What a Christian School Uniquely Provides

There are many communal options for K-12 education in and around Philadelphia: public schools, charter schools, secular private schools, faith-based private schools, and cyberschool options. But only one of these educational options focuses on the intangible quality of Christian character—Christian private schools.

In this day in age, Christian character is a quality that parents and guardians can’t afford to undervalue. As the students of today grow into the adults of tomorrow, they need to know how to meet the unique challenges of the day and respond to them from a Christ-like perspective. Christian K-12 schools are uniquely positioned to provide that kind of character-shaping.

Here are five ways that Christian schools in the Children’s Jubilee Fund Network prove themselves superior alternatives to all their secular counterparts when it comes to developing Christ-like character:

1. 1. 1. Smaller student to teacher ratio. Jubilee Network schools have an average student-teacher ratio of 9:1, while Philadelphia Public Schools have a student-teacher ratio of 17:1. With fewer students per staff member, Jubilee Network schools allow teachers to spend more time with each student—getting to know them, their families, and the particular ways in which they wrestle to believe and live out the Gospel.

1. 1. 2. “Discipleship” in a biblical sense means to train and build someone up in the ways of a teacher—particularly, Jesus Christ. Jesus says about discipleship in Luke 6:40: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” So, discipleship not only teaches doctrines and knowledge; it teaches and trains one to be like his teacher. Jubilee Network schools disciple students to not only think like Jesus, but to act and to love like him as well.

1. 1. 3. Conflict resolution. Jubilee Network schools only accept sinners as students. One consequence of putting sinners together in the same place in the same time is that they experience conflict with one another. This would happen in any school—but what makes the difference in a Jubilee Network school is that teachers and staff have conflict resolution strategies set in place to not only deal with the behavior, but the underlying selfishness and unbelief that drives the outward behavior. Our schools’ conflict resolution strategies focus on cultivating hearts of forgiveness—because God in Christ has forgiven all of his children for their sins.

1. 1. 4. Teaching God’s Word. The core curriculum of any Jubilee Network Christian school is God’s Word—Scripture. God’s Word shapes everything else taught during the year. And the more exposure we have to God’s Word and the more we receive it by faith, the more we’re transformed by it. The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and [is] profitable for teaching, for reproof for correcting, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Jubilee Christian schools work to shape their students’ hearts and minds through exposing them continually to God’s Word.

1. 1. 5. Jubilee Network schools are more than schools. They’re families. And families try to love one another. Teachers and other staff at our schools actively love their students and their students’ households. They help craft hearts of love among students to that students grow to love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s counter-cultural to love other people, because our culture and our own sinful hearts tell us to love only ourselves. But we love one another because we have first been loved by God.