The mission of The River Academy is to partner with parents to educate the next generation of Christian leaders. This happens by building on the foundations you have laid as your child’s primary educator. Parents teach and train their children to be obedient and to love and honor God, then those students are naturally primed to want to learn more about God, and to listen to their teachers. Such students learn to honor their teachers and classmates by being responsible for their own actions and become able to think of others more than themselves, which are key traits of Christian leaders.
Partnering with parents at the elementary level means we teach them about spelling, math, and history, how to write a paragraph, and eventually a 3 point essay. But we couldn’t do any of that if kiddos hadn’t already learned to listen to adults. They come to us ready and eager to learn because you have set them up to be excited for school. They obey when we ask them to do hard work because they have already been trained to do chores and work hard at home. And they are able to own their mistakes, apologize, and ask forgiveness when there is conflict because you have modeled such grace and humility at home.
With secondary students, partnering with parents generally means coming alongside the young men and women whom you are already discipling to be adults. It means walking with them, as you do, and practicing living in a vulnerable and authentic Christian community where hard work is the norm, mistakes and mishaps are commonplace, and forgiveness is asked for, and given, regularly.
I see 3-5 students a day who have misbehaved. My focus for every disciplinary visit is to help each student take responsibility for their own actions by acknowledging that they made a mistake and then choosing to restore the relationship with their teacher or classmates, ask forgiveness, and then make plans to do better. True repentance and relational restoration are always the goals. I have the joy of talking with parents about each of my disciplinary conversations with their child and almost every time they express thankfulness for the call and gratitude for our investment in their family and partnering with them. It makes my heart happy and literally makes my day.
This little school community is a place where students are encouraged and equipped to take responsibility for their actions, especially when they have hurt others, and ask forgiveness from others and from God. We all need to practice these things, but it is essential for leaders. This work is done best in a safe place where others are brave enough to be vulnerable too. Mistakes are normal and in fact a very necessary part of learning! We want this school to be full of great grace for each person to be different and grow into the individual that God created them to be.
Thank you for allowing us to partner with you on your child’s journey to becoming a Christian leader!
-Tonya Griffith, School Principal
