Over the last two decades, our society has been transformed by technology, especially high-tech tablets and smart phones. Technology touches our lives in so many ways that the children of today are surrounded by it at every turn. It is not uncommon for today’s elementary-aged children to have their own personal tablet, smart phone, or wrist watch that communicates with parents. Toddlers can often navigate a tablet with ease. Even new kitchen appliances are incorporating smart communication technology into their design. The challenge facing our society is how to best navigate this high-tech culture in a healthy manner. How can we balance our use of technology in order to avoid falling into negative patterns of too much screen time?

GUEST STUDENT AUTHORS

A recently developed leadership program at Mount Paran Christian School is providing high school students with the opportunity to learn, practice, and reflect on leadership. Developed by Jason Beard, Assistant Head of High School, the goLEAD program’s goal is to develop and empower today’s servant-leaders by teaching essential principles of leadership, collaborating with community and school leaders, and providing authentic experiences in leadership.

The goLEAD program has officially launched as a two-year curricular program, designed to prepare servant-leaders by teaching leadership principles, collaborating with community and school leaders, and providing authentic experiences for students to learn, practice, and reflect on their leadership. The thought of doing leadership intentionally was the spark that created a leadership-development program that incorporates a balance between learning about leadership and actually experiencing it.

I want to tell you about one of my first memories of a veteran. When I was about six years old, I remember watching my father labor to meticulously build 40 picnic tables as one of his side jobs. He had to work these extra jobs because he took a pay cut when his company moved him to working a desk job. You see, my father served as a munitions specialist in the Air Force and was stationed in Germany around 1960. His job was to reach his arm into a nuclear warhead to arm it for daily practice runs. This exposure to radiation caused my father to lose that arm (and later his shoulder) to cancer. However, he went ahead and built those 40 picnic tables with one arm.

As parents, we are constantly teaching our children, modeling behavior, and doing our best to help shape them into responsible Christian citizens. We take them to church, Sunday school, youth groups, and summer camps. We enroll them in arts, clubs, and sports teams, looking for teachable moments at every turn. We pray they develop relationships with role-models that develop their character. How can we ensure that our children are being influenced by godly people that will help to “train up a child in the way he should go?”