"Every human being, created in the image of God, is endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator - individuality, power to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of other man’s thought." - Ellen G. White
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Five out of seven Adventist children in the local area do not attend FAA. Most send their kids to public school, several home school and a few send their kids to other Christian campuses in the area. There is a problem with perceived value of Adventist education.
At this time few feel the urgency and fewer are willing to pick up the torch as exemplified by the disinterest in our own educational institutions, allowing them to turn into disrepair. It is a matter of great concern if a child, for whatever reason, is not at one of our schools but of greater concern is if we loose a child to the world. If a young person does not know Christ by the age of 13 there is a 95% chance they will not be a dedicated Christian in adult life.
As you may know, enrollment at FAA has been declining for the last six years if not longer. This decline in enrollment is not unlike the erosion of the Adventist educational system nation wide. Numerous Adventist schools have closed or have downsized over the last 20 years in North America. The loss of our youth is exemplified by the average age of an Adventist in America being late 50's. Some negative trends have been reversed at individual campuses with greater vision and ambition than the norm. However some of these successes have been short lived and seem to be heavily depend on the leadership of the principal.
Universal trends often point to universal causes. Without a doubt much of this decline in Adventist school enrollment is problematic to the structure of the Adventist educational system but the problem goes beyond that, it reaches into our churches and into our hearts.
Locally, there is no shortage of families seeking Christian education for their children. Increased Christian school enrollment is universal in the Fresno/Clovis area with all Christian campuses growing with the exception of FAA. It is unfortunate to have an Adventist K-12 campus in decline in the same community as the Conference Office, especially when there is such a high demand for Christian education by the community.
Some critical factors contributing to our success or lack of success are: 1) constituent church unity; 2) concerns over the amount of spiritual growth of the students; 3) trivialization of Ellen White's council on educational methods; 4) lack of educational options; 5) inability to attract non-Adventist Christian students; and 6) flaws of the educational governance of the Adventist educational system. This has finally resulted in immediate issues of enrollment, finances, poor alumni development, lack of community awareness, perceived value, deferred maintenance, vision and indifference.
The solution for the campus must be based on a multiple approach of short term repair and long range commitment of improvement and redirection. There are numerous stakeholders and each must be part of the solution whether they are active or passive participants. The stakeholders include: Our Holy Father, the students, teachers, school administration, parents, Conference office, pastors, churches, the community at large, Pacific Union, NAD, Superintendent, K-12 Board, Education Commission, alumni, and vendors.
The judgmental comments are too common between churches complicate the issue. Our lack of unity speaks loudly. Instead of FAA being a center of community, the campus resonates quietly with prejudice as to who is more holy depending on which church their parents attend. Lack of support is a direct derivative of lack of unity but worse is the effect it is having on our children thrust into a battle that is not theirs.
There are concerns about the richness of spiritual truth being taught on the FAA campus. This is a most appropriate concern for a Christian school as exemplified vocalized by some of our congregational leaders. However with more pastors in the Central Valley then within the entire state of Montana little or no on-campus local area church pastoral support is provided. This is especially sad with the Conference office being so close. Over the last 4 years the Conference has exceeded Camp Meeting evangelistic offering goals by over 4 1/2 million dollars. With the general lack of spiritual volunteers the use of a small portion of that money to hire additional bible teachers for the campuses in the Conference would be most desirable.
Although Ellen White has a significant influence on our teachings of Christianity; she seems to have a diminished role or influence on Adventist educational. As with public education, tactile and/or trade education is almost none existent. Physically doing often leads to advanced understanding of theory.
Adventist education both Conference wide and more specifically at FAA is very limited. There are more courses offered at any of the single campuses in Fresno or Clovis Unified School Districts than all the Adventist campuses combined within the Conference. In addition the other Christian schools in the area offer more academic options than FAA and are more proactive in educational excellence.
The lack of awareness of the Adventist community within Fresno/Clovis has a profound effect on attracting non-Adventist Christian students to the FAA campus. We are mostly unknown or misunderstood with many people believing we are not Christians.
The national trend in enrollment in our Adventist schools implies some commonality to the problem. The most obvious commonality is the form of governance. Our educational governance is distinctly different that other educational systems. It is complex and typically driven by a singular mindset of a few leaders with multiple Conference responsibilities resulting in weak secondary leadership. The total system should be restructured to be more business like and to provide a larger number of personnel specifically dedicated to Christian education similar to the medical component of the Adventist community.
The ultimate indicator of triumph will be when the Adventist educational system is driven by the expectations of parents who want their child to mature in a responsible Christian environment with a high demand on academic excellence. Our Adventist educational system should be measured by our increased count of productive Christian leaders entering into society with a desire for evangelistic mission. We should seek to graduate young men and women who are prepared to be successful lifetime learners and productive citizens with deep religious convictions.
In the early 1900s, we were told that "The Seventh-day Adventist denomination is a great reform movement, the greatest the world has ever known. And the church is called to set before the world a system of schools, institutions and organizations of self-governing Christians, such as this world has never before seen." The passion of youth determines if a student becomes a pastor, a missionary, a doctor or a teacher in the Adventist faith; conversely, an adult convert rarely becomes one of these after joining the church. As we lose the opportunity to foster that passion in our young, we also lose the opportunity to continue our evangelism and worse we loose our child to the world.
The opportunity is ours to make a difference.
