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Public Schools: The Right Choice for My
Family It was interesting for me to read Gabby’s column and the responses about how to choose the right educational opportunities for our children. It made me want to tell a bit of my own story. My siblings and I were educated in the public school system. To be honest, there weren’t any valid choices in those days and I don’t believe our parents even considered any other options. This was a long time ago, granted, but the negative attention we received for looking old-fashioned in our long dresses (during the days when all the girls were in mini skirts) was hard. People yelled across the busy hallways, “Hey, Granny, why are your skirts so long?” We learned to smile to cover our embarrassment and continue to be who we were. It made us strong¾from the inside out. Not only did it make us strong, it made us soul winners. My sisters and I won over thirty young people to the Lord during our middle and high school years. Fast forward to the next generation. I was a young mom, hearing for the first time about home schooling. (Private school was never an option for us financially.) It sounded intriguing and I knew I would definitely be good at it. Besides, I’d heard all the terrible stories about the public school system. How could I send my innocent little baby girl out there to face the world? But then I’d remember my own years in public school and remember the lives that were influenced every day by my Christianity. How could I take that opportunity away from my own daughter? So, in the end, Karly and her cousin Nate, who lived nearby, went off together to the public school’s kindergarten. Was it wonderful? No. Was it terrible? No. It was just okay, although it made me nervous because that school didn’t “allow” parent volunteers, and I wanted to know what was happening at the place where my daughter spent so much of her day. A couple of years later we moved to another district. By this time, I had two daughters in school and a third one who was still a baby in my arms. I decided to attend a PTO (our district’s version of PTA) meeting. At that meeting, I began to learn about the school. I heard about what was happening there and in the district. There was also a friendly give and take between the principal and the parents, which surprised me. I soon found out that parent volunteers were welcomed and acknowledged as the backbone of this school district. And they wanted parents for more than just fund-raising and event planning. They welcomed parents into the classrooms to listen to little first and second graders read aloud. They welcomed parents’ help with math, social studies, science, library, music, art, and physical education. So, where did I end up more often than not? At the public school. Being a Christian. Listening to little kids read and helping to grade math papers. My ultimate goal in getting involved had two sides. I wanted to know the teachers and the administrators and how the school was run. I also wanted them to know me. Not just as a radically Christian parent who was constantly looking for the negative to complain about, but as Karen, the radically Christian mom who supported the school by serving spaghetti at the fund-raiser, who listened to little kids read, who collected tickets at the play. That way, when a problem arose (as I was sure it would) they’d be dealing with someone they knew as a friend and not as a foe. My involvement also smoothed the way for my children when they did something questionable. Several times, my daughters’ teachers called me to discuss some difficulty, but because we were already friends, it was easy to discover a solution together. When a teacher suggested that we test one of my daughters for learning disabilities, it was easy to agree, since I already knew and trusted that teacher from all my years of working with her. (Testing was the best thing we did for our daughter, by the way. She recently graduated high school and is now tackling college.) From the time my girls were innocent little five year-olds, they’ve answered curious questions about the way they dress and about the things they do (and don’t do). Actually, the other little five year-olds were also innocent and the way they questioned my daughters was sweet. And later, by the time they were all in the midst of the gigantic peer pressure of the teen years, their friends were encouraging them to continue in their beliefs. One day, my daughter went to school with her hair curled more than usual and up on her head. Several people asked her, aghast, “Oh, no! You didn’t cut your hair, did you?” And when she told them that she’d just pinned it up, each was relieved. The high school girls’ choir dresses were chosen with my daughter in mind. Why? Because I was there at the meeting when the choice was made. And when they first chose the “really cute” tuxedo outfit for the girls’ choir, all I had to say was, “The tuxedo is cute, but, of course Karly will need to wear hers with a long skirt instead of the pants.” Immediately they changed their mind, saying, “Oh, we forgot about Karly. Of course, we’ll choose a dress!” Several generations of girls’ choir members have worn the same style choir dress even though the girl it was chosen for graduated several years ago. I’ve stayed involved in the schools all through my daughters’ years there. (And I have two and a half more years to go.) I spent three years as the PTO president at the elementary school and worked on the executive PTO board during my middle school parenting years. At the high school level, I’ve also stayed on the executive board, spending one year as president. I even worked for three years as a district level volunteer. So has the public school choice been perfect? Not at all. But it was right for my children. They’ve faced different types of public school problems than I ever did. Yet each has stood strong and has continued the family tradition of soul winning. And because of our years of involvement, hundreds of people, from students to teachers to administrators to other parents, have been impacted by my family’s unflinching Christianity. We’ve had students, parents, school board members, teachers, and principals visiting in our church because of us. If I’d never gotten involved in the schools, those people probably wouldn’t even know our church existed. If I could have my way, I’d make sure every single public school had “on-fire” Apostolics working, volunteering, and attending them. It’s such an open door for us. Who knows what an impact we could all have? I guess that was the bottom line for our family. The ongoing decision for us has been less about how public school might affect our children for evil and more about how our children could influence their schools for good. I think we’ve been successful in that endeavor.
ninetyandnine.com © 2003, Karen (Gordon) Hemmes --------- Karen (Gordon) Hemmes is one of the six singing Gordon Sisters (www.gordonsisters.com). She juggles her full-time job, volunteer commitments at her church, her homeowner’s association, and Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, Colorado, with touring all over the country in the company of her sisters. Sometimes, she even finds time to vacuum her living room. |
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