{"id":2794,"date":"2008-09-20T22:41:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-20T22:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/maybe-its-because-theyre-praying-to-pass-finals.html"},"modified":"2008-09-20T22:41:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-20T22:41:00","slug":"maybe-its-because-theyre-praying-to-pass-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/maybe-its-because-theyre-praying-to-pass-finals.html","title":{"rendered":"Maybe it’s because they’re praying to pass finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just in time for the start of the school year, a study<\/a> reports that kids who attend church regularly get higher grades: <\/p>\n

In the nearly 24 years Carolyn Knight has been director of children\u2019s ministries at the United Methodist Church in Mitchell, she has seen the number of children participating in youth groups and summer church camps decline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to send 150 people to camps and it\u2019s probably half now,\u201d Knight said. \u201cYou really have to start thinking outside of the box to try to find ways to hang on to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfortunate, says Knight, who can quickly list reasons she feels children should be involved in the church, ranging from the sense of trust gained from fellowship to the morals associated with a Christian lifestyle.<\/p>\n

A study released earlier this summer points out one more possible advantage: Academic achievement above and beyond that attained by kids who don\u2019t attend regular services.<\/p>\n

According to a study conducted by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, students who attend church tend to have a .144 higher grade-point average than students who do not attend services.<\/p>\n

The study recently was quoted in a story published by the Press-Citizen of Iowa City, Iowa, as well as a piece posted on the Web site livescience.com.<\/p>\n

Knight said she isn\u2019t surprised by the study\u2019s claims. She believes families dedicated to attending weekly services are also more attentive to their child\u2019s academic performance.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Larry Regynski of Holy Family Church in Mitchell agrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re looking at why kids drop out of school, you find it\u2019s probably related to not a lot of parental support,\u201d he said. \u201cI think there\u2019s kind of a trickle-down effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dirk Hagmaier, youth and family pastor at First Lutheran Church, works with the United Methodist Church to bring in guest speakers who touch on such sensitive topics as drugs, alcohol and sexuality.<\/p>\n

Hagmaier said the speakers educate church-going children about the dangers and temptations that often lead to poor academic performance or the decision to drop out of school. That motivational effort by itself helps, he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also important for the church to provide strong role models to students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe it\u2019s being a good example,\u201d Hagmaier said. \u201cYou can talk the talk, but if you don\u2019t show the children how to live a healthy life, it\u2019s really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

The First Lutheran Church and the United Methodist Church also have combined forces to offer a mentoring program, scheduled to begin on Oct. 8. Anne Anderson, director of youth ministries at the First Lutheran Church, has already started her role as mentor for a student.<\/p>\n

The program is designed to provide a positive role model that will assist the student with personal wellness, Anderson said. The better a student feels, she theorizes, the better their academic performance will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a proven fact in education that if a person feels good about themselves \u2026 it would have a positive effect academically,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cIf we can provide another caring adult in their lives, their success in life goes way up. It\u2019s a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other findings about church attendance and academic performance, according to livescience.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

+ Church-going students have a more than 60 percent greater chance of making the decision not to drop out of school.<\/p>\n

+ Kids who attend church are more likely to have friends with higher GPAs and also skip school less often than students who do not attend church.<\/p>\n

Joe Graves, superintendent of the Mitchell School District and a Roman Catholic deacon, said the study makes sense. While Graves said church attendance isn\u2019t a \u201clitmus test\u201d for how a child will do in school, he does see the connection between church attendance and academic performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when you have that sense of faith, you have a sense that you are here for a purpose. You are here, in some sense, for serving,\u201d Graves said. \u201cIn order to maximize what God\u2019s given you, you\u2019ve got to pursue things in your life that will make you better prepared to do so.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just in time for the start of the school year, a study reports that kids who attend church regularly get higher grades: In the nearly 24 years Carolyn Knight has been director of children\u2019s ministries at the United Methodist Church in Mitchell, she has seen the number of children participating in youth groups and summer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-people-in-the-pews","category-this-and-that"],"yoast_head":"\nMaybe it's because they're praying to pass finals - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/maybe-its-because-theyre-praying-to-pass-finals.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maybe it's because they're praying to pass finals - 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2794\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}