message tuesday

With reenrollment beginning next week, I would like to convey some thoughts on why I would send my own children to ICA again if I had the opportunity.  My husband and I have two children who are now 18 and 20 years old.  When they were toddlers, deciding where and how they would receive their education was paramount as we were fully aware that whoever directed their education would also have a significant influence on how their hearts would be molded for life.  Because I was able and eager to do so, we chose to homeschool for the first several years, moving to ICA when they were in the later elementary and secondary grades.   
While academic excellence was essential to both of us, even more important to my husband, Dareld, and I was the shaping of our children’s character and values.   Clearly, whoever spends the most time with your children will very likely have the greatest influence on who they become as a person.    At ICA, I can say with confidence there is not one staff member, from PreK to 12thgrade, with whom I would hesitate to place my child.  We have an outstanding, nurturing staff whose love for virtue and passion to communicate truth flows out of a life well-lived.  
In addition to excellent role models at ICA, your students also have an opportunity to grow in character through Biblical lessons in faith in the classroom, in chapels, and through quarterly personal quests they are challenged to complete.
Each Monday we teach the importance of beginning and ending the week by acknowledging God’s important place in our lives through devotional singing and prayer. 
Through our house activities, students have the opportunity to interact among grade levels and learn what it means to give and receive and cooperate across a wide age range.
Students also learn sound-offs that build character and life-habits.  We have many call and response sayings that students learn such as the following:
Someone will say…                  And the rest will finish…
“Leave it..”                                 “…better than you found it.”
“Cover it…”                               “…with love.”  (Referring to an insignificant or accidental offense.)
“Hustle…”                                  “…to help out.”
“If you fall down…”                    “…smile and shake it off.”
When correction is necessary, teachers and staff speak truth in love and extend forgiveness while holding students accountable for their actions.  On the playground or in the hallways, students are coached to interact with others according to the pattern shown in Scripture:  treating one another with love, accepting each other’s faults, and forgiving when necessary.
Do all students always act according to the values taught and encouraged at ICA?  No.  There are, of course, many other influences that work into each student’s life.   I would send my children to ICA again not because it is a perfect place with perfect people, but because it is a place with real people working together to learn what it means to love one another as Christ loves us.
Next week I’ll reveal some of the academic reasons I would send my students to ICA all over again.
The attached Message Tuesday gives several details you’ll want to take note of.
Quote for the day:
 “Springtime is the land awakening.  The March winds are the morning yawn.” 
Lewis Gizzard
Have a super week!
Brenda