What's in a School?
While I admire Shakespeare, the time has come to deviate from his philosophy and instead carve out our own.
It commenced when the board of the private Mennonite school which our daughter attended suddenly announced that they were not planning on re-opening the coming school term. Nor was there any indication of when it would be in operation again. A rather hard blow for us since the time for student registration in other schools was nearly past.
A few years ago a blog reader reached out to me about the schools available in and around Spanish Lookout. I endeavored my utmost to assist him, without the remotest idea that we would be in his shoes in the near future.
Now here we were, wondering as Shakespeare did. "What's in a school?" Is it the modern, luxurious building with an aura of stateliness and class that lends pride to a parents voice at the mere mention of it? Or the neat and trim buildings scattered on a grassy lawn with paths crisscrossing the playground which speak of many young feet marching into the future? Perhaps, like the majority of parents, you're much more concerned about the quality of education inside and not worried about the appearance of the building and the grounds. Or are you the parent that shrugs their shoulder and agrees with Shakespeare that, after all, a school is…a school?
At one point we were dangerously close to aligning ourselves with the above-mentioned poet. A myriad of questions assaulted us. Of course some of our questions would never have an answer since only the passage of time can respond appropriately. Which school is the best in student-teacher relationship? Which one is the closest to our conservative values? Which one will encourage our children to turn to the parents for support rather than yield to peer pressure? Which one would motivate our young ones to become interdependent and fulfilling members of society instead of independent know-it-alls? On a more practical note, which one was geographically closer?
Since we are from the Spanish Lookout area, our thoughts naturally turned to that community. Local government schools were completely out of the question. My conservative Belizean readers will understand without me providing any further details. So we pointed and pondered:
EMMC. Located on the same yard and administered by the church of that name. We very much appreciated the diversity of cultures we observed but…
Rose Glen, about a mile and a half away, seemed more open-minded without the name of a specific church attached to it. And yet that in itself made us uneasy. If the teachers are from a variety of denominations, how will this influence our son and daughter in viewing spiritual issues?
We swung our telescope and fastened it on Jireh, a modern fast-growing, extremely popular school on the southern end of Spanish Lookout. We lingered only briefly and scratched it out of our list. It was a little too fast growing, a little too popular for our taste.
There was another one administered by Mennoniten Gemeinde Rosenort, a semi-conservative church which is geared toward German-speaking individuals, which attracted us for a time but we eventually discarded the idea.
Someone pointed out an unassuming school which sat right at a crossroads and which was created for those who couldn't…ahem…afford the higher-priced ones. We investigated, and we rejected.
What about private and conservative schools? For example those belonging to the Kleine Gemeinde churches inside Spanish Lookout. Or the ones outside administered by other churches such as the Beachy Amish or Conservative Mennonites. There was even a second Holdeman school about 30 minutes away that crossed our minds but we weren't too keen about the travel time since we had to consider my full-time job as well.
Then there are the Mennonite "mission" schools. Educational facilities aimed at bringing gospel-centered teaching to non-Mennonite children. The Kleine Gemeinde run a few such schools just outside Spanish Lookout. In Santa Elena is another similar one but administered by an Amish Mennonite church.
Of the modern schools, the EMMC appeared to be the likeliest on our list. Concerning the conservative ones, the Kleine Gemeinde ones inside Spanish Lookout was our best choice. Last but not least, there was homeschooling, which we cautiously probed knowing very well the major adjustments to our regular routine. By the way, why are many conservative Mennonites apprehensive of homeschooling? Whenever we brought up the subject, the reactions were largely negative.
We discussed, wondered, asked and called until a rather unfortunate incident settled the question. Not quite willing to accept, we struggled for a while but eventually accepted the fact that there was no other option. So it is with no small measure of concern and apprehension that we await the upcoming school year as we sincerely hope we are on the correct path.
