Just kidding.
I went to this home school extravaganza on Friday. I stopped by to see my daughter, Ava, who was tagging along with some friends (Thanks, Wallaces!). Truthfully, I was looking for more ammunition for another home school rant. I was trying to fine tune my argument by verifying that home schoolers are indeed a little out of touch.
I was shocked.
I only saw two tight pairs of jogging pants with Walmart shoes. Only two sets of kids trading Lord of the Rings cards in the corner (this is the Christian version of Dungeons and Dragons). Everyone else, for the most part, I probably could not pick out of a crowd as home schoolers.
I think this goes to show that the tides are turning a little. Home school moms are more culturally savvy than ten years ago, taking care to make sure their kids don't get out of touch with what's going on "out there."
I will also say that I'm pretty sure I wasn't giving speeches as a first, second, or even fourth grader. These kids are having to do research, organize thoughts, and communicate effectively in front of a group of people. That's about as practical as education gets...
So chalk it up for the home school team.
Current Tally:
Home school 2 (This and Erin Meschke's response)
Public school 4 (I'm not sure how we got four points, but we're still in the lead by a close margin)
Christian school -2 (The two Christian butt heads I met the other day... a blog soon to come on that topic)
Anyone want to go to bat for the Christian schoolers?
4 comments:
Christian school... Eeek... I went to one in California so kindergarten-2nd grade (the only reason I did was cuz my mom thought the Cali Public System sucked, was full of drugs, gangs, and other crap; who knows, it wouldn't surprise me). They're aiiiiiiiiight I suppose maybe in grade school but like that's about it. There is such a mixed crowd that it seems they produce (and generally like not good crowds: you have the kids who don't want to be there and are nuts but in secret, the fundamentalist crowd, but you do have some solid normal kids as well); I wouldn't really want to be a part of that. It's also a label you gotta carry too. And there's still high schools out there called the Crusaders; how ridiculous is that? One is the worst moments in Christian history is being celebrated in a nickname. Weird...
I went to a Christian school, pre-school through graduation.
I graduated with 7. And then went on to Iowa State, where I fit in pretty normally, I think, I may need to give some credit to my brother, Eric for introducing me to people and taking me to Salt Company and Freshman Group.
I know for sure that 3 of us follow Jesus. I don't know about the other 4 because I didn't keep in touch with them.
I would say, that a Christian school has pros and cons. I know there were some kids there who got kicked out of every other school and ended up kicked out of ours as well. There were definitely kids who drank, who did drugs. I don't think a Christian school (at least the one that I attended) shelters you from everything, but I did have a pretty awesome Bible teacher. It was actually a discipleship group for seniors.
But, I would still say that I became a serious Jesus follower in college. The foundation was laid and laid very well, but in college, it became more my choice.
And, I would still consider sending my kids to Christian school. And, I am still undecided on homeschooling. I think it depends on the family, the mom and the individual child.
My biggest drawback to homeschooling is that I am not sure I have the patience for it!
I heard about this post from a friend and thought I'd put in my two cents about Christian schools- I went to one pre-k through 12th and it was my home church too.
Socially, the only way to survive Christian school is to have friends elsewhere. I graduated with 15 kids and only 3 others were girls. I loved the opportunity to play sports (since I'm really a clutz), and pretty much do all the activities it had to offer. I had quite a few friends who would take a class or two at the public school up the hill if ours didn't offer it, so that wasn't so bad either.
I definitely agree with kiki about the fact that going to a Christian school does not make you a Christian, and there will be kids who are sent there as a sort of reform schooling. You really do have to decide for yourself as is the case anywhere. What I didn't like was not having the opportunity to witness to others. That is actually one of my favorite things about Iowa State. It's spiritually challenging.
I do, however, think that Christian schooling gave me a great spiritual foundation so I can share my faith and know why I believe it. Highschool Bible classes were things like Apologetics, Old and New Testament survey, Romans...I learned a lot that I use now.
The choice is obviously up to the parents according to each child, but I have to say, I really appreciated not having to see people make out in the halls or swear every five minutes. I miss that lol.
See you at ToG!
~Rachel
I went to schools run by the Christian Reformed Church for my k-12 education. The grade schools were small, but I had 80 classmates in high school, all of them very normal, well-adjusted people. I don't know about other Christian schools, but I'm pretty sure CRC schools put public schools to shame academically.
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