When I began my first year as a student teacher, I encountered a tough classroom situation. Unsure of what to do, I asked my mentor teacher for advice. His words have stayed with me ever since: “Always do what is in the best interest of the students. Even if it doesn’t work out the way you hope, it is always easier to explain.”
That wisdom gave me a compass. It told me that no matter the pressures from systems, politics, or even parents, the test is simple: Is this truly best for the student? Too often, that test is forgotten. In many settings, students are treated like numbers on a spreadsheet or products for the workforce. But children are not products, and teaching is not transactional. At its best, teaching is sacred—a holy calling that shapes lives.
Howard Hendricks, author and longtime theology professor at Dallas Theological Seminary, once wrote, “You will never graduate from the school of Christ. You will be a student until the day you die.” If following Jesus means lifelong learning, then education at every level must honor the sacred role of shaping students—not just processing them through a system.
Virginia as a Case Study
Virginia’s debates reveal this tension. In 2012, the state launched the Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit to help low-income families access scholarships for schools they choose. Later, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears supported efforts to expand choice through the Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance.
These efforts promised hope for students in struggling urban schools but failed when rural representatives—whose communities had no alternatives—resisted. The politics are complicated, regardless of which side you support, but the question remains simple: Are we putting students first, or systems first? Both sides should aim for the same goal: acting in the best interest of the students.
Schools Are Not Walmart
Years ago, I wrote about the temptation to treat churches like Walmart: a place where consumers shop for spiritual goods and services. That same temptation now influences schools. Leaders act like store managers, teachers like cashiers and students like customers.
But a school isn’t Walmart. You can’t measure a child’s worth by how much “profit” they generate in test scores or funding formulas. Nor can you treat teachers like transactional employees. True educators are more like shepherds than salespeople. They guide, nurture, and protect. They see each child as created in the image of God, deserving of dignity and care.
Consumer mentality is eroding genuine Christianity in our churches, and it can just as easily weaken our schools. Pastor Francis Chan once recalled a churchgoer who said, “I really didn’t like worship today.” His sharp but truthful response: “That’s OK; we weren’t worshiping you.”
Schools need the same clarity. They are not designed to cater to every preference but to pursue what is true and what is best for students. If the church is not Walmart, neither are schools. Education is not about retail transactions—it is about human transformation.
Leadership: Transactional or Transformational?
James MacGregor Burns distinguished two types of leadership. Transactional leadership involves leaders and followers each pursuing their own benefits. Transformational leadership, on the other hand, “causes a metamorphosis … a radical change in outward form or inner character.” Education desperately needs transformational leadership. Prestige and power can orbit education, but they must never become its center of gravity. Students belong there.
Barry Leventhal, a longtime professor at both Dallas Theological Seminary and Southern Evangelical Seminary, and the primary mentor for my doctoral work, summed it up perfectly: “The ultimate goal of education is transformation, not information.”
Scripture also reminds us: “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” (Mark 10:45).
The Sacredness of Teaching
French philosopher Etienne Gilson once wrote: “The good teacher then loves to teach because he loves to impart to his pupils the very best thing there is in him—intellectual life, knowledge, truth.” Hendricks echoed this, reminding teachers that every lesson should aim not just at the mind but at the heart. Thomas Aquinas added: “The role of the teacher is to lead others to truth.” Norm Geisler, one of my mentors, put it more simply: “Truth is truth no matter where you find it.”
Together, these voices remind us that teaching is sacred because it shapes souls, not just minds. It is not solely about transmitting facts. It is about transforming lives.
Guides, Not Gods
In higher education, I often hear leaders admit that their institutions sometimes drift into a “professor-first” mindset. Faculty prestige or institutional reputation can overshadow the mission. But professors are not gods; they are guides.
Even Jesus, when His disciples tried to push children aside, He stopped and welcomed them, saying the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these (Matthew 19:14). If the Savior of the world put children first, surely our schools must do the same.
Why This Matters to Me
My family’s story underscores why this matters: My father, a superintendent with a Ph.D.; my uncle, a principal with an Ed.D.; my wife, a teacher with an Ed.D.; and my daughter, now in her senior year of college, preparing to become a teacher herself—all remind me that education is more than policy. It is profoundly personal.
When I pastored a church with the largest weekday education program in its state, I saw firsthand how putting students first reshapes families, churches, and communities. Education has been the family business. More than that, it has been the family calling.
Putting Students First
America’s schools face enormous pressures—policy debates, funding issues, and changing cultural trends. But one fact stays consistent: Education is for students. Not for politics. Not for prestige. Not for profit. As both Virginia’s debates and higher education remind us, the true issue is never tax credits, vouchers, geography, prestige, or politics—it is whether students come first.
Consumer mentalities creep into both church and classroom, reducing disciples and students alike to products. But education is sacred, not transactional. Professors are guides, not gods. Leaders are shepherds, not shopkeepers. Students are not consumers to be pleased, but souls to be shaped.
Restoring a student-first focus involves embracing the humility of servant leadership, having the courage to resist consumer-driven models, and embracing the sacred duty to teach for transformation. Both lawmakers and educators should ask the same question my mentor asked me as a young teacher: What is in the best interest of the students?
When education loses that focus, it ceases to be sacred and slips back into mere transaction. But when we put students first—always—we rediscover the joy and the power of teaching as God intended it.
Stephen Cutchins has more than 20 years of leadership experience in education and ministry across four states. He has been actively involved with Southern Evangelical Seminary for more than 17 years and currently serves as the executive director of the Center for Innovative Training, Truth That Matters.
Reprinted with permission from The Daily Signal by Stephen Cutchins.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
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