Private schools teach students biblical worldview
With school back in session, children are busy learning the next chapters for their continuing education. Those lessons are rooted in faith-based values for Middle Georgia students who attend Christian or Catholic schools.
Administrators say their institutions’ religious foundations create well-rounded, grounded students with biblical worldviews. Here’s how five private schools in our area incorporate faith into their curriculums.
Mount de Sales Academy
Mount de Sales Academy is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year. The Catholic school was opened in Macon by the Sisters of Mercy and now has 625 students in grades six through 12.
Theology teacher Betsy Holcomb said the common thread throughout the school’s history is the desire to serve the community in the spirit of Sisters of Mercy founder Catherine McAuley. Mount de Sales’ Mercy in Action program, started a year ago, provides pupils, faculty and staff with meaningful ways to join together to help others. The goal is for students to learn through these experiences and see service as instilled in their faith.
Students have visited locations such as Philadelphia and Nicaragua for mission trips in recent years, and Mount de Sales is looking to add more retreat and service-like trips, Holcomb said. Located in Mercer University’s backyard, the school has a very active presence downtown and has participated in many local service efforts, including tutoring at Alexander II Magnet School.
Students take a religion or theology course every year, and these classes begin with prayer. The entire school attends Mass together once a month, and the weekly Mass is optional. These elements connect prayer to what is being learned in the classroom, Holcomb said. While 43 percent of the student population is Catholic, the majority of students belong to other Christian denominations, and there also are Jewish students.
“It’s this beautiful embracing of the diversity of the students,” Holcomb said. “Academically speaking, our students are formed and begin to think theologically in the spirit of Catholicism. … In my mind, there’s something about the Catholic intellectual tradition. (It) embraces a search for truth that allows a lot of freedom.”
Holcomb said this “sacramental way of living” allows students to see God’s beauty and grace in daily life, and it’s a nice framework for an education environment.
Saint Joseph’s Catholic School
Four years before starting Mount de Sales, the Sisters of Mercy opened Saint Joseph’s Catholic School — then known as Fourth Street School — in the basement of Saint Joseph Catholic Church in 1872. Principal Kaye Hlavaty said it was the first public school in Macon, with two sisters teaching all students during the day and Catholic children staying afterward for religious instruction. The school was later organized as a parochial school on High Street, and 250 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade attend it today.
Today, each school day begins and ends with prayer, religion classes are taught daily, and every classroom has a place for prayer intentions to be posted. Each week, a priest visits the school to teach a short lesson, and students attend Mass at Saint Joseph Catholic Church.
The school is about 60 percent Catholic and 40 percent other faiths. The goal is not to have children become Catholics, but to help them become strong in their own faith while gaining an excellent education, Hlavaty said.
“We just have a very strong academic focus. You’ve probably heard the saying ‘strong Catholic education.’ Catholic schools are just known for high academic standards,” Hlavaty said. “One of the things that makes us different is we offer academic support for the struggling student as well as the gifted student at no additional charge. Once they’re here, we just meet their needs.”
Hlavaty said students are recognized for following lifelong guidelines such as honesty and cooperation. The school has a strong missions focus, and it tries to carry out the Sisters of Mercy values — like clothing the poor and feeding the hungry — through service projects.
St. Peter Claver Catholic School
Another historic Catholic school is St. Peter Claver. The school was started in 1903 by Saint Katharine Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. This Catholic community’s mission was to educate Native American and African American children who were underserved in the Macon area, said Principal Sister Cheryl Ann Hillig. Today, the school serves predominantly black children as well as a growing Hispanic population.
“St. Peter Claver Catholic School is kind of known as the ‘miracle on Ward Street.’ It’s kind of the best-kept secret in Macon,” Hillig said. “It doesn’t matter what color you are; it matters that you are a child of God and that you deserve the same education as someone who has all the resources at their disposal.”
St. Peter Claver, for pre-K3 through eighth grade, has about 170 enrollees. Students, staff and faculty gather in the gym for prayer every morning and attend Catholic Mass on Wednesdays. The classes take turns planning and performing the services, with each doing at least three during the year, and the kids take a religion class every year. Hillig said the school is 20 percent Catholic and 80 percent non-Catholic, but those numbers don’t really matter.
