A Worthy Investment

At Redeemer School, our teachers do not just transfer facts to students, they present them with a living curriculum, designed to ignite a desire to learn and engage with the ideas they encounter. We value nurturing our teachers’ own professional growth through renewal, exploration, and reflection, which in turn overflows to our students.

Each October, our teachers and staff have the opportunity, as Charlotte Mason described, “to get ourselves fired with the notion of the manifold intimacies with which we may enrich the lives of our children as occasion offers.” (The Story of Charlotte Mason, pg. 90)

Our teachers and staff, whether they were here in Winston Salem learning with Mrs. Keener and Mrs. Edwards, at our ChildLight Association Conference in Georgia, or at a conference in Arizona designed to support students with learning differences, were nourished and strengthened to reflect upon our principles and consider how to apply them more deeply in their classrooms. And most importantly, we were reminded that our classrooms are places where we cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s work in and through us.

At School

What can be done with sparrows?  Much can! Redeemer teachers continued their reflections on the book Much May Be Done with Sparrows by studying the life of a sparrow. Through weaving warp and weft, teachers discovered how they can cooperate with the Holy Spirit to create a classroom atmosphere filled with life, joy, and hope.  Even in tension, nothing goes to waste.  While we see the back of the “tapestry” of everyday life, both in and out of the classroom, God is working all things to create a beautiful work of art on the other side.

At a conference in Phoenix

ROOTS staff Annie Baldwin and Val Stonerook attended a professional conference on student support services. They explored new practices and strategies to support students who have learning differences, and were encouraged as they reflected on the many ways Redeemer already works to meet the needs of each student.

At the ChildLight conference at Perimeter School in Georgia

Thirty years ago, after reading For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, Bobby Scott began a quest to open Christian schools in the U.S. based on the philosophy of British educator Charlotte Mason. With the Macaulays’ blessing, he used a name they had chosen, Childlight Schools. This week, six of our teachers celebrated 30 years of that vision, along with other ChildLight schools, at the annual conference. We thanked Bobby for his years of humble leadership as he begins his retirement, met the new board, and caught glimpses of the beauty of Perimeter School, the very first Childlight school and host of this year’s conference. As lifelong learners, our staff attended workshops on oral and written narration, critical thinking, leadership, motivating the reluctant writer, reflection through journaling, nurturing the whole child, and many more.  Our teachers returned to their classrooms more grounded in the Charlotte Mason philosophy and inspired with ideas and strategies to enhance their classroom instruction, all for the sake of their students!