Rantingness.

So...it's just about time for a new blog post rant. And by rant, I mean RANT. This particular thread is about a topic near and dear to my heart: my school. The Master's School. Now, don't get me wrong, I love this school. I've attended for three years and it has literally changed my life. I've enjoyed my time there (for the most part) and, given the choice, I would rather attend TMS than any other private school in the area. That said, I have an almost personal vendetta not against Master's, but with an issue that seems to plague private schools, and private Christian schools, especially. This is a topic I've discussed with both my mentor and several others, and I've come to the same conclusion every time. And here we go.

To begin, one of the strengths of private schools is their personal dedication to their students. In most private Christian schools, the teachers are far more dedicated to helping and being involved with their students than in public school. I say this as a general rule, by the way. Obviously this isn't the case with every single teacher. This isn't a bad thing, on the contrary, if only more teachers were so involved with their students! The problem occurs when they take it too far.

On the flip side of this is the negative aspect. In my opinion, and in my experience, parents send their children to private schools for one of three reasons. A: they want them to get a good education, B: they have a lot of money, and not a lot of time for their children, or C: they want to be extremely and actively involved in their child's education, and that cannot be accomplished through public school.

Option A: ....I have no problem with. Every kid should get a good education. Nothing wrong with that.

Option B results in said parents dumping their kids at school and expecting the school to raise them, instead of the parents raising them. This then results in the school, specifically the teachers, being dumped with the responsibility of taking care of the kids. This means that they are not only in charge of teaching the students, but in handling their discipline as well. This lends more stress on teachers, which doesn't help anyone.

Option C: results in what I believe has occured at The Master's School. Extreme involvement, to the point of handing off discipline to the school. Now, in and of itself, this isn't a bad thing. Parents should want to be actively involved in their child's education. That's a good thing, and I am not disputing that. Rather, the problem results in when the parents expect the school to solve problems and perform discipline that should be under the parent's responsibility, not the school's. Take this case: a student caught smoking off-campus is caught by a parent. The parent calls the school, not the student's parents, and asks the school to discipline the student. This is not the school's problem, it is the responsibility of the parents to take care of their kid. Or here's another example. Several students at Master's decide to take a hike into the woods to go exploring, or whatever. The venture down to a local reservoir, not knowing that it is private property. Upon returning, they are found by a teacher. They explain themselves, and where they've been, and as a result, each student is given a two day suspension. Now to me, that seems a little harsh. Yes, perhaps the students should not have been wandering around in the woods. But the incident occured after school hours, on property that did not belong to the school. The property owner gave no complaint, no injury or misdeed occured, so why is the school involved in this at all? Yes, technically, if things had gone differently, the kids might have been caught and found trespassing, and there could be potential legal repercussions of that. But at the same time, it's still the parent's responsibility to discipline their child. Look at the situation this way: a student from TMS leaves campus after school, and is found wandering on someone else's property. Who would the property owner call in this scenario? The kid's parents. But the real-life situation wasn't even that bad. The property owner didn't find the students, the kids weren't causing serious trouble, and they didn't even know that they had gone off of Master's property! The penalty for this incident seems a little harsh. I think that the teacher who found the students, after talking to them and discovering that they didn't know they were trespassing, should give the students a warning not to venture onto the private property again. But a two-day suspension? Come on.

Thoughts?

Memories of a Shining Star

Today was my last official day of classes for high school. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, about school, college, the future, etc. My time at Master's is filled with good and bad memories, friendships made and lost, and countless, countless inside jokes. :) But more than anything, I think I'll miss the people the most. My friends, classmates, fellow seniors, underclassmen, even teachers. Many of the teachers at TMS have made a big impact in my life. Mr Dietrich with his "golden apples" and stories about his college days...Mr. DeCesare, with his carefree yet authentic and open attitude...Mrs. Deckert with her fierce defense of the Christian faith. Everyone you meet, everyone you know, makes a little difference in your life whether you realize it or not. I think, I hope, that my time at Master's was well spent. I enjoyed most of it, even the countless hours of homework and classes. :) My wish is that as my class separates and moves off to their respective colleges, jobs, and lives, that we will never forget where we came from, and the people who helped us to become who we are today.