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Home from Christian School
By Julie W.
We had our child enrolled in a very well-meaning Christian school. Kindergarten went smoothly and was like a dream come true. He learned academically and spiritually and I thought this school thing was a piece of cake. Then came first grade. His teacher in first grade was not the dream teacher of kindergarten, on top of her apparent lacking abilities, she was going through some major health problems. This was a very new school and had a lot of kinks to work out, as we found out along the way. We began hearing wonderful reports on our first grader's reading, how well he could read, etc. However, this child could not read ANYTHING at home. Hmmmm. We began to poke our noses in and found that this school was using the A.C.E. School of Tomorrow curriculum (which I do not feel to be satisfactory, to say the least), and the teacher basically told the children to do however much of the book that they could, get in a line and everyone read the "reading part" of the lesson one after the other. Well, please, by the time my child's turn came, he had memorized what the other children had read/said and was able to fake it. I was angry that I was paying so much for my son to fake it in first grade. I was, in a way, glad I found out about it so early that we could do something about it, though.
I had heard of home schooling and thought I could do it, but was not very confident about it. I was praying and I was scared. When I asked the Lord what He would have me do, I set my bible down on the floor and it opened to a page that contained the following poem:
I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day.
And as my fingers pressed it, still
It moved and yielded to my will.
I came again when days were past:
The bit of clay was hard at last.
The form I gave it still it bore,
And I could fashion it no more!
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently pressed it day by day,
And moulded with my power and art
A young child's soft and yielding heart.
I came again when years had gone:
It was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress bore,
And I could fashion it no more!
-Unknown
Well, that was all I needed. The next day, my husband and I picked up the remainder of our child's curriculum which we had already paid for for the entire year and took him home. We changed to another curriculum the next year and repeated first grade. We have never regretted our decision. It may be hard at times but it is always worth it.
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