Adults can learn a lot from students.
Some exemplary lessons are evident in the approach taken by Calvary Lutheran High School students who are organizing the school's first student government.
The lessons include:
• Examine existing models and assess their success. Calvary students took time to analyze how other student government function. "It's definitely neat to have all the possibilities before you and make it what you want," said senior Craig Wehmeyer, Calvary's inaugural student government president.
• Incorporate what makes your organization unique. Referring to a peer mediation program at the Lutheran school, Wehmeyer said: "We've put our own Christian spin on it, how the Bible tells us to do it."
• Emphasize and encourage candor and fairness. The peer mediation process, for example, is based on New Testament scripture that people should attempt to work out conflicts with each other and, if they cannot, then enlist a neutral third party.
• Be open to change. The student government plans to explore the beneficial uses of social media and establish a four-year project for succeeding freshman classes.
We commend Calvary Lutheran students for diligence and thoroughness.
They have established a student government that stamps the school's unique imprint on a time-honored model. And they have embraced Biblical truths while exploring advances in modern technology.
This school year - Calvary's first in a permanent location - is off to a promising start.