BC News September 2016 - Banner Christian School

Banner Christian School
B.C.
September, 2016
NEWS
“Christ first, education second to none.”
An observation most of us have made as we drive to and from church on Sunday morning is all the
people who are involved in other activities: mowing the yard, riding bicycles, heading out in swimsuits. It is a
saddening sight.
In Romans 15, Paul speaks of his hardships and endeavors to preach the Word to those who have never
heard it. We do not know Paul’s last name, nor do we know what he looked like. No one has his picture hanging
on the wall. However, his goals and determination, along with others, helped to change the world. The world
remembers him for what he did to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This triggers the question: What will the world or even the community remember about each one of us?
Attending a funeral may cause you to ask, “What will people reminisce and recollect about me?” Will I be
memorialized for the “things” I acquired, for my invention, for the contributions I made to the community, for
my charming personality? If you had to write your elegy, what would, what could it say? This is something each
one of us should consider as we plough through each day.
Of course, if you are reading this, you must in some way be a part of Christian education, of Banner,
which indicates that you are more passionate about Jesus Christ than just a trip to church on Sunday morning.
You are somehow immersed or participating in shaping the lives of our youth; this takes love, commitment, and
oftentimes sacrificing part of our income. However, in a post-Christian world, and we only have to listen to the
news for five minutes to conclude that we indeed live in a radically post-Christian country and world, our
mission field is often right in our backyard. And what greater objective can one have than to invest in the next
generation!
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
The Case for Cursive
Why cursive? At a time when technology has made our lives easier and more efficient, writing by hand, especially in
cursive, has begun to decline with students in many schools. As we continue to utilize and appreciate the use of
communicating electronically, there are more apparent reasons we should (as parents and educators) support cursive
writing.
Research indicates that both print and cursive, when learned and practiced, benefit an increase in brain activity, have
an impact on performance across all academic subjects, and provide a foundation for higher-order skills. Since a child’s
fine motor skills are not fully developed until around age 10, continual practice in the early years needs to be
encouraged. Experts suggest that handwriting can actually lighten a student’s cognitive load through fluency and
automaticity, thereby enabling students’ neurological resources to a larger degree to be freed up for critical thinking and
thought organization. (Peverly, S. “The Relationship of Transcription Speed and Other Cognitive Variables to NoteTaking and Test Performance.” Presented at Handwriting in the 21st Century?: An Educational Summit, Washington, D.
C., January 23, 2012)
As the student advances to cursive, the brain’s synapses and synchronicity are stimulated between the left and right
hemispheres, which have positive effects in the linguistic skills (reading, writing). Researchers Shadmehr and Holcomb
of Johns Hopkins University published a study in Science magazine showing that their subjects’ brains actually changed in
reaction to physical instruction such as cursive handwriting lessons provided by PET (Positron Emission Tomography)
scans as evidence of these changes in brain structure.These changes resulted in improvement in fluency, which further
developed neural pathways. Cursive, which is fluid, connecting a physical left-right motion and reinforcing reading skill
development and lateral directionality (mirrors the written left to right movement of written language), is lacking in
both printing and keyboarding. In addition, by crossing the midline, cursive writing stimulates the integration of the two
brain hemispheres, while the joining of the letters requires fluidity of production, thereby supporting fluency in reading
also.
Through practice of these handwriting skills, the researchers concluded that acquired knowledge became more
stable. (Sortino, Dr. D., “Brain Research and Cursive Writing,” August 11, 2016). Finally, it has been shown that the
memory is activated when words are written by hand rather than when typed via keyboarding. Again, Magnetic
Resonance Imaging shows cursive can improve idea composition and expression and aiding in fine motor-skill
development. In a study from a 2008 study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, handwritten characters resulted in
stronger and longer-lasting recognition of the proper orientation of the characters, suggesting that motor memory from
writing aids in identification of shapes; therefore, handwriting undergirds reading. So write on: there is a case for cursive!
by Demetria Heatwole
NILD (National Institute of Learning Development)
Level III trained
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
Congratulations, Anne Peters
Congratulations to Anne Peters, a 2016 graduate, whose poem has been selected as one of the top ten winners in the United States
and Canada by Creative Communication. Anne will also receive a cash prize.
An Insomniac in Flight
Peter Pan, if you’re out there,
I’m all ready to go.
The windows are wide open,
And no one here will know.
Whisk me from this city.
It’s only half past one,
An hour past restless,
And forever until dawn.
The sky is deep sapphire.
The moon, a dazzling gem.
