Our school is modeled after the biblical picture of the life of Daniel. One of the first questions we hear from new families is, ” Why Daniel ? ” Simply put, we desire to help students become equipped in their minds, bodies, and spirits in order to testify of the Kingdom of Heaven. We firmly believe when we seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and His righteousness, everything else will be added unto us. Families will be restored, grades and academic abilities will increase, and spiritual hunger will be fueled. If you boil down the mandate of our school, we are seeking to help each student discover their God-given identity and become fully equipped to walk it out before God.
The world doesn’t need another Daniel (exactly). What the world needs is for each student to see the unique gift they are bringing and be trained how to deliver that gift to the world around them. In the words of leadership author John C. Maxwell, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.”
Video: “Why Daniel for Our Model in Education?”
In the life of Daniel, we see a young man (around 16 years of age), being taken into a foreign land. Because of his upbringing as a child, he not only survived in Babylon – he thrived. As he served under the king, he represented the Kingdom of Heaven with excellence both in his heart posture, but also in his daily performance. Every time he was examined, he was found performing 10x better than his co-workers. Now that is a testimony! Just imagine what this could look like in education and in the workplace.
We believe the notion of excellence in family partnership education is two fold. First, and most importantly, the Hebrew notion of excellence means, “to be available to be used by God.” As a family partnership private school in Kansas City, we desire to create an environment conducive to students running hard after God. This not your average, run-of-the-mill Christian school. We are setting the stage for individual teenagers to choose to live in a way that testifies of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a place for students who want to run the race, and run it hard. The only way to do this is in the context of healthy community.
Secondly, under the Greek understanding, excellence (teleios) means, “to be perfected into maturity, integrity, and virtue; to not lack in any area of life; to be brought into completeness.” At The Daniel Academy, we seek to enable students to walk out excellence in every expression of life – mind, body and spirit. This impacts relationships, grades, work performance, and community life.
Why Daniel Gives us a Picture of Excellence
When educators are able to effectively partner with families in training young adults, we are able to set the table for God to do miracles in the lives of our children. Seeing these students reach their maximum, God-given potential, is both the goal of teachers and parents alike at The Daniel Academy. We want to see kids winning academically in the classroom, physically in their bodies, and in their individual walks with Jesus. The result of this type of excellence is that students leave TDA upon graduation to become people of influence and leadership. Like Daniel, we want to both KNOW our God, but also see great exploits in the marketplace.
Daniel 1:20 = “and in all manners of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in his realm.”
Daniel 11:32 = “…Those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits.”