Mr Bill Rusin, Interim Principal
At a Christian school, relationships should be defined by covenant, not contract. While contracts certainly have their place in community life—setting out clear responsibilities and expectations—it’s easy to slip into thinking that all our interactions must follow a transactional model.
Covenant, broadly understood as a promise, is something far deeper. It’s a declarative commitment: “I promise to do this for you.” It is rooted in trust, relationship, and a willingness to give of oneself regardless of the response.
Sadly, things that were originally designed as covenant have been reframed as contractual, including marriage and even parenting. Contract presumes a lack of trust and trustworthiness and contains an implicit threat if one side of the contract is broken. By contrast, covenant is more relational, a bit messy and even risky. However, it is the model God uses in His dealings with His people, and it is the model He calls us to imitate.
At Kuyper Christian School, our covenantal promise to parents is that,
we will seek to fulfil our office as teachers to teach your children to the best of our ability and capacity, regardless of how clever or compliant they may be.
That promise stands because of the office we hold as educators.
Likewise, students are encouraged to fulfil their office within the classroom community. They are called to learn and to help others learn—to contribute to the shared task of growing in knowledge and character.
Of course, we don’t always live this out perfectly. No community does. But we seek to resist the temptation to default to contractual thinking when things do not work out as well as they should.
We look forward to a rich and engaging term working together in covenantal partnership with you.