A CHRISTIAN COLLEGE

 


Small private school versus large state school?   This question has been
debated over and over, but there are some factors in favor of the small private school.

lt is often said that you are a number and not a name in the larger schools: This is true in many respects particularly in the first two years of college just when the student needs the most personal counsel and helps in the freshman year, you are among the two or three thousand or more freshmen.

A class in history may have from three hundred to five hundred students.  Instead of the personal contact with the professor, you are placed in the often unconcerned care of a graduate student who is pushed for time--he's a student too; The only real contact you have with the professor is the lecture once or twice a week? or when you want his signature on a drop-his-course slip.

In the smaller college, on the contrary, you have contact with the professor in the small class rooms.  He knows you, and you can know him. You do  not have to put up with a graduate student who may or may not know the subject matter.   Classes are small and you are not a nonentity as far as the professor is concerned.

There are other advantages socially and athletically: but assuming that college is for education the great advantage is that one has a better chance for   sympathetic instruction in the smaller college.

Why a Christian college? The aim of a Christian college is the impartation of knowledge in a Christian atmosphere.  It is the attempt to consecrate culture to the service of God.  One can ignore culture, or become submissive to it but the Christian college attempts to consecrate it and use it for the glory of God and the good of mankind. The ideal Christian college is one where the professors in all departments are not only scholars in their fields but Christians also.

This is the aim of our Baptist colleges.  There should be no separation of faith and knowledge, but both should work together for Christ who is the Truth.

The advantage over the secular college is that the Christian faith is held in high esteem. One often feels that professors in some state schools are antagonistic to the Christian faith simply because they assume it to be part of being a "scholar," This does not mean that young people in the Christian college are to be sheltered from materialism and other "isms."

On the contrary, through study under the guidance of concerned men and women they will formulate their own world view which is both Christian and cogent.

By grappling with issues which challenge their faith, they will become stronger Christians.

Which college for youth? Make it an accredited Christian college!


* Extract from Which College For You?   by Dallas M. Roark
BAPTTST LEADER January l96l