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This is a response to some of the divisiveness that is permeating our feeds of late. Buckle up?
Our world has myriad educational options. Homeschool, public charters, public non-charters, micros, macros, un-schools, private Christian, private non-Christian, and I’m sure we’ve got some partridges teaching in some pear trees somewhere.
Pretty cool thing is that we now have so many choices. Funding aside – that’s a writing for another day – parents now have the beautiful option to decide what they want for their families in ways that haven’t been available before.
This post, today, is about a choice – my choice – for my children’s schooling and, as it happens, for my employment.
Our community also has several educational options. We’ve got folks who choose public school, which I chose for many years (for my children and for my employment), we have public charters, a few micros, and we have a growing community of homeschools in our area. Additionally, in Sanford, NC, we’ve got a couple of private Christian schools – both of which have been abuzz lately on social media, for various and sundry reasons, some shiny and bright, and some not so great, on both sides of the aisle.
I'm proud to say I work at Lee Christian School.
My daughter attended this place, my son is here now. I have friends working at the other, and I have friends’ whose kids attend the other. I am not here to bash that one; I am here to promote mine. I’ve sat relatively quietly, not really posted much opinion, and pretty much stuck to loyal support of the place I love.
When my daughter was here, right before and during COVID (she graduated in 2020, our current admin’s first year), I didn’t love everything about it. I didn’t love the loosey-goosey ‘pretend’ school feeling of it, and I wasn’t jazzed in any way about the lack of academic rigor that it seemed like she was getting. She was swimming in Jesus, though, she was in smaller classes, and developed some pretty good friendships during her time here. She would say otherwise, but this is my post, not hers, and God’s not done w/ her yet More importantly, and more permanently, some of the staff here loved on her, poured truth into her, and still prays for her to this day.
When that sweet baby graduated, I had been out of work because of my stroke, and I was missing education big time. Not the paperwork and the politics of EC in public school, but the teaching and the kids and the helping of it. I applied for the preschool director job at Lee Christian (which is almost laughable now… me in preK? In charge? God knows what He’s doing, whew…), and in my interview, admin x2 both told me “Nope. We’ve got something else for you. You’ve got EC background, let’s do an EC department here…”
And we did.
We are.
It’s happening.
That was in the summer of 2020.
For two years, I taught literature to the traditional kiddos in high school. While I did that, I collected data, check on kids, talked to teachers, and made plans. It was behind-the-scenes-prep for what was to come. I had no idea what I was doing – still don’t sometimes – but again, God does. Whew.
I was shocked at some of the things we did not have at our school. It frightened me. Especially post-Covid and with the rise of such an increase in ADHD and autism diagnoses – globally and in our area. And, to be honest, I was incredibly jealous of the other school in our area that WAS growing a learning support program- of which a dear, good friend of mine was the director, and for which a couple of long-time colleagues and friends from public school were working. Also, as my insecurity often dictates, I was debilitatingly terrified that I couldn’t possibly do anything close to something as incredible as they were doing over there at that school, with those experts, with those amazingly credentialed folks.
God knew – and Ricabal and Cowfer saw – something different.
I jumped, unsure of whether or not the parachute would deploy.
It did.
In August of 2022, we officially launched our PATHways program. “Pursuing Achievement Through Him” is what our program is about, and we’re finishing up our second year, still in that fervent pursuit of doing things THROUGH HIM.
I say all of that to say this:
My children had (and have) an excellent experience at our school. Other kids have had an equally – or better – experience at our school. Some, on the other hand, despised every moment here. Some families couldn’t get their kids out fast enough. It happens.
Schools- no matter what kind – do not exist to serve the needs of every person who attends them or each family who sends their kids there.
They don’t.
They can’t; it’s just not possible.
Lee Christian has had its fair share of positive and negative press. So have the public schools, so has Grace Christian, and in time, the charters and the homeschools will have their days, too. We hire humans, and with humans, the thing is, we’re all a hot mess. Only One perfect One has ever been here, and until He comes back, it’s slim pickins as far as “flawless” goes. We kinda get what we get, and at a Christian school, we’re doing the best we can to find the humans that align with our beliefs, praying along the way.
If we could get away from this idea that every place on the planet needs to be everything for every person, we would do so much better, seriously. Take a bit, do your research, read, talk to people, and find what works for your family. And while you’re talking and scrolling social media, check your sources- talk to people on both sides… people who have loved it, and people who haven’t.
You try on clothes, you read reviews, you get all sorts of perspectives on coffee, shoes, glasses, protein shakes, vacations, churches…
Same here: find the best fit.
Find the BEST. FIT.
Lee Christian does not in any way get it all right. Nope, we don’t. Again, humans. Our Head of School, all three of us assistant administrators, office staff, teachers, and all the staff there… guess what? HUMAN.
What I can say with emphatic certainty that we DO, though, is take a look at the mistakes, evaluate where we’ve royally gotten it backwards, work together, and make all prayerful attempts at fixing them. We’re growing, we’re learning… and in Christ, thankfully, those are what make us #morethanaschool.
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