Christian Values in Education Pushes Rise in Lutheran Schools

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Lynn Doto and her husband decided to send their 3-year-old son to Lutheran Church of the Cross Day School, St. Petersburg, Fla., a school of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), instead of a secular private school or a public school.  Doto wants her son to learn Christian values.
     Although any school can teach ethics, I wanted James to know where the values come from, said Doto, a member of Lutheran Church of the Cross. In the preschool program at Cross, James is in the learning environment Doto wants for him.
     The Doto family is one of a growing number nationwide choosing Lutheran schools because they want a faith dimension to their children's education.  The demand is leading to a rise in Lutheran education.  Last year 86 ELCA school programs began, bringing the total to 241 elementary schools. This year another 50 will start, and 500 congregations are exploring the idea of opening a school.
     Lutheran schools are starting largely in communities that have quality public educational institutions, said John J. Scibilia, ELCA director for schools. "The issue is not building better schools or being isolationist," he said. "It's about parents wanting more in terms of spiritual growth and development for their children."
     Today's young parents, accustomed to having options in their lives, want choices in education, said the Rev. Theodore H. Romberg, St. Luke Lutheran Church, Waukesha, Wis.  "They want their kids to have values they feel only a church school can teach and hold up."  St. Luke began a preschool last year and plans to expand to an elementary school.
     A fine public school just opened close to Richard Mohn's home, but last year he enrolled Kelsey, 10, and Colleen, 8, at Joy Community School in Glendale, Ariz.
     "When you leave God out of teaching, you really can't make a rounded individual," Mohn said. He also believed the smaller enrollment of 100 students would provide better education.
     "It's just been a fabulous year for them," Mohn said.  "The girls have excelled academically and otherwise.  Their faith has expanded dramatically," he added.
     The school, a ministry of the 6,400-member Community (Lutheran) Church of Joy, opened last year.  It started seven grades at once.  "We felt there were enough families who wanted a Christian education, so we opened with K-6," said Robert T. Rogalski, executive director.
     This year Joy Community is enrolling 240 youth and adding a seventh grade. Next year  500 students are expected and an eighth grade is being planned.
     While few churches have the resources of a large church like Joy, small congregations are sometimes surprised by the support they can muster once they begin, Scibilia said.
     More typically, congregations employ the strategy St. Luke is following in Wisconsin, beginning with a preschool and growing.  This provides several advantages, Scibilia said.  Early childhood education programs are relatively easy to begin using existing space and resources. Preschools enable even small churches to get involved in education, become familiar with school issues, summon resources and plan for higher grades.
     Other churches simply take stock of what they have.  For example, the 624-member Hill Avenue Grace Lutheran Church, Pasadena, Calif., is opening its 30-year-old Sunday school building (complete with gymnasium) as Grace Christian Academy this fall.
     "We see this as serving the community and offering an opportunity for Christian education that grows out of the Lutheran faith tradition," said Julie Sieger, the school's director who is also head of the 360-member Evangelical Lutheran Education Association.
     Grace Lutheran Church aims to provide a quality Christian education option at $3,900 a year, affordable to average families of Pasadena.  "We will have a very, very ethnically balanced school community," Sieger said. Represented in the student body of 20 are African American, Hispanic, Filipino, Asian and Caucasian children.
     The academy will open a kindergarten and first grade this year, then add second and third grade next year. Eventually it will accommodate 150 students through fifth grade.
     In St. Petersburg, Cross school is completing a similar plan it started in 1993. It's adding a fifth grade this fall.  "We've made believers out of the people who said it wasn't possible," said school director Holly Carlson. The 1,000-member Lutheran Church of the Cross is now considering adding a middle school.
     Most of the students at Cross school do not come from Lutheran families. Carlson believes that speaks of how deftly the Lutheran perspective is woven into the curriculum.
     "We don't do it in a really overt hit-you-over-the-head manner. It just permeates everything we do," said Carlson.  "Our kids are exposed to God's love and how we incorporate Christ into our life. That's just part of what we do every day."
     This low-key approach is typical of the Lutheran school tradition, Scibilia said. "Having religion class is not what makes a Lutheran school unique," he said. "It's who we are. Who we give children is so much more important than what we give children."
     Parents agree. Lori Crotts, a member of Cross, whose son, Jake, 6, is in his second year at the day school, likes the flag-raising ceremony that begins school daily. Teachers use it as a time to celebrate family joys, the birth of a brother or sister, for example, or to pray for family concerns.
     "Everybody treats my son almost like their own," said Crotts, whose 4-year-old, Billy, begins preschool this fall. Praising the staff she said, "They just draw everyone together."
                              ###
     Robert C. Blezard is a section editor of "The Lutheran" magazine.

For information contact:
Ann Hafften, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://www.elca.org/co/news/current.html