A Sacred Education strives to guide students towards excellence in Christian character as well as academic achievement. We understand that this is a maturing process, and these guidelines provide a framework from which each parent, tutor, and student may assess growth. The school wants to cooperate with the home to help students form traits such as cheerful obedience, integrity, honesty, responsibility, and respect for the time, dignity, and property of others.

This code of conduct guides mother teachers in their discernment of student conduct that may require discipline. The students are expected to:

1. Obey Promptly.

Hebrews 13:17. “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” It is expected that students will obey immediately. Students should have a respectful attitude, making eye contact with the person giving directions.

2. Obey Completely.

Deuteronomy 4:2. “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.” It is expected that students will neither obey “halfway” nor re-interpret a command given by the teacher, who has authority and is intended to be a biblical role model.

3. Obey Cheerfully.

Philippians 2:14-15. “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world..” It is expected that students will obey with a thankful attitude. Grumbling, grimacing, sighing, and other complaining is not acceptable.

4. Exercise Diligence in Work.

Colossians 3:23. ”Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men..” It is expected that students will be hard workers. Their work should give evidence of neatness, precision, and effort. They should be focused on, attentive, and engaged in the task. Assignments should be completed and submitted in a timely way.

5. Display Consideration, Kindness and Compassion.

Ephesians 4:29, 32. ”Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” It is expected that students will treat others with kindness in action and speech. Harsh words and harmful behavior are not acceptable.

6. Speak With Honesty and Edification.

Ephesians 4:25. ”Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” It is expected that students will speak honestly, without rationalization and excuse. Gossip and slander are not edifying. In the event of relational offense, students will be encouraged to speak directly with the person with whom they have a concern and to model the biblical principle in Matthew 18:15-17.

7. Exercise Self-Control.

Proverbs 25: 28. ”A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” It is expected that students will control their tongues and actions. Students will be encouraged to speak at appropriate times and to control themselves.

8. Display Order.

I Corinthians 14:40. ”But all things should be done decently and in order.” It is expected that students will take an active part in maintaining their personal belongings and the school’s property and appearance, and uphold the dress code.

Aesthetic Vision

The apostle Paul instructs us to set our minds on that which is true, noble, just, pure, and lovely; we are to meditate on those things that are of good report, virtuous, or praiseworthy.  As a Christian school, we have particular duties in this regard; we have been entrusted by our school parents with the responsibility to help train and discipline the minds of their children.  We understand that the loveliness and nobility enjoined by the apostle involve more than just “spiritual” truths and our duty as a school includes the discipline of aesthetic education.

We therefore affirm that within the triune God reside all ultimate loveliness and beauty. As His creatures, we are to serve and worship Him in all that we do in the beauty of holiness. He has created us in His image and requires us to strive to imitate Him in all that we do, and this includes the duty of understanding our responsibilities to appreciate and create objects of loveliness.

In the education we provide, we therefore deny all forms of aesthetic relativism.  At the same time, we affirm our limitations as creatures.  This means that in any work of art containing true beauty, only God knows exhaustively all that is beautiful about the work, while we see the beauty only partially.  Because different human observers see different “partialities,” this creates an illusion of subjectivity.  Because our vision of the beautiful must necessarily be partial, we seek to instruct our students to make all aesthetic judgments in humility.  At the same time, we want to train them on their responsibility to make grounded and informed aesthetic judgments, rejecting all forms of principled ugliness or aesthetic nihilism.

We seek to teach the importance of aesthetic standards in all activities associated with the school, striving for that form of excellence suitable to each activity.  This dictates a strong emphasis throughout our curriculum on the fine arts — music, painting, sculpture, drama, and poetry — with the attendant responsibilities of the students including study, meditation, and memorization.  But our emphasis on aesthetics also extends to more mundane matters — the cleanliness of classrooms, student dress, handwriting, etc.  In all this, we aim to teach our students the reasons for what we require, and not just impose the bare requirement.  We deny that beauty and goodness can be separated, and that those things in the culture that are ungodly cease being beautiful or have only apparent beauty.

The standards we use in determining what we consider to be aesthetically valuable include conformity to the standards of Scripture, historical durability and the approval of many minds over generations, a balance of complexity and simplicity, also dignity, metaphorical strength, harmony, subtlety, and the power to evoke a love of truth and goodness.