Speaking truth about private christian education….
If you’ve struggled with the Christian School/Public School thing. Read this post. We have done the Christian school thing and I couldn’t agree with this statement more:
Whatever my child may face in public school, I can assure you that none of it is subtle. On the other hand, the pernicious nature of the subconscious message of the exclusive private Christian school is the the message of upper-middle-class suburban Evangelicalism: materialism.
Fourth-graders putting condoms on bananas OR materialism. Which one damages the soul more? Which is harder to root out? When the Lexus SUVs pull up to drop the kids off at the private Christian school, are the kids aware of their privilege? When they’re all equipped with the latest iPod, the swankest TI graphing calculator, and the non-stop message that it’s all about them, how can they NOT be?
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Morethanstone,
Thanks for the link to my post over at Cerulean Sanctum. I pray it blesses your readers.
Interesting quote Jamie. I have a lot of struggles with private Christian schools. Though my greatest concern with public schools, which is where are four kids are at, is violence. Our oldest is about to enter middle school next year, and I’m concerned about this.
There’s pros and cons with both, but overall we’ve decided to go with public school.
John,
I don’t know what kind of violence your children have faced in your public schools. Mine have, fortunately, faced very little. I do think that the more subtle materialism was more damaging in a “christian” context, however.
Jamie
DLE,
No problem. I was blessed to read your post! You were able to articulate many of the things that I have thought.
Jamie
My daughter was in a private Christian school until she reached high school, and I agree with the quote. We struggled financially to put her in the school but felt like this particular school resembled the schools we grew up in, and we pulled her out of public schools because of safety concerns. It was in middle school that we saw the over-emphasis on materialism start, and by the time she reached 9th grade she so wanted to be out of there (which was fine with us). She excelled in public high school, and I don’t think she would have been as successful if she had remained in the private school. We have no regrets moving her from a “Christian” school to a public one.
B~
Bruce,
I’m glad to hear that public school worked for your daughter. We, also, had 2 of our girls in a PCS during middle school, then pulled them out for PHS, and we don’t regret it. Our third never went to PCS. It’s an odd closed world in there, methinks.
If you go to a private christian school whos fees are between $13000-$18000, than I can see your point about materialism. My daughter goes to a private christian school in Atlanta where the total of all fees is less than $5000 a year. Some parents are scaping by, because they want a christian education for their kids. I can afford to pay more, but this particulare school is not materialistic and is only there to better the lives of children. I now work at my daughters school doing tours to prospective parents. The stories I hear from parents with kids in public school (especially middle school) make it clear to me that moving my daughter to a private school in 4th grade was the best thing I ever did. Last year, an acquaintence of mine’s son in 8th grade, was caught having oral sex with a female student in the public restroom at the school. This is the same school my daughter would have gone to had we not moved her.
One correction to my previous post….the sex act that occurred was not at my daughters current school. I was at the middle school she would have gone to had we not moved her.