The+National+Association+of+Christian+Schools

"The National Association of Christian Schools was founded in 1947 by the National Association of Evangelicals to promote the establishment of new elementary and secondary Christian day schools throughout America and to provide a service function to all who unite with it. Any school willing to subscribe to the doctrinal statement expressing basic beliefs held in common by evangelicals may become a member . Each separate school is allowed to determine its own detailed doctrinal position and its own type of organization. Dr. Mark Fakkema, who had given the cause of the Christian day school valiant service through the National Union of Christian Schools, served as Educational Director of the National Association of Christian Schools until 1960. In this capacity he continued to promote energetically the Christian day school movement. Upon his resignation in 1960, he was succeeded by John F. Blanchard, who had for some years been outstanding as a leader in the field. The appeal of this movement lies in deep and fundamental principles. Of these the basic one is that God has made parents primarily responsible for the child. The Bible teaches that the child first of all belongs to the parents who brought him into the world. The child is not the property of the state, nor are the parents merely the servants of the state to nurture the child until the state sees fit to take control of him. This is not to say that neither state nor church has responsibility for the young, but it does say that both have secondary, not primary obligation. Parental responsibility implies certain rights, one of which is the right of parents to educate their children as they believe God would have them educated. This is a natural right, not one given by the state. No parent who honors God should be obliged to expose the children God gives him to a type of education that dishonors God. Courts do not confer on parents their rights but they have upheld them as being natural. The dictum of the Supreme Court of the United States handed down in the Oregon case is " the child is not the mere creature of the state; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations." Furthermore, the court stated that the private and church schools were engaged in a kind of undertaking not inherently harmful, but long regarded as useful and meritorious." It is the obligation and the right of the state to see that every child receives adequate education, but the state ought not to dictate as to who shall give it or how it shall be given." Excerpt taken from //History of Christian Education// by C.B. Eavey