Inside a private faith-based school

This article is about a South Carolina private faith-based school, but the picture it paints is universal. When School and Scripture Mix.

“We introduce them (to evolution) and let them know it’s out there,” Berry said. “To be honest with you, creation and evolution, neither one of them is true science. If you look at the scientific method, somebody had to be there to observe it and you’ve got to be able to repeat it. Christian college isn’t for everybody and our kids are going to be hit with it when they go out there, so they need to know what to expect and the way we approach it is, ‘these are the tenants of what evolution teaches,’ but then we’ll go on the background and say now this is where the Bible comes in and we’re a Christian school. We believe the Bible’s true. What does the Bible say about it?”

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This year, for the first time, FCS using textbooks exclusively from Bob Jones University Press, which works scripture into every subject. But Berry said that is an additional layer on top of what students would be getting in public school and nothing is left out.

“One of the reasons why we chose Bob Jones academically is when they set their textbook up, they go through a strenuous process and look at the core objectives that are required by a lot of states and they’re in South Carolina, so obviously they look at the South Carolina state standards,” said Berry. “They’re gonna pull the three or four leading state curriculums in the nation, like Texas and Florida, and they’re going to compare and their curriculum covers every core objective.”

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“The common belief is that people are sending their kids out of affluence or want better education for their kids and that’s a wrong perspective,” Earwood said. “Many of these parents value the religious education and make many sacrifices to send them there, so it is a conundrum because as the economy has continued to tank, it’s been harder and harder to continue supporting that decision to make religion an education priority.”