Private Education?

Private Christian schools.  Today I was on the bus going back up to the University for my evening class.  After getting on I started to talk to an acquaintance and the High School I attended came up.  I was posed with the question as to why my brother was “grumpy” to partake in actions that had gotten him expelled.  My simple answer: he had no friends.  My acquaintance seemed surprised to hear my quick reply.  It was true though about my High School.  I have very few positive memories from my time at Cedars Christian.  I had few true friends.  I remember when in elementary I begged and begged my mother for years to let me go to the public school.  She thought it would have a better influence on me to keep me at Cedars though.  I don’t know if my experience would have indeed been better as I had envisioned when younger.  But I guess change was better than what I was experiencing so logic told me that it would be better there.

I hate that at my school there was such a harsh divide between those with money and those without money.  If your family had monetary influence you were popular not only amongst your fellow classmates but also with the teachers.  After all the school runs on donations and tuition.  It’s not like the public sector which receives money from the government.  I was the odd child.  I had an imagination and I used it.  I thought outside the box, and my parents were your run of the mill middle-class adults.  They worked hard to provide for us as they did and they did an outstanding job.  They volunteered continually at the school helping with the first expansion and again when they built the cabins to make room for more students.  They came on class feildtrips and went to every student-teacher meeting to make sure that we were recieving the best education available.  All that doesn’t matter in the eyes of a spoiled 8 year old who KNOWS that their family has it.  And that they do get to have what they want.  Maybe I’m being a bit judgmental, I’ll readily admit that.  But my 8 year old self clearly saw the divide between the desired and the undesired.  I wasn’t invited to play at lunch with my classmates, I was relegated to either my own entertainment or to play with the boys.  That didn’t turn out half bad given that it opened my eyes to some of the passions I have today: classical history and literature.

I don’t know where I’m going with this.  I suppose I was surprised by my aquaintences implication that the school I went to seemed to have no problems.  I’d posit that is quite untrue.  There are many students that weren’t/aren’t happy within the confines of its walls.  That is not to say that the teachers were exceptional.  My memories are of the teachers who invested much of their lives into my education.  Mrs. VanCalsteren, Mr. Costley, Mrs. Nemitz, Mrs. Bluemink and so forth.  They CARED about their students and strove to see that they excelled in all they took on.  I would say that I don’t think that I would have excelled as much as I have and neither would have I overcome life’s challenges nearly as well if it wasn’t for their hard work.  They are the memories that I carry with me from my primary and secondary school experiences.  And when I’m personally a teacher I hope and strive to be able to emulate even just one of them.