An innovative program that brings the Gospel to public school students recently commissioned a study showing the profound benefits that can come from bringing God and faith into children’s lives.
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Joel Penton, founder and CEO of LifeWise Academy and author of “During School Hours: WHY and HOW LifeWise Academy is Reinstalling Religious Education into the Public School Day,” told CBN Digital the research shows how his program, in particular, is positively impacting public school metrics.
Penton’s recently commissioned study juxtaposes schools where LifeWise Academy has been implemented against locations where it has not been put into place.
This is particularly notable considering the decades-long battle over the removal of prayer and faith from schools — something many see as a scourge damaging generations of children and leading to moral denigration.
“When LifeWise is implemented, attendance increases significantly,” Penton said. “Kids are that much more interested in going to school that there’s, in fact, a net increase in class time if LifeWise is implemented.”
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He continued, “Many more kids come to school so much more regularly that they actually get a net increase in class time.”
And that’s not all. Penton said other areas of the educational process are also positively impacted by LifeWise Academy.
“In-school suspension numbers drop and out-of-school suspension numbers drop, as well,” he added. “And, so now it’s a much easier case when we go to principals … and superintendents, even if they’re not Christians to say, ‘Hey, do you want your attendance to go up? Do you want suspensions to go down?Here’s a program that doesn’t cost you a penny; it engages the community and will have this impact.'”
As CBN News previously reported, Penton also addressed the legal structure that permits LifeWise and other programs like it to operate alongside public schools.
“LifeWise Academy provides Bible education to public school students during school hours, which to most people sounds crazy, because of the whole separation of church and state and how the Bible has been removed from the public school day,” Penton said. “But what very few people realize is that, in 1952, the Supreme Court actually ruled that public school students can be released from school during school hours to receive religious instruction.”
Read more about the story behind LifeWise.
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