God in Schools: Principles for Principals, Teachers, and Parents

By Dr. Christine Van Horn

God in Schools is a book designed for principals, teachers, and parents, showing how we deviated from the education plan of our American heritage, the effect it has had upon our nation, and the urgency to put God back into Americas schools.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490871479

Dr. Christine Van Horn

Dr. Christine Van Horn is an avid student of the Scriptures seeking to find depths greater than we basically see. She earned her Doctorate Degree in Theology with an emphasis on Biblical Studies from the International College of Excellence, under the direction of Dr. Robb Thompson, who is her Senior Pastor at Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park, IL. She and her husband, John, served in the Childrens Ministry there for many years. Dr. Van Horn has been on the faculty for the International College of Excellence and DanEl Christian College. Her greatest desire is to better understand the deeper things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). She used this desire and revelation from God to seek a greater understanding of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Dr. Van Horn is also the author of the books God in Schools and The Lamb Eternal, which is part 1 of this book. Dr. Christine Van Horn may be contacted at: [e-mail].

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Copyright © 2015 Dr. Christine Van Horn.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are taken from the New International Version (NIV) ® of the Bible. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

WestBow Press

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-7148-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7149-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-7147-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015903265

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/13/2015

Contents

Foreword

Introduction: Defining the Emergencies

1. The Emergency Plan

Chapter 1 The Fire Drill

2. Training

Chapter 2 Changing Courses

3. Sounding the Alarm

Chapter 3 The Principal Is Principal

4. Evacuation

Chapter 4 Character Traits

5. Assembly

Chapter 5 Respectfully Yours

Chapter 6 Recess And Free Time Activities

6. Accountability

Chapter 7 Dressed for Success

Chapter 8 Graduating with Honors

7. Reentry

Chapter 9 Control

8. Evaluation

Chapter 10 Solutions

Chapter 11 The Way God Intended It to Be

Conclusion

Appendix A Confessions for Principals, Teachers, and Parents

Appendix B The Prayer of Salvation

Appendix C Prayer for the American School System

Appendix D The First Prayer in Congress

Bibliography

This book is dedicated to:

Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, and the Holy Spirit, who inspired me to write these words.

My loving husband, John, who stood by me for years, as these words of inspiration became this book.

My dear parents, Robert and Dolores, who gave me the desire to seek after God.

Dr. Robb Thompson, my pastor and mentor, whose counsel holds me to following the Word of God.

Tom Nestor, my Progressive Life coach.

Dr. Mary Beth Pozdol, my mentor and friend, who taught me so much about teaching children and guided me through my Theology education.

Dave Meyer, whose dedication to America’s godly heritage became a major inspiration for this book.

To the Catholic school system, which gave me an education with God in Schools.

Foreword

The face of the American educational system changed dramatically when the court ordered a secular approach to the education system of our children in 1962. What was intended and what worked well for over two hundred years was at that moment changed forever. These changes are why this book was written—to revive the spirit of our nation to not lose heart in the pursuit of training the future leaders of this country.

For every moment there is the lack of education of our children, there results a deeper crack in the moral fiber of our nation. The principles that our current generation fought for are slipping through the fingers of those who did not have to pay the cost of the freedom we now enjoy.

Throughout recorded history there has been a struggle to see who was going to teach and mentor the children of the next generation, for where the children go, so goes society. In world standings, the United States has slipped horribly in the education of those who will run our nation and our world someday. These statistics are almost too disappointing to repeat. We no doubt have our work cut out for us if we are ever going to regain our international standing in education and once again hear the bells of America let freedom ring.

As you peruse the pages of this book, God in Schools, you get an overwhelming feeling that someone has come to help set the record straight.

Dr. Robb Thompson

Founder, Family Harvest

Co-chairman, The Gabriel Call

President, Progressive Life

Introduction: Defining the Emergencies

The American school system is in crisis. How severe is the crisis? America’s schools have lost their focus on spiritual and moral law. The American school system was founded upon spiritual and moral law, but now such law is nearly gone. Our children’s lives, both physical and spiritual, are at risk. The crisis is severe. Young lives are going to be lost if they remain in the current condition.

We must respond to the increasingly ungodly conditions that are impacting our young people today in order to save them. Many adults feel that their hands are tied due to the court decisions keeping God out of schools. Yet if we close our eyes and let Satan remain in control of our children, many of them will end up in hell. Is that the legacy we want to leave them? The Bible is the Word of God and has answers to everything we face in life, and this is no exception. The Word provides the answers to putting God back into schools. Those answers are addressed in this book.

If you are a school superintendent, principal, teacher, or parent who has a desire to change the wrong practices at your school, this book is for you. If you are a parent, in some ways you have more power to make these changes. Principals and teachers are bound in some areas by rules that keep them from following specific practices. God has left power in your hands. You can make a difference. As a teacher, you are called to demonstrate by example. God placed a teacher’s call on your life, and with that call come responsibilities. You may not be able to display the Ten Commandments on your classroom wall or lead your students in morning prayer, but you do have tasks ahead that do not violate current laws. God has placed an open door in your hands. The most important thing you can give your students is the gift of life—eternal life in the presence of God.

This book is written in the form of a plan for a fire drill to show step-by-step how to address this situation. Why? Fire drills are conducted to prepare all involved for an emergency. And our school system in America is in an emergency; in fact, it is in crisis! Had we continued to follow the plan the American forefathers originally developed for our school system, we would not be in the situation we are today. But we didn’t, and now an emergency situation exists.

