"
Are Christian teachers making their influence felt in all the ways
that are legitimately possible?
Two men decided that a Fellowship
of Christian Educators would help to uncover new ways to extend it."
By Virginia Rose Page, "Light and Life Evangel," Volume
62, No. 3,
January 19, 1958
Approximately one out of every seven persons in our nation is in
school. Who is teaching them? What patterns of thinking are being
laid before them? Are they making their influence felt?
Pondering these issues, a tall, bushy-haired man named Clyde M.
Narramore, psychologist and education specialist on the staff of
the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, got off a train
in the Los Angeles Union Station one warm summer day in 1953. He
hurried through the crowd to a restaurant where he had a luncheon
date with a man he had never met.
Arriving at the dining
room, he met a kindly gentleman whose calling card read, "Benjamin Weiss, Principal, Metropolitan High School," one
of the largest schools in Southern California.
"You must be Mr. Weiss," said
Narramore, extending his hand.
"That's right, Dr. Narramore," said
Weiss. They found a table and sat down to eat.
While exchanging familiar terms in the field of education, the
two men talked of future plans and of the unique opportunities presented
a Christian teacher in public schools.
As Weiss talked about his work, Narramore smoothed out his paper
napkin and wrote three words on it to remind him that he wanted to
talk with Weiss about a certain matter.
Then, with sudden enthusiasm
the principal said, "You know,
lately I've had a special burden on my heart about an organization
that ought to be brought into existence - a teacher's fellowship."
Surprised, Narramore
turned his napkin toward him and said, "Look
what I've just written here - fellowship for educators!"
Finding mutual encouragement for their mission, the two men went
to work on the idea. They called a meeting of twenty-five consecrated
believers from the field of education representing many denominations.
They explained to them their plan to organize Christian teachers,
school nurses, administrators, curriculum supervisors, school psychologists,
college professors, and all others who were responsible for the education
and welfare of American youth. To say the group was enthusiastic
is to put it mildly. Before the evening passed, they had decided
their over-all objectives, had elected Narramore and Weiss as co-directors,
and agreed upon a statement of belief. They called it the Educators'
Fellowship.
Weiss and Narramore were hard pressed to locate names and addresses
of Christian teachers. Strangely enough, hardly any Christian teacher
knew more than three or four other born-again educators.
When Narramore phoned the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles to arrange
for room and refreshments for the first regular meeting he was asked
how many would be attending.
"I don't know," he said, "This
is our first meeting. I'll make a wild guess and hope that we'll
have somewhere between
seventy-five and one hundred."
The hotel representative was helpful. She told Narramore that she
would arrange for the Educator's Fellowship to have an adjustable
room.
Came the night for the first meeting and one hundred and thirty
teachers, administrators and supervisors form all levels of education
attended. When Weiss and Narramore looked through the registration
cards, they found that their organization represented seventeen different
denominations. Their associates were elated.
"It's the first meeting I've attended," said a college
instructor, "where I've been in the majority."
"One of the most spiritual meetings I've ever experienced," said
a prominent school nurse.
But the localized project soon spread from Southern California.
It swallowed up other independent groups across the nation which
were glad to affiliate with a central work. Before long it was incorporated
as the National Educators' fellowship. Branch fellowship began meeting
in Japan, England, and Canada. The membership mailing list jumped
from zero to four hundred in five months.
"We're about fifty years late," said a professor. "We
have enough important projects to keep us busy for years to come.
We have souls to win, a testimony to live, Christian teachers to
recruit, literature to publish and distribute, legislation to promote,
school policy to make and curricula to plan."
Carefully the educators set down their objectives: Christian fellowship
and inspiration, the organization of prayer groups, learning more
effective ways of working with and counseling students, deepening
the spiritual life of every educator in the organization, learning
more effective ways of witnessing to fellow educators, learning how
to take positive stands on public and national problems, and the
recruitment of outstanding evangelical Christian teachers to the
profession.
Although the National
Educators Fellowship is geared to a ministry among the public schools,
it is not opposed
to Christian day schools.
Says Narramore, "Of course, we are very happy for such schools;
however our organization is intended primarily for public school
teachers. The overwhelming majority of children attend public schools,
and if we as Christians are going to reach their minds and hearts,
we must go where they are-to the public schools."
...Christian teachers need not be preachers. They should not enter
the classroom with an attitude of defying state laws. If educators
are well trained, have desirable personalities, and if they have
the right relationship with Christ, God will give divine guidance
and He will provide opportunities for witnessing.
...The Fellowship is meeting one of the greatest challenges of
the twentieth century. The United States is historically a Christian
nation. And yet, Christians have almost forgotten the agency that
trains millions of young men and women and boys and girls. NO professional
group is more influential than educators. They mold the minds of
America.
...The United States
is furnishing leadership to most of the world, and that leadership
is trained almost entirely
in the public schools.
We have turned the schools over to non-Christian and the materialistic
crowd, and we are reaping the harvest. We have stood by, adjusting
our mission sights to distant places, while the very foundation on
which we were standing has been deteriorating."
...The NEF's twelfth
objective states: "Exerting positive
leadership in the development of Christian character and personality
as a deterrent to juvenile delinquency and crime." May God grant
wisdom and large enrollment to this band of dedicated men and women
who are refueling their torches by the assembling of themselves together.
End.
(original article was entitled, Onward Christian Tutors.)