On 25 October Jacinda Ardern (PM) announced her cabinet including Chris Hipkins as Minister of Education and Tracey Martin (NZ First) as Associate Minister of Education. It is our hope and prayer that...

...these two ministers will have a focus on the hauora (wellbeing) of the pupil in mind as they change or introduce new government policy in education. We also pray that God’s general revelation and grace would impact their philosophy and decision making.

God calls us to submit to the governing authorities (Romans 13) though, of course, our first allegiance is to God’s Word and his purposes. Neil Postman (1995) in his book, The End of Education, describes the secular approach to education as follows: 

‘Its driving idea is that the purpose of schooling is to prepare children for competent entry into the economic life of a community. It follows from this that any school activity not designed to further this end is seen as a frill or an ornament – which is to say, a waste of valuable time’ (p27).

We agree that our pupils who graduate from Middleton Grange School are to have benefitted academically from their time with us, but I’m sure you will also agree that our ‘value’ as humans is not measured by what we can contribute to the economic life of a community. Immediately this signals to pupils that there is a hierarchy of vocations: the more you earn, the more you ‘obviously’ contribute, the more important you are to society. This is a lie! 

Christian schools offer so much more than a narrow economic view of a pupil. We see each pupil made in the image of God (imago Dei) and for a purpose. God’s purposes, which are all-encompassing of the child, are to glorify God and to love Him with heart, soul, strength and mind. Without neglecting the head knowledge (academics), we at Middleton Grange School also focus on the heart of each pupil, leading towards responsive discipleship (hands). The ultimate reward is not measured by economic value, but by the words of our Father, "Well done good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:23). A life lived for God will be of blessing for the community we live in. 

‘In terms of spiritual outcomes, graduates of evangelical schools outpaced their peers from all other types of schools in their giving to religious organisations, attending church services, seeking jobs that fulfil a religious calling, believing in the infallibility of the Bible and praying at home.’ Cardus, 2014.

There is such a need for the gospel message lived out through our pupils. This community needs people who, as Michael Frost (2014) says in his book Incarnate,  ‘are real, breathing, walking around, hands and feet, human examples; followers that are following Jesus. This is essential, and without substitute. Jesus demonstrates that the Gospel message is something that can tangibly be lived’ (p90).

This is our goal for your children, delivered by fallible staff who are supported by God’s infallible Word, and given life by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is as Pope Benedict XVI said 

'The aim of all Christian education, moreover, is to train the believer in an adult faith that can make him a ‘new creation’, capable of bearing witness in his surroundings to the Christian hope that inspires him’.

Richard Vanderpyl
Principal