Declaration of Student Rights

There comes a time in every students life where they become independent. As students join high school they start to cut ties with their parents and teachers so that they can feel older and start doing more things on their own. This is taught that it is the right thing to do in today’s world because our society is becoming more and more independent. Students are now in charge of a lot more than what the generations before us have been, for example many students balance school, homework, sports, and a job. Being a high school student is hard enough even without all the extra activities. With the independence we have been given comes responsibility, and with responsibility there will come some complaints. Here are some examples of students complaints:

1.) They are given too much homework, with not enough time to complete it

2.) They are not able to have family time because the constant bear of homework

3.) Restrictions on school nights because of homework

4.) Detentions for unfair purposes

5.) Inability to focus because lack of sleep

6.) Stress of balancing sports and homework

Even though most high school students have had these complaints, we still must obey and follow the schools rules. we must follow these rules because Christ tells us to do all we can do, whether we like it or not, for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

There are two freedoms Christian high school students live out: independence in school and independence in God. As said above, all students struggle with at least some or all of these ‘complaints’. Attending a Christian private school creates an even bigger fight with the harder work and a bigger push for success. Students are pressed for time and spend most of it doing homework. Because of the hard schedule students must decided what the most important activities in their lives are and how to carry out all of their responsibilities on their own. As young adults we have the ability to do things on our own pace and benefit from that.

Christian students also have the need for independence in God. The recent survey shows that more and more people are dropping out of church when they go to college, and are free from there parents rules. Because of our independence we can make the wrong choice by leaving our faith or our church family. Many people are forced to go to church since they are a child, and it just becomes a constant routine for them. It becomes a boring routine. They don’t want to attend church anymore because it is just the same thing over and over again. They long for something new, and they turn their backs on their religion. This is why we should learn at a young age to make our religion one of our own. You can’t constantly follow your parents: we have the need to be independent Christians.

Students need to take a stand for what they believe in and make a difference. One student could change the pace for all students.

Who will it be? It could be YOU.

Pure Works

The past few weeks our class has been studying and reading about the Puritans and Benjamin Franklin. We have read multiple articles and had many group discussions about the following subjects…

The puritan articles and the Benjamin Franklin article were all very interesting. They had two main things in common: First, both are driven by works. The puritans think that doing good works is the only thing that will get them into Heaven. They are very extreme on obeying all the laws of the land and the Bible, and if they make one mistake then they will face the wrath of God. They made themselves follow strict limits to what they could and couldn’t do. For example they were very strict on purity; they abide on God’s rule on keeping themselves Holy. Franklin’s article is also based on good works; He tries to make himself be perfect in all of his characteristics which include:

• Temperance
• Silence
• Order
• Resolution
• Frugality
• Industry
• Sincerity
• Justice
• Moderate
• Cleanliness
• Tranquility
• Chastity &
• Humility.

Franklin’s intentions were to try to form a habit of all these virtues, so that he could become a self-sufficient, independent, and perfect human being.

We all as high school students can relate to this. The three of us girls have all felt like we had to do certain things or preform certain acts to be accepted in school. Everyday through society we hear that we must be smart, must dress a certain way, or play a bunch of sports. All of this leads back to the good works that the puritans and Benjamin Franklin were aiming for. Since kindergarten we all wanted to be perfect, because that’s our human nature; but now that we’re older and more experienced we have realized that it’s literally impossible for us to be perfect without God’s help. We can also relate to the virtues by keeping ourselves pure. By being Christian students we obey Gods word on keeping our hearts, minds, and bodies pure. In high school sometimes it is really hard to follow these virtues because of peer pressure and from all the things we see in media. In Franklin’s article, toward the end, he made a note that there is no way for us to achieve perfection, and that there will always be an area of our lives that is faltering. This just proves how awesome our God is; how we are imperfect and dependent on Him who is all powerful and perfect.

The second thing the articles have in common is their individualism. The puritans do put there love and loyalty in God, but they do not put their faith and dependence on Him. They think that if they follow the right rules and play the ‘perfect part’, then everything will work in their favor. Benjamin Franklin also follows this method. He claimed that once he mastered these virtues he wouldn’t need any help, but that he would become perfect. It wasn’t till the end of his article where he realized that it was literally impossible to become a perfect person. He stated, “I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I imagined.”

In high school everyone finds their independence. Because of this freedom it is kinda hard to depend on people such as parents and God. The three of us are still working on this as we go along with our busy lives. We all have school, homework, sports, family, church activities, friends, and much more to try to balance out; as we do all these things we forget to stop and take time for what is really important, which is God. That is what the Puritans and Benjamin Franklin need to do in order to achieve the qualities they are looking for. If they will accept Christ then it would become much easier to master all of their virtues.