REBEKAH ALEXANDER
By Dave Roberts
Rebekah Alexander has a remarkable
story to tell. Right now she is the Principal at
Hope Christian College, located in Roelands. How
she got there is kind of one of those whole of life
stories, and it makes sense to start from the beginning.
Rebekah was born in Kentucky, in the
USA. Some time later she married Paul Alexander
in Indiana. Rebekah and Paul have eight children,
ranging from 24 years of age to 3. When you meet
them, they're clearly Americans, so how come four
of their children are Australian? Paul and Rebekah
are serious about being Christians, and some time
ago Paul was convinced that God wanted him to come
to Australia and plant churches. With very little
formal training, and no financial support, they
loaded the already substantial family and headed
for Melbourne. Rebekah says that this career has
never been about the money, and they've always known
that the same God who sent them would figure out
how to feed, clothe, and house them. Who am I to
argue, they look well fed to me.
Through his time as a church planter
(that's starting a church from scratch), Paul has
always had to work for his living to keep the family,
and has held a range of jobs. The apostle Paul in
the New Testament was a tent maker, and supported
himself that way while preaching across the world,
and the process has been called tent making ever
since.
About seven years ago, the Alexanders
moved to Brunswick Junction, and started a church
there. They had home schooled the children at a
number of points but at this time were enrolled
in the local public school. One of the children
was having difficulties, and a teacher suggested
they get in contact with a new school opening in
Eaton. By now we had reached 1998. The new school
happened to be a number of home-schooler's who had
a belief that they could band together and produce
something special using skilled staff in their ranks,
and formally deliver a high academic level with
Christian Curriculum. The school commenced formal
operations in Roelands in 1999. For three terms
they ran out of the Roelands hall.
The Roelands community have been very
supportive of Hope Christian College, and there
has always been an expectation that they could run
out of the old Roelands Government School, which
has been closed and the students now attend Burekup.
As we all expect, dealing with a bureaucracy like
the Education system in WA takes a while, and the
community came up with the hall as alternative accommodation.
Rebekah meanwhile had seized the opportunity,
and taken the role at Hope..... as a cleaner. There
were 17 students in the first year, and the teaching
faculty was full, but Rebekah saw a role to play,
and in keeping with her philosophy that you do what
God has for you to do, she threw herself into the
task at hand.
Before very long, the board at the
school asked Rebekah to take on a teaching role
with the grade 1 and 2 students. Some time later,
the principal was transferred away and Rebekah was
asked to consider taking the helm. To cut a much
longer story short, Rebekah Alexander was now at
the helm of an established, growing school.
The school has been breaking ground
ever since it started. Many people said that running
a Christian Curriculum just couldn't get students
all the way to tertiary entrance. That has since
happened. Many said that academic standards would
not be up to scratch. Rebekah points to the school's
participation in national testing by the University
of New South Wales. All students from year 3 - 12
take part in the testing and depending on which
subject, this year's results have shown 10% to 15%
of students receiving Distinctions and High Distinctions.
The tests benchmark the school's performance against
the state and national average, and show individual
students how they are going not just within the
small school, but in a national sense.
Rebekah's achievement at Hope seems
to be the balance between pushing students hard
enough to get their own best in academic terms,
and developing the character. There is no question
that character is the real goal, but this school
doesn't accept that you have to give up academic
rigour to achieve that, in fact pressing on to a
goal is part of the process. If a young person is
destined to choose a path that doesn't include much
academia, those choices are acknowledged, but there
is never any acceptance that you give up your dreams
to be a rocket scientist if you go to Hope.
She's quick to note that the staff
have been incredibly supportive. Rebekah is the
least qualified teacher on the faculty, and her
leadership has involved a complete change in the
curriculum, and some significant policy developments.
For those more qualified to understand and accept
the changes shows a level of graciousness that she's
clearly very grateful for. The staff are not all
from one part of the church either. There is a range
of Christian denominations represented, and it is
school policy that no one is to proselytise. From
Rebekah's point of view that is something that makes
it easy for all staff to get on with the job without
pressure to make their own stance clear.
The school is small, but growth has
been steady. Having had four years to "build
a foundation", both Rebekah and the board feel
that the next challenge is likely to have good growth
numbers. It is still a school which seeks to work
with the parents' Christian input, not provide it
instead, so it won't be for everyone, but the need
for this approach is touching a chord across the
region, so we expect to see it grow.
As for Rebekah, the fit seems quite
comfortable for now, and she may well be at the
school for a long time, but it's clear that she's
taking orders from somewhere else, and no one can
be sure whether the Alexander family will get another
call some time and if that's the case, only God
knows where they'll end up.
The school can be contacted during
term times on 9726 3613 or via email at hopecc@geo.net.au.
October 2002
