By Chris Faulkner
Ryan Smith, the new principal at Great River Christian School, came here from Hillsboro, Ore., part of the major metropolitan area of Portland.
When he and his family of five arrived in Burlington, he learned about what many people call “Iowa nice.”
“Upon getting here,” Smith said, “my wife and I mentioned to people we were new here.” He was surprised at “the amount of people who said, ‘Oh, really? You should check this out.’ ”
Then people found out that Ryan and Judy Smith have three children: Nowel, 16, Rowan, 13, and Lewis, 10.
“ ‘You should check this out. This is great for families,’ ” Smith was told.
“There’s a lot more going on than I realized at first.”
Smith has taught for the last 21 years at Christian schools, most recently in Hillsboro, but he has a master’s degree in education and administration and a principal’s certificate from the Association of Christian Schools International.
It was through searching on the ACSI job board for administrative positions that he found the Great River Christian School job.
“Within three weeks, I had three different interviews,” Smith said, and he accepted the job offer.
Smith said it may be the standard thing to say, but he really means it: “One of the things I love about the school is our teachers. I’ve had to hire two new teachers, but the rest of our teachers are veterans here. They are some of the most wonderful teachers. They have a heart for students.”
The current enrollment is 46 students, from 3-year-olds in the early childhood class to high school, but Smith said sometimes people move into town late in the summer and enroll at the last minute.
Smith said he doesn’t want to change some of the traditions, such as the annual hog roast fundraiser on Nov. 1.
But he does want to do more to start “get our name out,” Smith said, “getting more involved in the community, us reaching out.”
Biblical Worldview
The reason Smith has stayed committed to teaching and leading in Christian schools is because of the biblical worldview that forms his Christian faith.
“The biblical worldview I find when I read the Bible integrates everything,” Smith said. “Somewhere in the Bible, it references everything.”
Although the internet isn’t mentioned, he said, “but how we are to treat people,” which is easily seen on the world wide web.
“When I look around, the public school is not an easy way to do that,” Smith said. “Just outside Portland, it was impossible. I know Christians who work in the public schools, and God bless them.”
“But a Christian school lets us do that,” he said of teaching a biblical worldview.
Smith said that isn’t just offering devotions.
“The Bible talks a lot about the world around us,” Smith said. “Look at the design elements and how that works with what you find in science.”
He quoted a French mathematical physicist, Paul Dirac, as saying, “God spoke the world into being using mathematics.”
“That’s a biblical worldview,” Smith said. “How does that affect math? We don’t have to be sneaky about it, subtle about it. Sometimes, the kids will come up with some connection that I would have thought of. That blesses us as teachers."