The sun is as absent
As I soon will be from them.
While the world is asleep,
I sit here on the ledge.
In the morning when they wake,
They’ll find an empty bed.
The wind whispers to come.
My heart says not to stay.
The stars shimmer to follow.
My tears say, “No way.”
Neverland is not real.
It kills me deep inside,
But was made by insomniacs
Who had a lust to fly.
They grasped that their lives
Were relative in a sense.
They could adventure where they wish
At reality’s expense.
So tonight that’s where I’ll be,
If only in my mind,
Soaring past my worries,
Oh, the worlds that I may find.
Now perched on my windowsill,
Peter Pan has just arrived.
So if tonight the skies look strange,
Know there’s an insomniac in flight.
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Banner Christian School
Questions to Ask Before We Gossip
September, 2016
Article by Stephen Witmer
Scripture: Proverbs 16:28
Perhaps you’ve had the unsettling experience of finishing a conversation,
walking away, and wondering whether what you just said was gossip.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell. Gossip is a shadowy sin, blurry around the
edges. When are our conversations hushed on account of discretion, and
when are they simply the delightful whispers of the gossip (Proverbs 18:8)?
When we learn new information about another person, we have several
options. We can speak to that person about what we’ve learned, speak to
other people about it, or keep it to ourselves and speak to God. Gossip is
saying behind someone’s back what we should say to his or her face, or not
at all. But life is complex. Sometimes we must seek prayer and wisdom
from godly friends when struggling with difficult relationships with a child,
spouse, neighbor, co-worker, or fellow church-member. It’s in these situations that we should be particularly
careful that our counsel-seeking doesn’t simply become an excuse for gossip.
Here are eight diagnostic questions to help you discern with me whether, in talking to others about another
person with whom we’re struggling, we’re actually gossiping.
If you’re involved in conflict with another person, are you talking to others only about that person’s sin and never
about your own? If so, it’s probably gossip.
Is your conversation with friends about this other person intended to prepare you for a productive conversation
with the person? If not, it’s probably gossip.
If you’re seeking counsel from others about how to deal wisely with this person, do you keep the person’s
identity secret except when necessary? If not, it’s probably gossip.
Do you enjoy sharing this information with your friends? If so, it’s probably gossip. Gossip is tasty (Proverbs
18:8). Seeking counsel in a broken, difficult situation is good, but it is painful, not enjoyable.
What’s the tone of your voice and the tenor of your heart? Are you meek, humble, and broken-hearted when you
share this other person’s sin, or do you feel angry and righteous by comparison? If so, it’s probably gossip.
Are you talking to God about this person as much as you’re talking to your friends? If not, it’s probably gossip.
Are you limiting the number of friends you speak to? If not, it’s probably gossip. Gossip seeks to spread
communication widely, but Jesus seeks to restrict certain delicate communications narrowly (Matthew 18:15–17).
Do you think of those with whom you’re sharing sensitive information as passive recipients or involved
participants? Jesus’s goal for us in speaking to others is never merely to vent. Those who receive information
must be prepared to go with us to the person we need to speak to, in order to serve as witnesses (Matthew 18:16).
If you don’t understand your hearers as having this active, participatory role, it’s probably gossip.
Unfortunately, I’ve crossed the line into gossip far too many times in my life. But there have been some victories.
Several years ago, I heard a juicy tidbit about another person. I can’t remember now what it was, but I do
remember arriving home and wanting to share it with my wife. Then I stopped and asked myself, Why do I want
to share this? I realized it was gossip. So, I didn’t say it. God was honored, and my community, and my marriage,
and my own soul were saved the corrosive effects of gossip.
continued on next page…..
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
Gossip breeds dissension and distrust, destroying communities (2 Corinthians 12:20) and friendships. “A perverse
person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends” (Proverbs 16:28, NIV).
Let’s avoid it, and instead pray that our mouths will be fountains of life for those around us (Proverbs 10:11).
Stephen Witmer (@stephenwitmer1) is the pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Pepperell, Massachusetts and teaches New
Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He is the author of Eternity Changes Everything and a 12-week study in
Revelation. He and his wife Emma have three young children.
Perspective
by Barbi de Haas, School Counselor
My older sister is visiting from Montana and we
haven’t seen each other for more than three years. I
just met her youngest daughter for the first time
and her other children are re-acquainting with us
slowly. The first day we were together, my five-yearold niece, Courtney, picked my phone up off the
table and, looking at the picture on the back, asked,
“Aunt Barbi, are these all your children?”
