“Genuinely Christian schools will not always fit what everyone else is doing in education. We need to give ourselves permission to go against the flow.” But it’s not sufficient to seek difficulty and resistance. We need a goal. A mission. A burning love. A beautiful vision. As Steven emphasizes in today’s episode, “Nonconformity is not enough. We need something to be conformed to. And for us, that something is a Someone.”

Educational orthodoxy. What is it and how does it impact us? You’ll hear about this in today’s episode, but basically, it’s the body of assumptions and principles that unify the majority of educational efforts around us. This orthodoxy shapes the way we describe a well-trained person and the educational experiences we dream of offering. Steven Brubaker, speaking from a long history in teaching and school leadership submits that the educational orthodoxy in north America is inadequate as a source of guidance for our schools and maybe even dangerously misguided.

But we will need a solid basis for doing something different, for swimming against the current. “Every nonconformity is a conformity to something,” Steven reminds us. Every resistance is a defense of something. What’s worth defending? Worth conforming to?

Drawing penetrating insights from the analogy of salmon, Steven lays out a challenge for Christian schools to identify and relentlessly pursue a worthy homing instinct.

What is a compelling and worthy final end for Christian education? The end beyond which we stop looking for some further fulfillment?

Schools conformed to Jesus. How could you and your staff make a practice of asking and seeking, “Jesus, how do I teach in my school?” And what would your school look like if you then boldly followed his leadership?

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