“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus, Matthew 28:19-20
Welcome to a new year at Greenleaf Friends Academy! This promises to be an exciting year, full of both the rich traditions that have developed at GFA over our 114 years as a school as well as a handful of new programs. One of these new programs is the GFA House Program, and we will take this first school newsletter of the new year and talk about what the House Program is and why it has us so excited to be implementing it here at GFA.
What is a House Program? A house program takes a section of a student body – in our case, grades 7 to 12 – and divides it into a handful of smaller communities, or “houses,” within the student body; each house is comprised of students from across grades, from diverse backgrounds and interests, and it brings them together with purpose and meaning. They compete against one another in sports like flag football, ultimate frisbee, dodgeball, and basketball. Houses also compete against one another in community service and community building, earning points that accumulate over the course of the school year and result in a house champion at the end of the year. These fun and interactive activities bring a student body together and give each individual student a feeling of family and belonging that might not exist otherwise.
“Fun and interactive activities bring a student body together and give each individual student a feeling of family and belonging that might not exist otherwise.”
Why is a House Program good? House programs are almost as old as schools themselves. They originated at English boarding schools as a way to build community and relationships among students. House programs arrived on American shores first in the northeast, but have been growing in popularity amongst classical Christian schools like GFA for a handful of really good reasons. There are at least three really good reasons for a school like ours to have a house program: first, it helps to build relationships amongst students across grade levels; second, it helps to establish a healthy student culture; and finally, a house program serves as a student leadership development program that provides for a discipleship and succession model of leadership.
First, we believe that all Christians should be pursuing the Great Commission, even teenagers. A really smart person I know once said, using the model of the Apostle Paul, Timothy, and Barnabas, that all Christians should have three kinds of relationships in their spiritual life: a mentor that they look up to and can receive wise counsel from, like Paul was to Timothy; a group of fellow believers that they walk through life with and receive daily encouragement from, like Barnabas was to Paul; and finally, every Christian needs others that they are actively pouring their life into, mentoring, and encouraging to grow spiritually, like Timothy was for Paul.
I once proposed this relationship model to our students, and they could easily identify their mentors – parents, pastors, and teachers; they could easily identify their Barnabas – their friends, classmates, and teammates; but when I asked who they were actively disciplining and encouraging in their faith – who was their Timothy – they looked around at each other in confusion and could not provide an answer.
This is because the normal structure of a school actively works against relationships forming between students in different grade levels. The daily routine of most schools encourages and reinforces a strict caste system in which students become locked into their grade level and peer groups: 7th graders only hang out with 7th graders, 11th graders only hang out with 11th graders, athletes hang out with athletes, and so on.
Schools do not have to do things to reinforce this rigid stratification of students; it happens naturally. GFA hopes to be a community of students that experiences that transcendent unity that only exists in Christ, spanning grade levels and social groups, sports teams and personal interests. As such we have to be intentional about structuring our school day and having programs that break up those barriers that invariably form between grade level and social groups.
“GFA hopes to be a community of students that experiences that transcendent unity that only exists in Christ, spanning grade levels and social groups, sports teams and personal interests. As such we have to be intentional about structuring our school day and having programs that break up those barriers that invariably form between grade level and social groups.”
A vibrant and flourishing house program addresses this by bringing together students of all ages within one house and allows for all three forms of relationships to exist within a student body. Staff can pair younger students with the high character upperclassmen to establish those mentoring relationships that might not normally form in a school. It can be transformative for an underclassman – 7th, 8th, or 9th grade – to have an upperclassman to look up to who cares for them and is invested in their life.
Second, a house program can help drive a healthy student culture within a school. Within each house there are 3 or 4 student leaders, typically a House President and two other officers. Students are chosen on an application model of student leadership – prospective student leaders fill out an application, obtain a pastoral reference letter, sit through an interview with a panel of faculty members – and are chosen based on their character and maturity. The house leaders are then the students who can be trusted to mentor younger students, typically 10th, 11th, and 12th grade students mentoring 7th, 8th, or 9th grade students. Contrast this with an election model of leadership where student leaders might be chosen by mere popularity, affluence, appearance, etc. That model may put students of virtue and mature character into positions of leadership, and then again, it may not. Student leaders play a big role in setting the culture at a school, so having the right students in leadership roles is extremely important for a school.
“It is one of our goals at GFA to cultivate a healthy student community where students are encouraged to pursue Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to cultivate a love for Him and the things of His kingdom. We hope that out of that love for Jesus a unique love for their friends, school community, and neighbors will flow.”
Finally, a healthy house program provides for a succession model of leadership, where a sophomore student leader gets a chance to be mentored by an older student leader for a year or two before they get to take over the reins of a house as president. They get to be part of the unique culture of a specific house, learn its traditions, and be a part of shaping those things for future years. This provides for leadership training and preparation as opposed to being dumped into the deep end with the hope a student leader will learn to swim. The student leader is set up much better to succeed and the student body in general has a much better experience.
In summary, it is one of our goals at GFA to cultivate a healthy student community where students are encouraged to pursue Jesus as their Lord and Savior and to cultivate a love for Him and the things of His kingdom. We hope that out of that love for Jesus a unique love for their friends, school community, and neighbors will flow. The GFA House Program is an important program for us as we pursue such noble goals.