What LifeWise Academy’s Lesson Plans Really Teach Children

LifeWise Academy likes to tell school boards and parents that its program is about “character education.” They describe lessons in honesty, respect, and kindness — values that sound harmless, even admirable, in a school setting. But when we look at their actual curriculum, a different story emerges.

One lesson in particular, LifeWise Lesson Plan “LW 75”, titled “Three Parables,” reveals just how much religious indoctrination is woven into what they teach children during the public school day.

In this lesson, leaders are instructed to act out two characters. The first, Ryan, is painted as the “bad” student. He throws fits, steals, calls people names, and is lazy. His final, defining flaw is that he “thinks church is dumb.” By contrast, Amy, the “good” student, is generous, hardworking, polite — and most importantly, she “loves going to church.”

After watching the skit, children are prompted to answer questions such as:

• “Whom do you want for a friend?”
• “Whom does God like more?”

Although the script eventually tacks on the line “God loves everyone,” the message is already delivered: God prefers the obedient, churchgoing child. 

This lesson isn’t aimed at high schoolers who can recognize bias — it’s written for fourth graders, children just nine or ten years old. At that age, kids are still forming their sense of fairness, friendship, and belonging. When authority figures act out a story where the “bad” child rejects church and the “good” child embraces it, those categories stick. Instead of encouraging empathy, the lesson pressures impressionable kids to equate morality with church attendance and to see classmates who believe differently as less desirable friends.

See for yourself: You can watch a recording of this LifeWise skit here: https://youtu.be/fsTD14fGFIs

This isn’t neutral “character education.” It’s a theological lesson about who is acceptable to God, disguised as moral development. For children who don’t attend church, or who come from families with different beliefs, the message is unmistakable: they are being cast in the role of Ryan — the “bad” kid. This isn’t just a lesson plan. It’s a mechanism of stigma, encouraging peers to see non-churchgoers as undesirable friends and less worthy of God’s love.

The harm of this framing goes even deeper. The “bad” behavior assigned to Ryan — throwing fits, ignoring rules, struggling with self-control — closely mirrors the challenges faced by many neurodivergent children. Kids with ADHD, autism, sensory processing differences, or emotional regulation difficulties often display behaviors like Ryan’s not because they are “bad,” but because their brains and bodies work differently. When LifeWise presents these traits as moral failings, and then pairs them with “thinking church is dumb,” it doubles the stigma. Neurodivergent children are not only labeled disruptive or lazy; they are implicitly cast as spiritually deficient. The skit encourages peers to see them not just as difficult classmates, but as “bad friends” — and even less favored by God.

For families of children with disabilities, this is not an abstract concern. Public schools are legally and ethically obligated to support and include all students, including those who need help with sensory regulation, attention, or emotional control. Lesson Plan LW 75 undermines that responsibility by reinforcing the false idea that these differences make a child less worthy. It risks deepening the exclusion, bullying, and marginalization that neurodivergent children already face.

And the danger is not just theoretical. In public schools, where children of all backgrounds learn side by side, lessons like this create division. They foster an environment where some students feel marked as outsiders for their religion, and others for the way they learn or behave. All of this directly contradicts LifeWise’s public claim that its program does not divide or ostracize.

From https://lifewise.org/faq/

What is perhaps most telling is the way church attendance is elevated as the ultimate moral test. Ryan’s fits and Amy’s kindness are part of the script, but the climactic line is the contrast: “Ryan thinks church is dumb, Amy loves going to church.” The true lesson isn’t about kindness, honesty, or effort. It is about religious devotion. The moral of the story is simple: going to church makes you good, and rejecting church makes you bad.

But public schools exist to serve every child equally, regardless of faith or ability. They are supposed to be places where children are valued for who they are, not divided into categories of “good” and “bad” based on religion or disability. When released-time religious programs like LifeWise insert lessons like this into the school day, they undermine that mission. They blur the line between church and state, and they teach children that their worth depends on whether they embrace a particular religion.

This is not character education. It is indoctrination — and it is happening under the watch of public school systems that should be protecting inclusivity and fairness. Parents deserve to know what’s really being taught. School boards deserve to see past the talking points. And most importantly, students deserve schools and peers that affirm their dignity, regardless of belief or neurodivergence.

Going to church doesn’t make a child “good.” Not going to church doesn’t make a child “bad.” Having sensory issues, ADHD, or autism doesn’t make a child less worthy of respect. Every child has worth. Every child has dignity. And every child deserves a public education free from religious coercion. That is the promise of our schools — and it’s one worth defending.