Editorial

This week I thought it would be timely to include a letter from a previous MECS Principal to our community in relation to being a part of our association. If this letter strikes a chord, please contact the office to establish your interest in joining our association! - Michelle

Dear MECS Community, 

Most people find having their children enrolled at MECS a great blessing for their family. There are many reasons for this, but by no means the least is the fact that MECS believes its purpose is to be a servant to parents in the education of their children. As a result, parents usually find they are drawn into partnership with their children’s teachers. They are consulted and their views are given weight. 

There is, however, another and deeper level of partnership available at MECS between home and school. Christian parents can become members of the association which has corporate ownership over the school. The official title is the 'Association of Parents for Christian Education, Mount Evelyn'. (It can only be Christian parents who take this step since Association membership requires agreement with its Educational Creed that includes the central elements of Christian faith.) 

Why should a perfectly satisfied parent of children attending MECS take this additional step, incurring a small financial cost and an obligation to attend meetings and support the school in prayer? There are good reasons. 

First, responsible parenting includes doing everything reasonably possible to shape one’s children’s education positively, particularly to ensure that there is consistency between the religious perspectives of home and school and that those who teach their children share this perspective. This Christian perspective is the responsibility of the Board of the Association, answerable to the members. 

If parents shun this responsibility and decline the opportunity to share the responsibility, membership would decline and the potential for the school to move away from its Christian foundation could arise. Many schools and tertiary institutions over the years have commenced with firm Christian purposes but, through apathy, no longer continue on a God-honouring path. Active membership is a good protection against creeping apathy and to ensure the qualities of the school that currently give so much satisfaction are not lost. 

Membership instils the pride of ownership. Why is MECS such a warm and vibrant community? It is not a ‘rented’ school, it is owned by its families in a very real sense in that the majority are members of the Association which ‘holds the title deeds'. When one drives along a street in which rental accommodation is interspersed with freehold it is often clear which properties receive that extra measure of care that arises out of the pride of ownership. MECS enjoys this effect, not only in terms of its gardens and outward maintenance but perhaps, more importantly, also in the body life of the community that lives within it. 

All parents who can should be encouraged warmly to move closer to the school through becoming members of its association. You won’t be treated any differently by becoming a member. It is not a matter of status. However, you will feel differently about the school and be more likely to find yourself motivated to improve, promote and defend the school. Warm affection for the community can become passionate love for it through the induction to membership. It becomes ‘your school’ not because you pay fees but because you have ownership in a very real sense. 

Stewart Miller

Past Principal but current lover of MECS & member of its Association