Guest Post: Private School Choice Part 4 or 5

By Brenda Buzzard

Parenting should require a degree!  You give birth to a baby and just as you finally master juggling feeding, nap-time, cleaning, bedtime, play-dates and Dr visits, someone asks: “So….where are you sending them to school?”  School?!  It took me a year to decide between Pampers and Huggies! Could I handle sending my precious child away for even part of a day!  How to decide? I never had a class on this! We both knew, however, just how important this decision was for our child.

Terry and I had both attended public schools all the way through high school, but both attended Christian colleges. But times have changed, as they say.  Locally, there were budget and educational quality issues.  There were safety issues in the public school system.  We also had spiritual concerns with the secular curriculum content. Fortunately, we  did have better choices in educational institutions, both secular and religious.

Knowing there is power in prayer, we prayed.  Knowing there is wisdom in many counselors, we listened to the testimonials of others.  Through this process, we became assured that our primary desire was for a Christ-centered, private education.   We even knew our eldest child’s first teacher from our church!  We were thrilled with our daughter’s experience and so our four subsequent children have followed in the same school.

The backbone of Christian education is the Christian teachers.  I love that Christ can be proclaimed everyday and in every classroom discussion or activity. I love that my children can hear faith stories from other Christian adults and be challenged to walk with Christ.  The teachers have been a great source of encouragement and pray for our children. It is undoubtedly the best financial investment we could make in our children.

Yes, there may be downsides to Christian education. One is the expense. Sacrifices have to be made.  Second, there is complacency. Children can feel “saved” just because they attend and are bathed in Christianity, without feeling a need to make their faith personal. They can hear the gospel daily and yet miss it all.  At times, we have seen our children grow apathetic with religion as they are immersed in it during the school day, then Wednesday night events, and also on Sundays.  I have heard my child say, “I know that verse…I hear it all the time!”  My response would be that we need reminding. Don’t just be a hearer of the word, but a doer of it.  Deuteronomy 6 reminds us to take all opportunities to proclaim God’s word to our children.

It is exciting to know that there are educational choices.  There isn’t a perfect school or a perfect way to “do” school.  One child may need homeschooling and another would love private school.  We have choices and I know the LORD will strengthen our resolve.  He will go before us on this journey and encourage us all along the way.