“We’re not here to educate Catholic children. We do this because we’re Catholic,” she said. “We’re filling the need of parents who want a different option than public education for whatever reason, and love of neighbor, service, respect, living Gospel values, all those things are the frame of reference for which the school is run. No matter who anyone is, respect is the highest value, because God is present in each one of us.”
Service is another emphasis of St. Peter Claver. Kindergarteners through eighth-graders all do some kind of community project, such as making cards for the Ronald McDonald House, collecting items for nonprofits or singing at nursing homes. Faculty and staff have high standards for the students, and it is expected that they give back to the Macon community even after they leave the school.
“A lot of times, their faith, no matter what it is, is going to ground them,” Hillig said. “We’re trying to teach them personal responsibility and give them a moral compass, so that when they’re faced with decisions from the outside world, they have somewhere to go to make a choice (and) they know of resources. Then there is also the reliance of God, because God is their partner in all of this as well.”
First Presbyterian Day School
First Presbyterian Day School opened in 1970 as a part of First Presbyterian Church in downtown Macon. Since then, the school has grown to a campus of more than 100 acres and a population of more than 1,000 students in pre-K3 through 12th grade, said Director of Communications Beth Burnsed. Since it’s an “open enrollment school,” students aren’t asked about their religious backgrounds when they apply.
Faith is the foundation for everything done at the school, from the hiring of the teachers to what is taught in the classroom to the students’ daily activities, such as prayer and devotional time. Each grade has Bible lessons and participates in chapel twice a month.
“Our curriculum and sequences of study build the knowledge, skills and habits of mind in age-appropriate creative and challenging ways,” said Headmaster Gregg Thompson. “These learning experiences make up our integrated curriculum that is founded in a biblical worldview. The result is FPD graduates who are prepared to be lifelong learners who are challenged by the Gospel, equipped for wellness, self-aware and growing, engaged and persuasive, and sensitive to others.”
Burnsed said students learn to see the world as God created it, and that perspective can go into every aspect of their education. The lessons parents are teaching at home extend to the classroom at FPD, and students are being led by Christian teachers and coaches.
“We have a saying with alumni: ‘Once a Viking, always a Viking.’ We want to make sure (students) understand that even when they leave campus, our teachers are praying for them,” Burnsed said. “We really care about their future and where they’re going with their life.”
Burnsed said FPD emphasizes service from a very young age, with students helping out in their own community, neighboring states and across the nation and world. Lower grades help in activities like serving lunch at Loaves and Fishes Ministry while older kids do bigger projects and go on study abroad-type trips. High schoolers are required to complete a certain number of community service hours. Thompson said the graduating class of 2016 gave more than 20,000 hours during ninth through 12th grades.
Tattnall Square Academy
In September 1969, Tattnall Square Baptist Church fulfilled a longtime goal when it opened Tattnall Square Academy. The Christian school started with 98 students meeting in one of Mercer University’s buildings and moved to its current location on Trojan Trail in 1972, said Marketing Director and Development Assistant Stephanie English. About 515 students are now enrolled in pre-K3 through 12th grade.
Families are not asked about their religious affiliations, but the curriculum crosses all subject areas and fosters “lifelong learning both academically and spiritually.” The school believes it’s just as important to develop students’ spiritual sense as it is to develop their minds.
“Everything we do at Tattnall is grounded in our Christian faith,” English said. “Prayer is such a significant aspect of our daily routines, I would say it is woven into the fabric of who we are. From our daily morning devotions, chapel services and mission work to Bible classes, parent/student prayer groups, and Christ-centered education, we have a passion to glorify God in all we do.”
All students participate in weekly chapel, and middle and upper school students join small group sessions led by other students, faculty and staff. Community service is one of the most important missions of Tattnall Square Academy. Students contribute more than 10,000 hours annually helping different outreach programs throughout Middle Georgia.
“After graduation, our alumni are not only ready to conquer college and their professional lives, but they are capable of dealing with the challenges of life because of their foundation in Christ,” English said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Private schools teach students biblical worldview."