2024 CEA Convention

Christian school leaders and teachers work within one of the most challenging environments to embody consistently the image of God as exemplified in the person of Jesus. A parent sends an angry email to a you about her student's grade and copies a board member; a colleague challenges you in the lounge on who you voted for in the election; a student you've worked with for days lies to you about using ChatGPT on his senior thesis paper. These types of situations happen often, making schools challenging places to be "slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." Dallas Willard posed in his seminal work, The Divine Conspiracy, that instead of simply learning how to repress hurt feelings and anger, "[s]uppose we devoted our time to inspiring Christians and others to be people who are not offendable and not angry and who are forgiving as a matter of course." In this session, Miles will provide a few ideas and practices that help us to become the kind of people who can both steward our schools and classrooms with accountability while, in equal measure, having a heart that says, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Bullying is antithetical to God's love, so it's particularly imperative to deal effectively with it in a Christian setting. What is bullying, and what isn't bullying? We'll explore what to teach students and staff, prevention, investigation, follow up, and well intended common missteps. This session is geared toward teachers, administrators, and counselors/social workers.