With four children, my family is on the larger side
of “normal,” so I am used to that question. Random
people at the grocery store and other public places
have been asking me that for years. “Are they all
yours?” they ask with surprise.
I smiled at Courtney and said, “Yes, those are all my children.”
She gazed at me solemnly and said, “You have a teeny tiny family.” You see, she is one of eight. My younger sister,
who lived this past year in Montana with my older sister, has six. So, for many months, there were fourteen
“siblings” in that home. Sooooo, to Courtney, my four children seem very few indeed.
Perspective makes all the difference.
We make many decisions every day and in our roles as parents, we make them for our children as well. Some of
these are easy for us to make and easy to for them to understand. “May I play in the street? Eat cake before dinner?
Stay up to watch the Redskins game on a school night?” Take a zero instead of doing this project?” But other times
we must make harder choices that our children don’t like or understand based on our knowledge of “the Big
Picture.” We know that broccoli is a better side dish than potato chips. We know that walking the dog is better
than sitting on the couch. We know that choosing your friends carefully will help keep you out of trouble. We
know that loving and obeying God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength is the very point of our existence.
So, sometimes we have to say, “That skirt is too short. That movie is too risqué. That song is not appropriate. That
friend is not edifying. That attitude is not honoring. The answer is no.”
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
And sometimes the response is not the cheerful, “Yes, ma’am or Yes, sir” that we would like. They do not always
believe that we are on their team and making the best decision we know for their good. It is not infrequent that I
hear the phrase “And that is why you’re not the fun parent.”
Perspective makes all the difference.
I receive the Proverbs 31 daily devotional and found one this week that illustrates this point in our parent/child
relationship with our Heavenly Father that I would like to share with you. It begins with the author’s son
choosing to re-define her “No” answers and respond to them as if they were “Yeses.” Her insight on this
interesting perspective is below. My challenge this month is that we all might evaluate the way we see the world
and perhaps re-adjust our perspective to reflect our position as sons and daughters of the one parent who really
does know what’s best and who is always always good. Let’s adopt a Kingdom perspective.
It makes all the difference.
When God Says No
CHRYSTAL EVANS HURST
(previous content edited for length)
"No."
That cute boy waved his hands in the air while saying, "Yeaaaaaah!" And then it dawned on me ... my son
was on to something. He was choosing to believe my "no" was actually a "yes" and that changed his attitude. It
changed his response. It changed his reaction.
It made me wonder: What if we responded to God in this way? What if we believed that even when He said
no, it was because He was really saying yes? Because He is.
We have a good Father in God, who, just like a good earthly father, desires to give His children what's
best for them later even if He has to say no to something they want right now. The question is: Do we really
believe that He's good? If we did, wouldn't that be cause to celebrate, whether He says no or yes?
It's hard when prayer requests go unanswered or desires go unmet. I can easily feel deflated and frustrated
with God. Hope turns to hopelessness, confident expectation becomes disappointment and faith turns to
despondent despair. But what if we really believed God was good? What if we believed that He was always saying
yes—maybe not to what we are asking Him for right at that moment—but saying yes to His best.
What if we trusted His heart, even when His hand seemingly withholds the very thing we so desire?
What if we chose to celebrate all of the previous, “yes” answers He's given us despite His current no?
I think it would change how we respond. I think we would find joy, keep hoping and smile despite what we see.
I know how badly you want your,” yes”, but hang in there.
Keep hoping. Keep praying. Keep believing. And if God says no? Choose to give thanks. I have been walking with
God long enough to know that many times God has said, “no” because He has a greater, “yes” in store for me. I
have been walking with God long enough to know that even if I don't like His answer, I can respond to Him with
expectation, hope, and joy. I have been walking with God long enough to know He's good; and although He
doesn't always give me what I want, He always gives me what He knows I need. In some way, shape or form, He's
always saying, “yes”.
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
History of Labor Day
Labor Day: What it Means
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and
economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers
have made to the strength, prosperity, and well being of our country.
Labor Day Legislation
Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came
through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state
legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed
by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New
York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative
enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut,
Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894,
23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of
workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed
an act making the first Monday in September of each
year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the
territories.
Founder of Labor Day
More than 100 years after the first Labor Day
observance, there is still some doubt as to who first
proposed the holiday for workers.
Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general
secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners
and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor,
was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from
rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."
But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a
machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew
Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed
the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the
Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and
picnic.
https://www.dol.gov/general/laborday/history 7/25/2016
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
Update and Needs on Property and Building
• Cross county track delayed until fall do to an injury to our Banner parent installing the track.
