Not everyone comes for the same reason. One wants credit for another school. One wants a certificate for finishing. One only wants to sit in and learn.

Run the school on three levels: audit, certificate, credit. Same teaching, same classroom. What is required, recorded, and given at the end changes.

Audit: Come and Listen

Folks can audit the course. An audit student attends, listens, takes notes for himself, and learns. He is not graded. He earns no credit. He owes no homework and sits for no exam, unless he asks to.

Auditing fills seats with hungry people: a busy worker, a mother with little time, an older saint, all learning without a load they cannot carry. Greet them, give them a seat, let them belong. They may start listening and end up enrolling for more.

There is a fee to audit. Say it in advance, in writing. The teacher is paid, the room is kept, materials are printed. The fee says teaching has value, even with no credit.

Certificate: Finish the Course

A student can take the course for a certificate of completion, doing the work in a lighter form: less homework, less stringent rules than the credit student. He attends, reads, writes, finishes what is required, and receives a certificate saying he completed the course.

A certificate is not credit, and must never be called credit. It is proof of completion, an honest honor for a Sunday school teacher, a deacon, a mother with a full house, all wanting to grow. It lets them finish something real, without pretending it was something else.

Name the certificate fee plainly, with the application and matriculation fees, before the term begins, so a student knows the whole cost before he starts.

Credit: The Full Load

For credit, the load is full: attendance, homework, tests, exams, rules. The grade goes in the grade book, the credit on the transcript, where another school can see and trust it.

Credit is a promise, kept in full: reading, investigating, papers, weekly tests, midterm, final. Never give credit for certificate work or audit attendance. Same classroom, different load, different record. Keep the lines clear, and every level stays honest.

Charge for the School, Plainly

Charge for the school. A school that charges nothing soon cannot pay teachers or keep records. Charging plainly is stewardship.

There should be an application fee, for reading the application, checking references, and opening the file. A matriculation fee, marking formal entrance. A per-course fee, for each course taken.

Let people audit, for a fee. Let people take the certificate course, for a fee. Let people take it for credit, for a per-course fee. Set each fee in writing, in the handbook and catalog, before the term begins: what it covers, when due, what happens if late. No hidden costs. A student who knows the cost can pay it gladly. One surprised by fees learns distrust.

Keep money records as carefully as grade records. Receipts given. Accounts kept. Handle both with clean hands.

A Semester Has a Shape

A semester is sixteen weeks long, time to teach, and time to learn, forget, remember, and learn again.

Give a midterm and a final. The midterm shows where he stands, with time to improve. The final shows what he kept. Both test what was taught, fairly. An exam is a mirror, not a trap.

Have homework each week: things to read, things to investigate, papers to write. Homework moves the lesson from the teacher's mouth to the student's hands. Reading fills the mind; investigating teaches him to find answers; writing forces him to use his own words. A week with no homework is half learned.

Give a test each week as they come in, covering the previous week. Start with a short test on last week's lesson, before the new one. It shows what he kept, what needs teaching again, and builds the habit of coming prepared. Teach the new lesson, assign new homework, and the rhythm builds a student.

Keep the Record

All professors keep a grade book: every grade, test, paper, and exam, in one place, as it happens. An up-to-date grade book is a teacher's memory. One kept in a drawer until term's end is a guess. Do not guess with grades.

The school keeps a permanent record in each file: application, grades, courses, credits, ministry reports, kept safe and private. It is the school's word, in writing, about a student's work.

You may be transferring someone's grades to another school. If the record is complete, transfer happens cleanly. If thin or missing, the student retakes work he already did. Keep up with all they do, week by week: attendance, homework, tests, exams, grades, credits. Write it down when it happens, file it where it can be found.

"Let all things be done decently and in order." 1 Corinthians 14:40

Order in the grade book, file, fees, and week is how grace is stewarded, so it reaches the student intact.

Three Levels, One School

Three doors, one school: the audit student learns, the certificate student finishes and is honored, the credit student earns a record another school can trust, all hearing the same teaching.

Charge plainly. Teach steadily for sixteen weeks. Test weekly, examine at midterm and final, assign homework that makes students think. Keep the grade book. Keep the permanent record. Keep up with all they do.



Trust God with the growth. Some will audit and catch fire. Some will finish a certificate and ask for more. Some will earn credit and teach others. All taught well, treated fairly, recorded honestly. That is a school worth building.