A child's holistic development includes physical, mental, emotional growth and spiritual growth. A loving, safe community of faith is vital to a child's spiritual development and can offer tremendous support to moms and dads on their parenting journey.

Private Christian K-12 enrollment has experienced a notable increase in the last few years. With the many changes that have occurred in public health, politics, and cultural agendas recently, I believe many parents of younger students are choosing to invest in private education that aligns with their values and priorities.  

In contrast, enrollment at many Christian colleges throughout the nation has been on the decline in recent years. In my current role as Executive Director of the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals, our researchers concluded that approximately 70% of our member institutions didnotmeettheirenrollmentgoalsfor the fallof2022.

With nearly 30 years of experience in the realm of admissions for a small, private Christ-centered university, I have had countless conversations with students and their families. There are several common questions and concerns that have surfaced in these conversations:

Dancing is often considered an activity for a select few, namely those who have a natural ability for creative movement, those who are graceful, and those who gravitate towards music and have an innate sense of rhythm. In recent years, youth dance has also been portrayed in a certain way thanks to media exposure such as the popular Lifetime television series "Dance Moms." These platforms cast dance as a dramatic, competitive, and even sexualized activity for children and youth, especially girls. Through my experience as a dancer and dance instructor for the last 15 years, I have come to see that these two basic understandings of dance--that it is for a select few and that it is largely dramatic and competitive--are misconceptions worth dispelling.

The power of music cannot be underestimated. Likewise, the power of a story to convey truth is also of great value. The celebration of Christmas represents the Greatest Story Ever Told—a truly meaningful story, the story that changed the course of human history, one that genuinely never grows old--no matter how many times, in how many ways, in so many places, in so many settings, it has been told. “The people that dwelt in darkness have seen a great light.”

Private Christian K-12 enrollment is on the rise in recent years. With the many changes that have occurred in public health, politics, and cultural agendas recently, I believe many parents of younger students are choosing to invest in private education that aligns with their values and priorities.  

I have spent my entire professional career in the realm of higher education, far beyond the early formative years of elementary school. In contrast to the recent positive trends in K-12 Christian education, enrollment at many Christian colleges throughout the nation has been on the decline for years. In my current role as Executive Director of the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals, our researchers concluded that approximately 70% of our member institutions did not meet their enrollment goals for the fall of 2022.

I wish I could say I was a particularly spiritual child, but I wasn’t. In fact, I basically hated Sundays. It wasn’t the morning and evening church services I didn’t like—it was the in-between. My parents were quite strict about that time of the week: no play dates, no school work, no sporting events, no television, no eating out, mandatory naps, etc. These Sabbath day practices felt unbearable to me. So as soon as I was old enough to make my own decisions, I dropped most of them.

I believe mediocrity is a temptation for all humans. Years of coaching tweens and teens have shown me that this is especially for tweens and teens. In the middle school years, students may not even realize that mediocrity is such a strong temptation. They also may not realize the opposite extreme of mediocrity: perfectionism. It is critically important for parents, mentors, teachers, and coaches of middle schoolers to not only be aware of the lure of mediocrity and the pitfalls of perfectionism, but to be able to guide students to find the healthy balance somewhere in between them. That somewhere in between is excellence.

Private Christian K-12 enrollment has experienced a notable increase in the last few years. With the many changes that have occurred in public health, politics, and cultural agendas recently, I believe many parents of younger students are choosing to invest in private education that aligns with their values and priorities.  

In contrast, enrollment at many Christian colleges throughout the nation has been on the decline in recent years. In my current role as Executive Director of the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals, our researchers concluded that approximately 70% of our member institutions didnotmeettheirenrollmentgoalsfor the fallof2022.

With nearly 30 years of previous experience in the realm of admissions for a small, private Christ-centered university, I have had countless conversations with students and their families. There are several common questions and concerns that have surfaced in these conversations:

The middle school years might seem too early to begin conversations about college planning, but I recommend that students and their parents begin high school with some idea of a plan. The primary reason for this is so that students know what courses they need to take throughout their high school careers. When high school students wait until their junior or senior year to begin their college search/admissions journey, they sometimes realize that they have not taken the classes they needed in order to gain admission to their preferred college or program. 

Excellence is a hallmark of every successful individual, business, and team. Yet, the temptation is strong to settle for mediocrity or fall prey to perfectionism rather than pursue excellence. Pursuing excellence healthily is a challenge for many, and it becomes an even more complicated topic for parents raising teens. I am convinced that pursuing excellence is an essential life skill. It is not something that is necessarily innate or comes naturally to us; it is a skill that must be cultivated intentionally over time, no matter what the goal or endeavor for which we want to be excellent. 

I graduated from high school in 1990. In my generation (and this is also true of generations before us), if we were told to do something by a person in a position of authority, we typically did it--often without question. If we were asked to do something, we did it, perhaps out of fear of the consequences otherwise.

Fast forward 30 years, and I have now been in a position of authority with students for nearly two and a half decades as a teacher, coach, guidance counselor, and principal. During this time, I have seen a shift in the student mindset as it pertains to authority. 

[Editor's Note: The following has been adapted from an interview with former teacher and pastor Dave Runyon on the "Navigating Your Child's Education" podcast for parents. Make sure to check out the full conversation here.]