We hear these words a lot in education.  But for Christians who are in the pursuit of bringing God’s kingdom to bear and cultivating this same desire in our children, what should this “preparation for the marketplace” really mean?

Take a look at this graphic from a recent Gallup Survey (full report here):

As a Christian parent, how would you prepare your child for this marketplace?  If you are a student, what excites you about entering this marketplace?

Andrew Kern recently put it this way (forgive my bad paraphrase, Mr. Kern): “As Christian schools we are not in the business of preparing our students to ‘be successful’ in the marketplace, rather we are preparing our students to heal the marketplace.”

As a teacher, this perspective changes everything for me.