What started as a dream became a reality Saturday. ¶ Crean Lutheran High School – Irvine's first Christian high school – held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open and consecrate its new 28-acre campus, located at the corner of Sand Canyon and Portola Parkway. ¶ About 900 people – including students, parents, teachers and Irvine city officials – filled Crean's new gymnasium and event center Saturday morning to celebrate the occasion. Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang was on hand to present a declaration; school administrators delivered speeches and prayers; and various student groups offered performances….Sure, and John Crean was a good pal of (SOCCCD trustee and notorious thug) Tom Fuentes’ too!
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The mayor said it was also raining when he attended a groundbreaking earlier this year. "I think this is a sign of Lord Jesus Christ's blessing, an outpour of continuous blessing to all of you."
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...The school is named after John Crean, an entrepreneur and philanthropist whose foundation donated $10 million to the school in 2007.
You know how pious Tom is. He once even performed a liver miracle. Even I was amazed.
Remember the time that Crean officials asked Irvine Valley College instructors to fill out forms indicating their level of agreement with Christian and Lutheran doctrine? Sheesh! Yeah, and those zany Crean people even unilaterally monkeyed with staffing so that IVC instructors were actually teaching credit courses that they weren't qualified to teach! Gee willikers, it took a lot of doing to untangle that fur ball.
IVC officials did a boffo job keeping our attention off of those monumental f*ck-ups, didn't they? You've got to hand it to 'em.
I'm only mentioning this since, well, those guys are so excellent in so many different other ways. Have you noticed?
And they're really great about transparency too. Some under-medicated kid flashes sharp objects on campus while muttering dark sentiments about faculty—and what do our administrators do? They don't tell anybody about it! Not even the student's instructors!
Yeah. I could go on, but I won't. (But, um, recall Roquemore's "Early College" brainwave? Did he and the VPI listen to faculty then? Not so much. Are they listening to faculty now? Guess.)
From Crean Lutheran High School’s website:
Early College Course Program
Crean Lutheran has a relationship with nearby Irvine Valley College in which college professors come on to CLS campus and teach courses for high school AND college credits. In our first year of offering this program, 23% of our student body took at least one college level course.From Crean’s Vision Statement:
By the grace of God, …Lutheran South [Crean] High School is committed to providing Christian teachers and educational leaders who are empowered by the Holy Spirit and dedicated to establishing an exceptional educational framework that is innovative, future-oriented and responsive to the changing demands and needs of high school students in an increasingly complex and technologically advancing world….Golly, many faculty at IVC have expressed grave concerns about the college's relationship with Crean/Lutheran South. (Naturally, the program was created without soliciting faculty input.) But, as usual, top administration have blown us off. Gosh thanks. How's that working out for you?
Crean is serious about keeping things Christian. Check out its Teachers Application. That app includes the Lutheran Church's lengthy "statement of faith"—and the following:
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Yeah, but remember the U.S. Constitution? The First Amendment? The establishment clause?
Irvine Valley College, unlike Crean Lutheran, is a public institution. Its instructors shouldn't be pressured to keep things "Christian" or Lutheran.
Or maybe you think otherwise.
Tea Partier, eh?
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IVC is part of the South Orange County Community College District. During SOCCCD's Fall 2009 "Chancellor's opening session," a patriotic video was played that ended with a message: that "Jesus Christ" offered to die for our souls. Really. (See Wagner v. Westphal; see also Non-believers are going to hell.)At IVC and Saddleback College commencements, nothing happens until there's a juicy prayer to "our heavenly father."
But, hey! This is America! They're not supposed to ram religion down our throats. We weren't too pleased when others did that to us. Remember?
9 comments:
Agree!
I am NOT empowered by the holy spirit.
Maybe Jesus will come help people fill sandbags after His rain.
Good grief! Is this really true?
Do the IVC instructors who teach there have to be Christian? Do they choose to teach there or are they assigned? When they are assigned, are they queried on their faith - if any? If they have none or not the right one, are they still assigned?
7:45, early in the existence of the program, part-timers volunteered for the assignment, and not all were accepted by Crean (one at least was discouraged from continuing--or worse; not sure). At least some, and perhaps all, were confronted with the form that presented the Lutheran Church's "statement of faith" and were asked to indicate which elements they did not "support." That made at least some of the adjuncts uncomfortable. Some faculty were asked to teach courses for which they did not possess the necessary degrees; and they actually taught those courses. Word of some of these irregularities eventually got back to the college, and, eventually, steps were taken to cease the practices and to correct/undue the issue of courses taught by unqualified instructors. As usual, most of this occurred below the radar, and when DtB found out about some of it, we let people know, but only because, as usual, administration was determined to keep it from faculty and other critical eyes. DtB deliberately did not report the severest problems (that we know about) until the recent post. Top IVC administration have quite a record of initiating and running instructional programs while preventing, circumventing or ignoring faculty oversight, knowing, of course, that faculty would likely object to such things as Crean, Early College, etc., owing to the obvious foreseeable problems with high school kids and the mix of religion and college instruction--and the potential for bullying part-timers.
Would you write the same things if IVC worked with a Buddhism, perhaps Hindu or better yet a Muslim school?
I have not heard you write about the various religious asivc school clubs that have religious associations.
Clubs are different from curriculum. Students CHOOSE to join clubs. Faculty CHOOSE to advsie clubs.
2:00, why would I not write the same things?
With regard to clubs: as 6:53 notes, the student club situation is not analogous to the situations discussed in this post. I am having difficulty understanding why you think them similar.
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