Caldwell Distinctive Difference #1:  Image of God vs. Animal:  Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them.”  We must start here.  One of the fundamental differences at Caldwell Academy is that we believe your children are created in the image of God.  This means they are valuable not for what they can do, but for who (and Whose) they are.  This also means they have eternal significance.  Other secular institutions believe your children are advanced animals.  This impacts every aspect of their training.  While I love my Golden Retriever, she is not made in God’s image and has no permanent value.  I will train her to perform for this life, but not the next.  Jesus Christ did not die for her.  He did die, however, for you and your children.  That is value.  That is significance.  That is fundamental.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #2:  Word of God vs. Shifting Sand:  The Bible has much to say about wise men and foolish men.  They both build houses on certain foundations and these houses look remarkably similar until the wind begins blowing.  The harder the wind blows, the more obvious the foundations become.  II Timothy 3:16-17 says “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”.  At Caldwell Academy, we believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and all 740 houses that we are building this year will be built on that One True Foundation.  Perhaps Martin Luther said it best: “I advise no one to place a child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount.  Every institution in which men are not increasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.”

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #3:  Classical vs. Traditional:  Proverbs 24:3-4 states “By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”  Solomon is giving us a recipe for successful educational training in these verses.  The biblical stages of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom parallel our Trivium stages of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.  “Trivium” literally means “where three roads meet.”  If we successfully navigate those three roads, the result is quite different from the traditional methodology which focuses mostly on the grammar stage.  The product we are developing is a classical Christian . . . a renaissance man or woman who can acquire the appropriate knowledge by going to the correct source, process well through critical thinking and logic, and communicate (through verbal and written expression) effectively.  As we continue to follow biblical directives, I believe the “houses” we are building will positively change their neighborhoods at the local and global levels.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #4:  Chivalry vs. Boorish:  “The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’ for she was taken out of man.’” (Gen. 2:23)  God has a beautiful plan for males and females.  Many of them He will call into holy wedlock at some point for the purpose of producing “godly offspring” (Malachi 2:15) and representing Christ and the Church.  This biblical male/female relationship is one of God’s chief objectives.  It is why He cannot tolerate homosexuality and hates divorce (Romans 1; Malachi 2:16).  At Caldwell, we train our young men to treat the opposite sex with respect and dignity.  Our gentlemen are taught to hold the doors for ladies, to stand when a lady approaches them, and, in general, to place the ladies in a position of honor.  We do not hide the difference in the sexes, we embrace them.  All students are taught to show respect for those people in authority (beginning with their parents) and for those older than they.  Chivalry can only be present when several of the other distinctives I have already mentioned are in place:  the belief that all people are made in the image of God and that the Word of God is the One True Foundation.  I hope and believe God will use our knights and maidens to reclaim this world for Him.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #5:  Spirit of the Lord vs. Chariots and Horses:  People tell me every week that they can “feel” a difference when they walk into Caldwell Academy.  Do you want to know the secret?  The Spirit of the Lord is in this place!  Psalm 20:7 states, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the Name of the Lord our God.”  I have come to believe that the absolute hardest part of the Christian life is trust.  I feel God has let me down so many times before.  I have trusted Him for the healing of dear friends and then had to watch as they slipped away in death.  I have trusted Him to do great works in foreign lands only to feel the sting of rejection and betrayal.  The temptation is to “do it on our own.” After all, we can see the iron chariots and feel the horses’ breath.  It is at these critical times that you will see the difference in our Caldwell students.  We teach every student that God has called him or her to trust and faithfulness no matter what the circumstance.  When we tragically lost a high school student, our students grieved with hope!  When we have needed land and buildings, our community has looked up, not out.  God is trustworthy.  His wonderful, awful, beautiful, tragic, loving, incomprehensible Plan is unfolding at Caldwell Academy.  The Spirit of the Lord is in this place!  Soli Deo Gloria.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #6:  Parent Involvement vs. “Professionals Only”:  Proverbs 22:6 says “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”  This is a direct promise from God to parents. Other people or organizations can help along the way, but the biblical responsibility to train the child rests with the parents.  One of the greatest distinctives of Caldwell Academy is our parent involvement.  This involvement is critical for true education to take place.  There is no other person better suited to train your children than you.  Our mission is to assist parents in the biblical training of their children by providing a classical and Christian education. Caldwell is secondary, not primary.  One of our main objectives is to elevate our parents every time they enter our doors.  Parents have the wonderful, difficult task of rearing their children.  That task is the greatest and hardest responsibility we will have on this earth. Caldwell has the grand opportunity of lifting your arms up as you go.  Parents are welcome in this school.  We want you to know the teachers, the students, the parents, and the administration.  Our doors stay open and we answer our phones.  Why?  Because parents are primary!  It should not be amazing that God’s plan works in education.  My prayer is that we will continue to honor Him by honoring our parents.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #7:  Community School vs. Church/Government School:  Caldwell Academy is not tied to any specific church or denomination.  We stand on the critical doctrinal points in our statement of faith and allow for differing views beyond that statement.  