Next week, some Valley View second graders will leave school during their recess and lunch to participate in LifeWise Academy, a religious instruction program that offers similar school day services to students throughout the state. The program is set to start Tuesday, January 13.

The students will be transported to Germantown Baptist Chapel on Farmersville-Germantown Pike by LifeWise in a van donated by the church. The Christian education sessions, which include stories, games and Biblical lessons, will occur weekly and students will be taught by background-checked instructors and volunteers.

“I see this as the greatest opportunity to reach children that don't normally come to church in my lifetime, until LifeWise, there was no way, no good way,” says Pastor Andy Powell of Baptist Chapel. Pastor Powell serves on the board of the LifeWise Academy Valley View chapter.

“This gives parents the opportunity to have their children taught good ethics, morals, values, in addition to what they're teaching at home,” Powell said. “Students can learn the story of Jesus in a way that’s obviously very open. We want to just teach them the stories. We want them to learn, the values, you know, don't steal, don't lie, don't kill, don't always want what somebody else has got, that kind of stuff. So that's what our focus really is, but it's both church kids and non church kids. And quite frankly, we're hoping some of the non church kids will want to go to church. They can go to any church they choose.”

Community Concerns

And while Pastor Powell, who says he has reviewed the LifeWise curriculum, sees this as an opportunity for reaching students, another local pastor has voiced concerns.

Pastor Mark Anthony of St. Johns United Church of Christ in Germantown has written letters to Valley View Superintendent Andrea Cook voicing concerns over the program and its message. His concerns stem from the use of the school day for religious instruction and the content of the LifeWise lessons.

“They present themselves as being a sort of vanilla, basic, non-controversial sort of Christianity, when there are clearly other forms of Christianity that disagree with what they teach. Progressive Protestants, Roman Catholics in different parts of the country have stepped forward to say they don't want their kids learning this because it's not what they believe,” Anthony said in an interview.

In the interview, Anthony voiced concerns about the LifeWise approach to running their program during the school day.

“They insist it must be done during the school day, and my suspicion is that one of the primary reasons for that is they want these kids to think of what they are teaching them as being part of the school day, so that it is in the kid’s mind,” Anthony noted. “It's the same thing as going to history class or math class or whatever. This is a way of putting sectarian Christian instruction and evangelization into the instruction system of the public schools.”

LifeWise at Valley View

The program at Valley View is starting with second grade students, all of whom must have parental permission to participate. Neither the Superintendent nor LifeWise was able to share the number of participating students at publication time.

Valley View LifeWise program director Heather Moore-Francis noted that second grade was selected because it offers an opportunity to kick off their elementary program with students who are old enough to read independently. “It’s a really fun age,” she noted. “We just wanted them to be old enough to start it, but young enough to have the opportunity to go through our four year curriculum.”

All LifeWise programs, while free to families, are locally funded by donations. Neither Moore-Francis nor Pastor Powell provided information on how LifeWise is being funded for Valley View, but Moore-Francis did say the program had received a start-up grant from LifeWise and that they had received individual donations.

Moore-Francis has big goals for LifeWise at Valley View next school year. “I think there's over 1000 students at Valley View. So our goal would be that every student, every parent, has the opportunity, and we have the capacity just to allow everyone who wants to to enroll their child to take part in this program,” she said.

Moore-Francis said in an interview that the Germantown Methodist Church, also on Farmersville-Germantown Pike, would be a second possible location for the LifeWise program as it expands.

For more information, visit the LifeWise Valley View website and see the Valley View Parents Concerned about LifeWise Facebook page for context on concerns about the program.