Dear Faculty,
I hope you are all successfully settling into the pace of the fall term. This post derives from visits to Calvin’s Auditorium.
Jean Calvin did most of his work in Geneva during the Reformation. Martin Luther receives credit for being the person to successfully start the Reformation in the 1520s, but by 1600 there were many more Lutheran churches (including the New England Puritans) than Lutheran churches. As a history teacher I often ask why Calvinism became more popular, but never get to a full answer. One part of the answer may have to do with global education. Whereas Luther wrote and preached a tremendous amount, Calvin started an Academy in Geneva. At his Academy he preached in an “auditorium” instead of a chapel. In the auditorium he would speak in the vernacular and allow for questions and dialogue. Many students traveled to Geneva from around Europe. For example, 200 students from the Netherlands spend three years in Geneva and then returned and helped make the Dutch a protestant country; John Knox studied in Geneva and then returned to Scotland to lead the Presbyterian Church. The point here is that one of the reasons that Calvinism spread farther than Lutheranism was that Calvin embraced international education.
I am not a proponent of predestination, but I did think of Holderness when visiting the auditorium. At Holderness, we sometimes question, appropriately, whether we are forcing our values on international kids and making them be like us. That’s a good question to ask. On one hand, having more international students should push Holderness faculty and students to evolve over time. On the other hand, if we believe that Holderness’ educational mission has value, we can believe that it is worth teaching it to international students from different educational systems. In the long run they take Holderness values back home or wherever they go-just as Calvin’s students carried his lessons around Europe. We do not have to have the unbending passion of Calvin, but Calvin’s strong belief that his educational mission had international value did prove effective.
Jory
Would seem to make plenty of sense to “force our values on international kids” if the below is the accurate expression of the values, as noted on http://www.holderness.org/mission_history. Expressed this way it’s non-denominational and is exactly the mission of the school. Holderness should be proud to “force” these values. Also it’s not exactly secret that this is what the school is about…so prospects can opt out of coming at all.
“Within the context of a caring community, Holderness School fosters equally the resources of the mind, body, and spirit in each student, instilling in all the resolve to work for the betterment of humankind and God’s creation.
“Community: We begin with an affirmation of the bonds that unite us to friends and family and teachers, to the breadth of humankind, and to God and all creation. We affirm the role that such bonds play in learning.
“Character: We believe that community cultivates character, and that character sustains and reinforces community. At Holderness, all community members are asked to lead through strength of character, and all students participate in programs that test and enhance character.”
If the question is more about the distinction between Lutherans, Calvinists, and the Episcopal roots of the school I am out of my element. Eventually I found the following deep in the pages of http://www.episcopalchurch.org/ at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/visitors_8950_ENG_HTM.htm I guess in this sense Holderness will want to expose students of other faiths to these ideas but not “force,” say, the Book of Common Prayer on them. I assume that Holderness leaders have covered this ground a lot and that there are already Jews, Catholics, Muslims, and others at school and they will continue to be welcomed?
What makes us Anglican?
Hallmarks of the Episcopal Church
“Protestant, Yet Catholic
Anglicanism stands squarely in the Reformed tradition, yet considers itself just as directly descended from the Early Church as the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Episcopalians celebrate the Mass in ways similar to the Roman Catholic tradition, yet do not recognize a single authority, such as the Pope of Rome.
“Worship in one’s first language
Episcopalians believe that Christians should be able to worship God and read the Bible in their first language, which for most Episcopalians, is English, rather than Latin or Greek, the two earlier, “official” languages of Christianity. Yet the Book of Common Prayer has been translated into many languages, so that those Episcopalians who do not speak English can still worship God in their native tongue.
“The Book of Common Prayer
Unique to Anglicanism, though, is the Book of Common Prayer, the collection of worship services that all worshipers in an Anglican church follow.”
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One could also argue that making the world safe for market economies, self determination, forward thinking policies, respect for the rights of others, and respect for evidence and the scientific method would be high value and non-controversial ways to prepare high school kids to compete and thrive and contribute in a very fast changing, very global world is the highest value – or worth – of the education.