Does your idea of a wholesome learning environment for your Kindergarten to Grade 5 child include such concepts as multi-grade classrooms or family-oriented environment?
What about country setting, non-competitive recreation, scriptural focus, Christian standards and values or free of artificial excitement?
According to Douglas Pond, pastor of the Grand Forks Seventh-day Adventist Church and long-term teacher and school administrator, these are some of the core values that are to be built into the K-5 Christian elementary school that is on the drawing board at the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Grand Forks.
“We have no interest in replicating other schools in the area,” Pond comments. “Public schools have a mandate and are doing their best to provide quality education for our children, and so, if Hillview Independent School is not radically different from other schools, then it will have no raison d’être.
“Hillview is to have a different worldview – concepts of accountability to a loving, creator-god, which adds purpose and meaning to life.
“We believe that, ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ We further believe that the purpose of education is to teach children the joy of service in this life, which is really a preparation for ‘the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.’”
“Christ lived to serve. God’s ideal for his children is Christlikeness – a life of loving service for others.”
The B.C. government provides independent schools with less than 50 per cent of the funding of the public schools. Does this translate into an inferior product? Not necessarily.
In Seventh-day Adventist-operated schools, curriculum is not compromised. The core subjects are taught, but enhanced with Bible and various electives, such as art, music, foreign language, even manual work.
Teachers are certified both by the province and by the church to ensure quality instruction, evidenced by students’ standardized test results, which are generally equivalent to or above provincial averages.
How is it that this level of scholastic achievement is attained at less than half the cost to the taxpayer? Sacrifice.
Teachers sacrifice salary, choosing to teach for significantly less than their public school counterparts.
Parents sacrifice, opting to pay tuition and other school costs because they recognize the value of a product unavailable elsewhere.
Church members sacrifice, contributing monthly to the operating costs of the school, because they know that it takes the whole Christian community to raise a Christian child.
Therefore, Hillview Adventist School, if re-established, will be committed to offer to our community a high quality, family-oriented, interactive learning facility catering to the needs of those wishing to augment their Christian home training with Christian classroom instruction.
For more information, contact Julia at 250-442-8436 or Connie at 250-442-2369.