We exist to advance thekingdom ofGod through assisting parents in the godly training of their children.  We do not exist to advance a denomination.  We have a community made up of Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Pentecostals,Church ofChrist, Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics, a number of large community churches, and non-believers.  The Bible stands as our absolute authority as we work in a spirit of unity.  Another of our great distinctives is that we are not tied in any way to the government.  We do not accept government money or the influences that come with that money. This decision hurts us financially from a purely secular point of view.  We are not able to obtain certain loans because we “discriminate in our hiring practices” and hire only Christians.  We will continue to discriminate in that manner, however, as we hire only men and women who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and live a life worthy of His gospel.  When the government gets involved in education, our schools can become dominated by unbiblical agendas, weak academics, moral depravity, and false teachings.  Deuteronomy 6 reminds us that we are to surround our children with biblical training.  True education can only take place under the Word of God.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #8:  To Serve vs. Be Served:  Mark 10: 43-45 says,  ^“Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus Christ came to serve.  He lived a humble life and died a martyr’s death.  He constantly put others before Himself.  At Caldwell Academy, we are committed to train our students to be like Christ through serving others.  We believe this is an integral part of our education process.  Our Kindergarten fills boxes for Samaritan’s Purse, brings gifts, cards, and singing to Nursing Homes, makes cards for veterans on Veterans’ Day and Valentine’s Day, helps stuff pillows for cancer patients, assists in feeding the homeless, makes brownies for our local firemen, and visits Wellspring (a local retirement community) residents.  Our first grade collects peanut butter and jelly for Urban Ministries and decorates Christmas stockings for nursing homes.  Our second grade makes scarves and blankets for the homeless.  Our third grade collects food for homeless families, collects sporting items for Russian children, and collects household items for families going through hard times.  Our fourth grade assists our handicapped friends through our “Horse Power” club.  They also write letters to our service men and women in Iraq and participate in the “Give a Kid a Coat” campaign.  Our fifth graders send “care” packages to our alumni, support missionaries, and collect food and clothing for those less fortunate.  Our sixth graders collect funds for Samaritan’s Purse, send veterans Christmas and Valentine cards, support our service men and women, and participate in an “Endangered Sea Turtle” project.  Our upper grades have begun a club called “Caldwell in Action” which works locally in our community with Agents of Grace to meet urgent needs here in Greensboro.  Our upper school also is actively involved in supporting Samaritan’s Purse, cleaning up our campus, offering free babysitting for certain Caldwell events, hosting blood drives on our campus, and organizing food drives.  Our “Putting Feet to Faith” enables all of our students to be involved in an entire day of service to the greater Greensboro community.  All of these activities are more than moral duties.  They are reflections of God’s love.  Because God “first loved us,” we are able to love and serve others.  We will continue to train our students at Caldwell Academy to follow Christ’s example and look for ways to serve our community and beyond in Christ’s Name.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #9:  Christ-Centered vs. Man-Centered:  Isaiah 29:16 states, “You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘He did not make me’?  Can the pot say to the potter ‘He knows nothing’?”  It seems almost humorous . . .the creation elevating its own wisdom to the level of the Creator or even denying the Creator’s existence.  Humanism (man is god) stands in direct contrast to Christianity (God is God).  Christianity has been such an integral part of the history and development of Western civilization that anything other than an education centered on the person of Jesus Christ fails at what it purports to be.  Caldwell Academy holds that all truth is God’s truth.  We seek to integrate all subjects with historical Christianity and the teachings of the Scriptures in ways that are natural and not contrived.  Our intent is to assist parents by providing a clear model of the biblical Christian life and worldview through our staff and Board and to encourage every child to develop a genuine and meaningful relationship with God through the person of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to foster the culture and environment of a Christian community that is inclusive.  We are unapologetic in the assertion of doctrines that are central to orthodox Christianity, but students and faculty alike are welcome to their personal and denominational views on issues about which genuine believers disagree.  The result is the cultivation in each student of an appreciation for the views of others, while maintaining a confidence in one’s own views and those of one’s family and denomination.  Since God is Truth, all true education must begin and end with Him.

Caldwell Distinctive Difference #10:  Wisdom vs. Knowledge:  “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4:7).  Most of my educational career has been spent in the government system.  I was often frustrated by the direction of our public schools, but could not put my finger on the problem.  Many people would tell me it was because we had removed prayer and Bible reading from our schools, but I was never convinced that was the reason.  As I researched the system in greater depth, I found the root of the problem.  The government educational system (as well as private, non-Christian schools) is built on a false premise.  Congress was convinced in the early 1800’s that knowledge alone would facilitate a moral society.  On this premise we launched the public school system.  Paul tells us in I Corinthians 8 that knowledge by itself “puffs up.”  It seeks to elevate man and bring down God.  Knowledge alone will never bring morality to any culture or society.  That can only be accomplished through the power of Jesus Christ.  If you add the fear of the Lord to knowledge, the result is wisdom.  Our school verse states that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.  Wisdom is the ability to make decisions as God Himself would make them.   True wisdom comes from no man, but from the mind of God.  Solomon reminds us the rewards of wisdom:  “Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.  Esteem her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor.”  At Caldwell Academy, our education starts with the fear of the Lord.  Any other foundation is destined for failure.