Promotion Day

Today was Kindergarten Promotion Day for Annalisa at The Oaks. We had the opportunity to go to her school to watch her perform along with her classmates. This post is probably going to get quite long, but I thought I would use the opportunity to talk about Annalisa's school, why she is attending there, and how it has gone.

Annalisa on the first day of school. The picture above is outside our home and the one below is her doing her first task at school. Her sweet teacher is the blond.

A few years ago, this wasn't exactly how I envisioned her Kindergarten year ending. Many of you know that I planned on homeschooling my kids. As I started to seriously plan this, I found out about a method of education called Classical Christian. The method is based on the Trivium (I will do my best to describe that) and I use the term Christian to mean Christ-centered.

The concept of the Trivium is simple: you teach children going with the grain. So the early years (up through about junior high age) you pack facts into the brain. This is done through song, chant, catechizing, and imitation. Remember all those silly little rhymes you did at recess as a kid? Well, think that, but with Bible, math, spelling, science, and music rules and facts and there you have the first few years of education for your child. The next stage of the Trivium is as one lady put it the "pert" stage. Think teen. Teens like to challenge the world around them, they like to argue, they aren't satisfied with the facts. So the idea is to go with the grain and teach the student how to analyze and think critically about the facts they have been given. The final stage of the trivium has been referred to as the "poetic" stage or rhetoric. This would be about that time in the teen years when a person is really concerned with expressing himself or herself. So the focus is to take all the facts and critical thinking and turn them into something beautiful and meaningful. For example, the seniors at Annalisa's school had an independent study they had to complete this year. One student wrote and recorded songs in a studio. Another student (my midwife's son) got to explore the world of filmmaking. Another student wrote and directed choral music and we got the chance to hear it performed by the high school choir. The final products are really cool, but in the process, not only are the students putting together a world of knowledge, they have had to work hard, too. (That's the best explanation I can give of the Trivium; obviously I could work on my rhetoric:).)

After learning about this whole process, it made sense to us to educate our children in this manner and I was planning on homeschooling the girls according to this method. Let's just say the task seemed daunting. When Doug and I knew we would be moving to Spokane, we decided to look for a classical Christian school. I knew that I could probably do a decent job teaching Annalisa basic reading and math, but I also thought that I would love to give her a little more and felt the best way for her to get that would be through the setting of a day school. We found one classical Christian school in Spokane and one in Idaho about 45 minutes away. The one we really wanted Annalisa to attend was in Spokane and they said that they probably wouldn't have space for her, but agreed to meet with us anyway. The other one didn't really appeal to me (all via the internet), but we decided to check it out and as it turned out we visited there first.

The school in Idaho seemed very academic. And, yes, classical education is a very academic way of learning, but Doug and I felt something about the Christ-centeredness of that school was missing. Don't get me wrong - there was plenty of talk about God, etc. with the principal of the school, but we felt something was lacking. The students seemed like any other students, just smarter. Doug and I left that meeting agreed that if we were going to invest time and money into this type of education and this school was our only option, we would rather go at it on our own through homeschooling.

The next day we met with the assistant principal of The Oaks. It was a great meeting and the entire atmosphere of the school was so different from the other school. The students greeted us in the halls, held doors open for us, and we could literally see Christ's love spilling over in the school. The principal found out we would be visiting his church that Sunday and invited us over for Sunday dinner (that is a whole other story!). We left the school very disappointed only because it was exactly what we were looking for in a school, but it seemed very unlikely that we could get Annalisa a spot in the Kindergarten class. We still filled out the paper work and sent it in and God worked it out that she was to be a student there.

So, how has it been? I can honestly say it is better than I ever imagined. Prior to this, I hadn't had the best taste in my mouth for Christian schools and thanks to my public school teaching experience, I knew long before I had children that I would choose something else for them. What I never expected was how well a school could be run and how The Oaks teachers really do what they say they mean to do. When the handbook and internet say they are Christ-centered, they really are. For example, I've noticed a genuine "putting of other's interests before your own" attitude by the students. Doug and I have gone to school performances and had students hold the door open for us while we were still half-way across the parking lot and the student didn't even know us. Other examples can be seen by some of the students who also attend our church. One girl noticed that I was trying to nurse Andrew and get the girls situated while Doug helps set up sound in between Sunday School and church time. Without asking, she has taken it upon herself to take the girls to the bathroom and get them settled in their seats so that I can tend to Andrew in the Mother's Room. The amazing thing is that this attitude isn't unique to our church or even to a "type" of family in the school, but is a serving spirit that is fostered throughout the school. The older students are taught that they are models to the younger students and they rise to the expectation. The result is that the relationships between students, teachers, and parents resemble those of a family more than a learning institution. Is the school perfect? Of course not, but the strength lies in that the staff recognizes this and they strive to grow.

I could write story after story of what I've seen and learned from The Oaks. Suffice it to say that Doug and I are very pleased that Annalisa is there. It has been a gift from God and a breath of fresh air to our weary souls. I don't know how long she will get to be there, but we are thankful for whatever time she has in that environment. Someday, I'll have to write about this year's graduation ceremony. I was inspired, but I will have to save that for another day.