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“Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.” – Jack Kerouac

House System

The objective behind the House System is to inculcate a spirit of excellence amidst healthy competition amongst students of different houses there by fabricating strong individualistic traits in each student.

Each House is headed by the Captain and Prefects. A member of the teaching staff is in-charge of a particular house. He /She is called the House Master / House Mistress. They lead the house with the help of the teachers belonging to the corresponding house.

Inter House competitions are organized in various curricular and co-curricular activities. The House System fosters a spirit of co-operation and healthy competition. A running trophy is awarded to the House which gains maximum points in that year.

There are four houses named – Daniel House, David House, Moses House and Solomon House.


DANIEL HOUSE

Daniel House owes its name to the famous servant of God, Daniel who is famous because of his immense and everlasting faith in God.

Daniel was a young man of deep convictions. He knew and understood the ways of God, even in his youth. He must have spent much of his young life studying the law because he knew it well by the time he was taken captive into Babylon. Daniel knew the importance of remaining pure and undefiled, even in a culture that was saturated with pagan practices and idol worship. It was because of his love for God and his commitment to purity that God entrusted Daniel with the ability to understand and interpret dreams and visions. And this divine ability served him well many times during Daniel's service to the king.

Daniel was among the Israelites taken captive from Jerusalem when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon besieged it. Yet despite the unfair circumstances, his faith remained strong. Daniel was selected to be part of the king's court because he met certain criteria according to the king's request. The men chosen were to be ones "in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king's palace."

Daniel, even as a youth, displayed these characteristics. He already was considered one of the best of the best. But because of Daniel's obedient and submissive heart, God took him and made him better. In fact, the Bible says that in wisdom and understanding, Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshac, and Abed-nego, were 10 times better than any of the magicians and astrologers in the entire empire.

Daniel's new life in a foreign land included instruction in both the language and literature of the Babylonians. As an important officer in the king's court, Daniel was exposed daily to the riches, the luxury, and all the other seductions of the Babylonian Empire. Yet he was determined to remain consecrated, not partaking of the delicacies provided to him by the king. To refuse the provisions meant sure consequences for him and for those overseeing his instruction. Yet Daniel remained steadfast, knowing that God would honor his choice to obey divine law rather than the laws of men.

Daniel had a greater respect for and fear of God than he did of the king. Knowing and believing that God would use him, Daniel kept his focus on God. In both the Babylon and the Persian Empires, Daniel was made great in the eyes of the kings and fellow men. The supernatural miracles that occurred in Daniel's life were recognized as ones that only the God of heaven and earth could do. To have the ability to not only interpret a dream but to state the dream without having prior foreknowledge, or to interpret the writings on the wall made by the finger of God, or to be rescued from the mouths of lions, are all displays of the faith of a man who, from his youth, determined to learn and follow the ways of God.


David HOUSE

David House is named after the famous King of Israel. He was anointed as the King because of his courage and faith in God.

David was the second King of Israel in Biblical times. Scholars usually place his life around the turn of the eleventh century BC. David's story is told in the Bible in the First and Second Books of Samuel. David is also credited with having written most of the Book of Psalms.

The story of David's life and kingship begins when the prophet Samuel visits his father, Jesse, at their home town in Bethlehem. Samuel informs Jesse that Saul, the King of Israel, no longer enjoys God's confidence, and that God has chosen one of Jesse's sons to replace him. Samuel has come to anoint God's chosen one, but after meeting all of Jesse's sons he finds that he can anoint none of them. Jesse admits that his youngest son, David, is out working in the fields; Jesse had not summoned him because he assumed the youngest son was not significant. Samuel finds that David , is God's chosen one and anoints him.

War breaks out with the Philistines and David's brothers go to war. David visits the front to bring them gifts from Jesse. On one such occasion, he attracts the attention of Saul by playing music so sweet that it soothes the king's restless spirit. Then, when the Philistine champion Goliath challenges the Israelites to send a champion to fight him, only David is willing to accept the challenge. He defeats Goliath without any weapons beyond a sling and stones, and with his faith that God will allow him to triumph. This victory is so unlikely that Philistine resistance collapses and David's reputation as a great and holy man is established.

