Photo by Jacek Poblaki
Why people choose a school for their child is just as much determined by a families culture as anything else in life, just like wearing masks in public.
I was with a good friend this weekend in Albuquerque. Nothing says fun like Albuqurque in the winter. Anyway, one of our stops was to the bank her account was in. I was sitting in the lobby, patiently alternating my wait time with reading a book and observing the continuous striation of locals waiting for their turn At with the bank teller.
Mind you, this is the third day after the liberal governor of New Mexico relaxed the mask mandate. The funny thing was all the banking locals continued to wear their masks in the bank building. The opposite of my experience the day before in my Maricopa, Arizona bank. No resident of our fair city were wearing a mask over their sun tanned faces in the bank lobby.
The state legislature is on the verge of passing into law allowing more than 830,000 students in Arizona out of 1.1 million possible to use ESA funds to leave, run from and abandon their friendly neighborhood public school and charter school as estimated by a legislative budget analysts as reported in the East Valley Tribune.. Right now, about 10,000 students receive these vouchers, of which fifteen attend Maricopa Christian Academy.
Why choose a private Christian school like Maricopa Christian Academy? That is a great question? Here are five good reasons.
We are different in how we instruct. No long boring lectures. (Almost). Instead, individual instruction in all academics daily for each student attending. Daily progress is determined by each student's previous day's accomplishments. If he is able to complete two assignments a day with at least 80% accuracy, yeah! If he stumbles on a concept and needs more time to practice the skill, good!
The main point is no student's progress is determined by an artificial timeline of expectations set by a textbook publisher, school board or a principal. Maybe well intentioned, maybe because it is far easier to manage, but at Maricopa Christian Academy it is the teacher who is responsible for supporting her student's in mastering the expected skills who will make the daily progress decisions.
Second, no homework! (Almost). As a general rule, all work is completed and graded each and every day by the teacher in class. And usually the grading is done in front of the student with immediate feedback provided.
Next, we don't bend or even break under the pressure to change researched and time tested instructional methods, a bending brought on by distant international publishers and pervasive teacher superstition. We use mostly materials and books developed by individual moms and dads who knew they could create a better system than what was being sold by the big name publishers. People like John Saxon, Wanda Phillips, and Joegil Lundquist.
No federally, state or local educationally mandated labels are placed on any of our students is the fourth reason for considering a private school like Maricopa Christian Academy. Not one. If you as a parent feel better calling your child a label because of ... well, whatever reason, that is up to you. But we do not need to label a child to segregate him from the regular classroom. And we do not need to label a student to meet his individual educational needs.
And most important, we talk about Christ as the creator of the universe, the savior of his people, the shepherd of his flock. And not as as a swear word or an expression of profanity. We teach straight from the Bible, the inerrant word of God.
So, don't be like the mask wearing New Mexicans still conforming to their governor's wishes. Think about whether your child's educational needs are best being met in the state's public and charter schools. And consider us, your local Maricopa Christian Academy.