So, what happens when a fire drill is conducted? There are several components to a fire drill, each with a corresponding action. These components include: defining the emergencies that could or do exist, writing an emergency plan, conducting training, sounding the alarm, evacuation, assembly, accountability, reentry, and evaluation. This book is divided into those sections and addresses the American school system from each of those perspectives.

Defining the emergencies is the first step. Emergencies do exist for the American school system. It is in crisis and in chaos; it does not serve the purpose for which it was intended. It has become a mockery to those who created schools in America. Some children die as they attend school when angry children come and shoot them. Some die spiritually because of the current legacy that has been left to them. One wonders how much worse the situation could become. Nonetheless, it is in crisis now.

So, where are we now? Consider the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, on April 20, 1999. Two angry students stormed their high school with the intent to kill. They killed twelve students, one teacher, and later, themselves. They injured another twenty students, some seriously. It appears that they intended to kill even more.

Eight years later, on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech University, a lone gunman killed thirty-two people in two separate shootings just a short time apart. Then he killed himself. This was the deadliest school shooting in US history.

The following year, there was the shooting at Northern Illinois University in De Kalb, Illinois, on February 14, 2008. The lone gunman killed five students, injured eighteen, and then killed himself.

Then there was the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, which left twenty-six people dead—twenty children and six teachers. And there have been other school shootings—far too many.

Gun control is not the solution to school violence and other problems. It simply does not address or solve the root of the problems. We must address the problems at their source. The answer is to put God into the schools once again. It can be done without violating the laws, until the laws are changed. The changing of the law can be facilitated by our godly motives, godly actions, and prayers. We are the solution—and God has put the answer into our hands. If we do not make the changes for them, what kind of a world will we leave for our children? In this section, we define that there is an emergency in the American school system.

The fire drill steps that we cover are as follows. The writing of an emergency plan is explained in Chapter 1. Training is the step that comes next. Those who take emergency actions need to know what is expected of them; such knowledge needs to come in advance of the drill. Sounding the alarm occurs once a fire drill is about to commence. It is an initiating event that starts the process. Evacuation is the process in which everyone exits from the facility to a predesignated outside assembly area at the start of a fire drill. Assembly occurs upon evacuation when the group reports to a designated safe area. Accountability is the process of ensuring that all the people who evacuated are present. Reentry occurs upon the termination of the drill, and there is a return to the location of origin before the exit. Finally, an evaluation is conducted to determine if the emergency plan worked well or needs to be revised. These are the steps that will be followed in this book as well.

There is hope. There is a future for our children. This book is a journey not of problems, but of solutions.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jer. 29:11).

SECTION 1

The Emergency Plan

After defining the emergencies, if a fire is one of the potentials, a fire drill needs to be conducted. Fire drills are developed through a specific process, and this book will follow that process in order to evaluate where we are and where we are headed.

The actual fire drill starts with the emergency plan. It is a document that lists possible emergencies for a facility and states the actions to take in the event of those emergencies. It clearly defines roles and responsibilities for those in authority and for those who take action based upon that authority. An emergency plan includes information regarding notifications, communications, and emergency action procedures. If a plan does not exist, one must first be created. A drill or exercise cannot be conducted unless you test a plan. Otherwise, you are merely seeing what happens without an accurate measure of effectiveness.

Chapter 1 addresses the emergency plan currently in place for our school system. The legacy of rights and rebellion in the 1960s and 1970s opened the door that Satan used to remove morals and integrity from the American school system. Prayer was eliminated from our schools, and other ungodly decisions were made affecting our students. That is the ‘plan’ that is in place today.

CHAPTER 1

The Fire Drill

This is a fire drill! This is a call to preparation for potential dangers ahead, which is the goal of any fire drill. We are about to begin a journey through a fire drill for our American school system, not just an individual school. All the information in this book can be put in practice for any school.

The American school system is in a state of emergency or crisis, but it is not too late to pull it out of the fire. It can only be done with the dedication of concerned adults, and that means us. We, the school superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, and other concerned adults, must take action. In order to do so, we need to understand where we are, where we are headed if no course of action takes place, and what was originally intended for the American school system at its founding.

The American school system started out much different than it is today. It was founded on sound Christian principles and maintained a true desire for the students to become godly Christian adults. In fact, the American school system was created so the Christian principles upon which this country was founded could be fostered in their lives through the ability to read and write. Founders of the American school system wanted students to become educated in order to study Scripture and apply its principles to their lives. Now, a few hundred years later, the tables have been turned, and students cannot even pray in schools, much less study Scripture. It is not what our forefathers intended. What they planned was much different.

The original American settlers were determined that Americans should read the Word of God for themselves, so the United States would not be like it was in Europe during the Dark Ages. During that time Satan kept people from reading and understanding what was in the Bible by keeping them illiterate. In 1642 America’s first law for public education was passed. It was called the Old Deluder Satan Act. This law required communities to establish public Bible-based schools. These public schools were founded to ensure children would read and understand the Bible. This emphasis prevailed later for educational laws as well. This is further explained in David Barton’s book Four Centuries of American Education.

American schools were founded so that children would be raised on the Bible, and now the Bible cannot even be taught in schools. Public schools were required to use the Bible as the foundation. The masses today have little or no knowledge of the Scriptures. We are doing now what the American public school system was organized to prevent. We will study this more in depth in Chapter 11.

If we were to evaluate the American school system from the viewpoint of a fire drill, we would see chaos. God would be absent. Everyone would be fleeing in different directions without a common purpose. That is, indeed, what we are seeing today. Why? Because we have the wrong plan in place.

The Current Emergency Plan

The current plan is ill-focused. When an ill-focused plan is tested, chaos and inappropriate actions result. An evaluation of the current plan is done by looking at current measures of effectiveness. Take a look at