When moving to Nashville we focused on crime rate in areas of town, location to my husband’s employer, location to the church plant, and public school ranking according to a few websites and test scores. A friend and local public school teacher advised me the good schools were the ones where teachers cared. Then she named them off. We found one on her list with a rental property in our price range. We viewed this as a fall back, so if God was leading us into public school, we would be happy with the school choice. I started the process of applying for the lottery drawing for a magnet school, but I had a nagging feeling like God was telling me it was a waste of time and energy as he had other plans for us. This was relieving as it narrowed down the possibilities a great deal, but we still had no idea where he was leading us. We were leaning towards public school at this point, since that was all we had ever experienced.
My husband and I had a similar thought when this all began that went something like this, "we went to public school and turned out fine”. But did we really? His desires in school were to have fun and to do just enough work to pass. I wanted to do as well as I could academically, provided I did not have to study or do more than an hour of homework a day. So I took whatever grades that effort yielded. We mostly focused on popularity and our groups of friends. I would go as far as saying that school was 75% socialization and 25% academics. The gap widened
further by the time we were in high school.
Socialization is an important part of life, but my children already go to play groups, the YMCA, church, and have a large extended family. For this reason, socialization was not on my list of concerns. However, the impact that teachers and children would possibly have on my children in a negative way was a growing concern. Matt and I want to lead our children down straight paths to God. I do not feel like exposure to alternative religious and moral beliefs is good for my 5 year old, as it would be taking a step backwards from our family goals. We do not have a desire to raise happy, freethinking children. Of course, I want my children to have a joyful childhood; we do not strive to dominate over them. Rather, the opposite is true in that we want to nurture and care for them in a loving and simple environment. Matt and I have a goal of raising Christian adults who are world changers for kingdom of heaven.
Academics are very important to us as well. We want our children to have early exposure to foreign language, the arts, as well as standard subjects. Tennessee does not have a great record of accomplishment for public school education. In fact, we are among the lowest five in the country for test scores. Now, I can feel parents of public schoolers blood pressure rising at this point, so let me say that what is right for one family is completely different for another. However, at this point Matt and I knew public school was out, for now anyway.
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