The 2020 calendar year is now in our rearview mirror. In a quick look, back, we experienced social change, political change, and thanks to COVID-19, we also experienced educational change.

Today, educators are called upon to be many things to many people. I am reminded of this famous quote from the pen of Ellen G. White in the book Education, p. 13.1:

“Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”

In 2021, as we prepare our learners for “whole being” and “whole period of existence possible to man” we cannot afford to “take too narrow and too low a range” in educating our youth. May I suggest that the higher aim we are challenged to attain involves finding a space for students to get outdoors to fully appreciate the nature of our Creator; finding a space to address social injustice and to teach Biblical justice; and to continue to hold the Bible as the standard of truth and knowledge as the world surrounds us with secular humanism as the answer to most everything.

A recent article (September 16, 2020) from Scott Barron, School Growth, comments that “Sustainably growing schools prioritize a healthy faculty culture that enables them to thrive.” As educators, we need to be sure and take care of ourselves. In addition, in this new environment of remote learning, blended learning, and added safety measures, Adventist educators need to be sure they are creating an environment that fosters relationship building and trust.

In Matthew 28, NIV, the Master teacher said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” We have a work to do in 2021. Let us prepare “the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.”

Blessings,

​

Arne Nielsen, Vice President for Education

Arne Nielsen, M.Ed.

VICE PRESIDENT, EDUCATION