project Gutenberg books that are not available at ManyBooks, you can go to the Project Gutenberg Website. You can download EVERY book on Gutenberg to your Kindle for Free. No conversion required. This is a good page to start at Project Gutenberg to get Free Kindle eBooks.

Potential for Our Schools

I am not prepared to go as far as Cushing Academy (see below) but I am reviewing the potential of using Kindles, netbooks, and other electronic devices to supplement our library and textbooks.  One of the great advantages for our students would be that they would not have to carry heavy book bags around all day.

Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.

Cushing Academy embraces a digital future

By David Abel, Globe Staff  |  September 4, 2009

Boston prep school nixes all the books in its library, replaces them with 18 e-readers

ASHBURNHAM - There are rolling hills and ivy-covered brick buildings. There are small classrooms, high-tech labs, and well-manicured fields. There’s even a clock tower with a massive bell that rings for special events.

Cushing Academy has all the hallmarks of a New England prep school, with one exception.

This year, after having amassed a collection of more than 20,000 books, officials at the pristine campus about 90 minutes west of Boston have decided the 144-year-old school no longer needs a traditional library. The academy’s administrators have decided to discard all their books and have given away half of what stocked their sprawling stacks - the classics, novels, poetry, biographies, tomes on every subject from the humanities to the sciences. The future, they believe, is digital.

“When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books,’’ said James Tracy, headmaster of Cushing and chief promoter of the bookless campus. “This isn’t ‘Fahrenheit 451’ [the 1953 Ray Bradbury novel in which books are banned]. We’re not discouraging students from reading. We see this as a natural way to shape emerging trends and optimize technology.’’

Instead of a library, the academy is spending nearly $500,000 to create a “learning center,’’ though that is only one of the names in contention for the new space. In place of the stacks, they are spending $42,000 on three large flat-screen TVs that will project data from the Internet and $20,000 on special laptop-friendly study carrels. Where the reference desk was, they are building a $50,000 coffee shop that will include a $12,000 cappuccino machine.

And to replace those old pulpy devices that have transmitted information since Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1400s, they have spent $10,000 to buy 18 electronic readers made by Amazon.com and Sony. Administrators plan to distribute the readers, which they’re stocking with digital material, to students looking to spend more time with literature.

Those who don’t have access to the electronic readers will be expected to do their research and peruse many assigned texts on their computers.

“Instead of a traditional library with 20,000 books, we’re building a virtual library where students will have access to millions of books,’’ said Tracy, whose office shelves remain lined with books. “We see this as a model for the 21st-century school.’’

Not everyone on campus is sold on Tracy’s vision.

They worry about an environment where students can no longer browse rows of voluptuous books, replete with glossy photographs, intricate maps, and pages dog-eared by generations of students. They worry students will be less likely to focus on long works when their devices are constantly interrupting them with e-mail and instant messages. They also worry about a world where sweat-stained literature is deemed as perishable as all the glib posts on Facebook or Twitter.

Liz Vezina, a librarian at Cushing for 17 years, said she never imagined working as the director of a library without any books.

“It makes me sad,’’ said Vezina, who hosts a book club on campus dubbed the Off-line Readers and has made a career of introducing students to books. “I’m going to miss them. I love books. I’ve grown up with them, and there’s something lost when they’re virtual. There’s a sensual side to them - the smell, the feel, the physicality of a book is something really special.’’

Alexander Coyle, chairman of the history department, is a self-described “gadget freak’’ who enjoys reading on Amazon’s Kindle, but he has always seen libraries and their hallowed content as “secular cathedrals.’’

“I wouldn’t want to ever get rid of any of my books at home,’’ he said. “I like the feel of them too much. A lot us are wondering how this changes the dignity of the library, and why we can’t move to increase digital resources while keeping the books.’’

Tracy and other administrators said the books took up too much space and that there was nowhere else on campus to stock them. So they decided to give their collection - aside from a few hundred children’s books and valuable antiquarian works - to local schools and libraries.

“We see the gain as greater than the loss,’’ said Gisele Zangari, chairwoman of the math department, who like other teachers has plans for all her students to do their class reading on electronic books by next year. “This is the start of a new era.’’

Cushing is one of the first schools in the country to abandon its books.

“I’m not aware of any other library that has done this,’’ said Keith Michael Fiels, executive director of the American Library Association, a Chicago-based organization that represents the nation’s libraries.

He said the move raises at least two concerns: Many of the books on electronic readers and the Internet aren’t free and it may become more difficult for students to happen on books with the serendipity made possible by physical browsing. There’s also the question of the durability of electronic readers.

“Unless every student has a Kindle and an unlimited budget, I don’t see how that need is going to be met,’’ Fiels said. “Books are not a waste of space, and they won’t be until a digital book can tolerate as much sand, survive a coffee spill, and have unlimited power. When that happens, there will be next to no difference between that and a book.’’

William Powers, author of a forthcoming book based on a paper he published at Harvard called “Hamlet’s Blackberry: Why Paper is Eternal,’’ called the changes at Cushing “radical’’ and “a tremendous loss for students.’’

“There are modes of learning and thinking that at the moment are only available from actual books,’’ he said. “There is a kind of deep-dive, meditative reading that’s almost impossible to do on a screen. Without books, students are more likely to do the grazing or quick reading that screens enable, rather than be by themselves with the author’s ideas.’’

Yet students at Cushing say they look forward to the new equipment, and the brave new world they’re ushering in.

Tia Alliy, a 16-year-old junior, said she visits the library nearly every day, but only once looked for a book in the stacks. She’s not alone. School officials said when they checked library records one day last spring only 48 books had been checked out, and 30 of those were children’s books.

“When you hear the word ‘library,’ you think of books,’’ Alliy said. “But very few students actually read them. And the more we use e-books, the fewer books we have to carry around.’’

Jemmel Billingslea, an 18-year-old senior, thought about the prospect of a school without books. It didn’t bother him.

“It’s a little strange,’’ he said. “But this is the future.’’