• Soil tested and approved for septic. This will be a waiver request to the county to save the installation cost of
running the sewer line to the property.
• Surveying the Courthouse Road entrance to determine if ther are any issues prior to our filing of the Master Plan.
• Still looking for a bobcat and a operator to clear the field and plant grass. Let me know if you have a contact.
• Still working on the liability issues for Timmons to release their survey. This will minimize the cost of a new survey.
Master Plan to be filed on August 29, 2016.
Keep praying and keep working.
Please contact Larry Burkett if you feel that you, or anyone you know, can help out in any of these areas:
lburkett2@bannerchristian.org
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
Bible Buddies
Bible Buddies is a program in
which our upper school
students interact with and
mentor our lower school
students.
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Banner Christian School
September, 2016
Four steps to a stress free start this school year
ADJUST YOUR ROUTINE
Start each day with a healthful breakfast.
During the week establish an evening schedule for homework, dinner, television, outdoor activities,
baths, and bedtime. On the weekend, try to maintain your week day schedule for evening activities.
GET ORGANIZED
Have a “get ready the night before” rule. Lay out clothes, pack your non-refrigerated lunch items,
gather all completed homework/projects and pack your backpack prior to going to bed. Keep all sport
bags packed and ready to go with your backpack and lunch box. Post a copy of the school calendar on
the refrigerator or in a visible location.
PLAN HEALTHful MEALS AND SNACKS
Use the weekend to plan what you want to pack for lunch and a snack all week. Don’t forget, a
healthful breakfast, snack, and lunch helps keep your brain engaged during the school day. Staying
hydrated throughout the day and during sports practices or events is a must. Pack water instead of a
sugary drink in your lunch.
DON’T STRESS OVER HOMEWORK
Decide the best time for homework and stick to it. Have a well-lit, quiet, designated
area for homework. Keep supplies for homework organized and easy to
reach.
Healthful Snack: Strawberry Iced Tea
2 cups
Fresh strawberries
1/4 cup
Fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup
Sugar
5 cups
Unsweetened, brewed tea
In a blender puree the strawberries and lemon juice. Pour into a 2
quart pitcher. Add brewed tea and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved.
Chill and serve.
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Experiencing the American Civil War
On the second Thursday of this school year, the
seventh graders headed downtown to experience the
War Between the States (otherwise known as the
American Civil War) from Richmond’s perspective. Trips
to Belle Isle and Tredegar Iron Works yielded insight
into our city’s role as the foremost iron producer in the
South. In the afternoon a tour of Jefferson Davis’s
former house showed how the short-lived confederacy
was governed. Students also experienced the war
through the eyes of soldiers on both sides of the
conflict, with a focus on the medical practices
associated with the costliest war in United States
history.
FACTS ACCOUNTS
As you know, we are currently using FACTS to pay for tuition. However, as many of you found out already, Renweb does not
bill you right away when you order lunches (as it did last year). Instead, what happens every Friday, the charges get posted
to your Renweb account for the following week. From here you have three options: 1) You can pay them through Renweb
when they appear. 2) You can wait until the end of the month to pay for them on Renweb; this way you do not have to make
weekly payments 3) After 30 days, if your Renweb account has any charges on it, they will be moved over to FACTS. You will
receive an email informing you that charges have been added to your FACTS account and they will be withdrawn with your
next tuition payment. If you do not have a tuition payment, the balance will be withdrawn from your bank account on the 1st
of the following month. Originally, we were just going to move over any balance on your account to FACTS each month, but a number of
parents wanted to keep tuition payments separate. However, any balance, whether it be sports fees, lunch, aftercare, or other miscellaneous
charges on your Renweb account that have been there for 30 days, will be added to your FACTS account and be withdrawn from your bank
account.
VISITING?
All visitors need to report to the front office to sign in and receive a visitor badge. The
badge must be returned to the front office to sign out prior to leaving the premises. In the
event of a fire, the "Visitors’ Log" is taken outside, allowing us to account for everyone in the
building. If you have not signed out, we will send a firefighter in to search for you. Thank
you for your assistance.
LOST & FOUND
Lost something? We may have found it! There are numerous items being found each day.
Remember to LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!!!
BANNER CHRISTIAN SCHOOL • 1501 S. PROVIDENCE ROAD N. CHESTERFIELD, VIRGINIA 23236
B.C. News
P: 804-276-5200 • F:804-276-7620 • WEB:WWW.BANNERCHRISTIAN.ORG
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