Saul rewards David generously, even allowing him to marry his daughter, Michal. However, Saul soon grows jealous of David when he realizes that the young man is more popular than the king himself. Saul attempts to kill David, and David must flee into exile. However, much of the Israelite army is loyal to David, and fights to defend him. David refuses to kill Saul, believing the older man remains God's anointed king for as long as he lives. When Saul is killed in battle against resurgent Philistines, and his sons with him, David assumes the crown.

His passionate devotion to God also brings him to lead a spiritual revival, and piety in Israel reaches its highest pitch since the time of Moses. God is pleased and protects the kingdom, allowing it to thrive.

David's reign lasts forty years. His son Solomon succeeds him, and under Solomon Israel's economy grows very rapidly, while the kingdom enjoys forty years of peace. However, while Solomon originally continues his father's religious policies, he eventually allows paganism to creep back into Israel. Most of David's descendants are impious kings who disrupt God's relationship with His people, but out of respect for David, God continues to allow them to reign for about four centuries, until Judah is conquered by Babylon. Eventually, Jesus is born as a direct descendant of David.


MOSES HOUSE

Moses House is named after the great patriarch of Israel who was chosen by God to lead his people out of Egypt, freed from the bondage to the Egyptians.

Moses was an early Biblical Hebrew religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, military leader and historian. Much of the material in the Torah is traditionally attributed to Moses. He is also an important prophet in Islam and the Bahá'í Faith.

According to the book of Exodus, Moses was born to a Hebrew mother who hid him when a Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and ended up being adopted into the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave master, he fled and became a shepherd, and was later commanded by God to deliver the Hebrews from slavery. After the Ten Plagues were unleashed upon Egypt, he led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and in the desert for 40 years. Despite living to 120, he did not enter the Land of Israel, as he disobeyed God when God instructed him on how to bring forth water from a rock in the desert.


SOLOMON HOUSE

Solomon House is named after the famous King of the Bible, renowned for his wisdom and justice.

Before David dies, he appoints as king his son Solomon, who is 12 years old at the time, with these words: "I go the way of all the earth. You shall be strong, therefore, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes and His commandments and His testimonies. As it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn." (1 King 2:2-3)

This classic blessing is often quoted by fathers to their sons on the day of their Bar Mitzvah. It restates the cardinal rule that has guided the Jewish people from the time of the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai: in order to prosper keep the Torah.

Shortly after Solomon is anointed king, God appears to him in a dream in which He invites Solomon to make a request for himself. Solomon answers:
"I am but a small child ... Give therefore your servant an understanding heart to judge your people..."

His request pleases God who tells him: "Because you have not requested riches and honor but only that which would benefit all the people, I will give you not only an understanding heart like none other before or after you ... but also riches and honor like no other king in your days." (1 Kings 3:7-13)

Born in 848 BCE, Solomon dies at age 52 in 796 BCE, ruling as king for 40 years -- the best years in all of Israel's history -- 40 years of peace and prosperity. He is known as chacham mi'kol ha'adam, "wisest of all the men." The Bible relates that kings from all over the world came to hear his wisdom, which included not only Torah wisdom, but also wisdom in secular knowledge and science. 1 His fame spread through all the surrounding nations. He composed 3,000 parables, and 1,005 poems. He discoursed about trees, from the cedars of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows from the wall. He also discoursed about animals, birds, creeping things and fish. Men of all nations came to hear Solomon's wisdom, as did all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 5:11-14)

The crowning achievement of Solomon's reign is the building of the Temple which his father, King David, had dreamt about. As we learned in the last installment in this series, King David brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem's Mount Moriah -- "the gate of heaven" -- but because he had been a warrior who had blood on his hands, he was not permitted by God to erect the Temple. However, this is left for his son to accomplish, which he does.

He was of the greatest leaders of the Jewish people, a man on his spiritual level -- who wrote the Song of Songs, the Book of Ecclesiastes, and the Book of Proverbs.

Not only is criticism of Solomon harsh, but as with other great Jewish leaders, so are the consequences of his mistakes. The Bible ends Solomon's story relating that God was angry with him and told him that since he had not kept God’s covenant and decrees as commanded by God, his kingdom would be taken away from him and given to one of his subordinates.