Christ Versus Cuss Words

My School Experience

Many kids experience going to through the same school system their whole lives. Graduating with the same people they sat next to on their first day of kindergarten. For many others, including myself, this is not the case. I started school at MRA, transferred to another small private Christian school, and then to public school. While the “school experience” is standard, some of my experiences at the different schools seem drastically different.

I don’t have many memories from MRA because I left the school after the second grade. I was going to be going to an extremely small private school named Christ Covenant Acadamy. Just by the name alone, I think you can understand the moral high ground this school tried to uphold. The school building itself was connected to a church. It was three stories high and every single wall and floor was this utterly lifeless shade of grey. On school mornings I would put on my equally grey uniform that scratched you every time you moved wrong. They were very expensive uniforms, but you couldn’t really tell that from the quality. My brother and I would jump out of my mom’s minivan and entered this very mundane, office-like school. The curriculum was what you would expect for the most part. Math, science, english, history, an extracurricular, and bible class. Yes, you read that right. Every day we had bible class. Scripture was involved in every subject. In addition to learning algebra formulas, I would also be memorizing bible verses. We even had chapel every Thursday morning. I had to wear my fancy uniform on those days, because it was like church service for kids.

I often would find myself in trouble at this school. My first time ever cheating on a test was on a bible test in the fifth grade. In hindsight, that might not get me a good spot in heaven. I was sent to the principal’s office countless times and was even paddled once. Most of the time it was because I was misbehaving or saying something snarky to a classmate. Anything that was not “Christlike” I partook in it seemed. I was suspended twice in middle school. The first time was for breaking a kid’s hand with one of our iPads the school let us use. I guess that was justified. The second time though was because I was in a group chat with the few friends I had at school and out of school we were using profanity. None of the other kids were suspended, I assume they thought I was the instigator of this obscene group chat. It was harder to find friends mainly because I was a weird kid but also because there were about thirty kids in my entire grade. These kids were very judgmental for a group of eleven-to-thirteen-year olds. I was picked on once for simply wearing black nail polish, because that made me emo.

The summer before eighth grade my family and I moved, and I would be going to Germantown middle school. Instantly the first difference I noticed was I had no idea how to dress. I had only worn uniforms up to this point and my weekend clothes were few and far between. It was terrifying navigating the large hallways flooded with all these people I had never even known existed. Eventually, I found comfort in the fact that I could blend in and didn’t have a magnifying glass on my behavior twenty-four seven. With this large pool of kids, it was a lot easier to find people I could tolerate and even become close friends with. I would watch these kids like specimens in a lab experiment, seeing them do things like cuss, smoke, drink, and have little middle school relationships. I had broken out of my bubble, and it was quite freeing. Class of course was common core, with a very ridged bell schedule. I never got in trouble in school. Not because I was on my best behavior, though. Most of the time the administrators were worried about larger issues than me throwing a paper airplane out of the window. It was still school nonetheless, but it was a lot more lively than my small little private school I was so used to.

These places were virtually the same. Both being buildings intended for shoving in kids, cramming their brains with knowledge, and spitting out hopefully well-rounded individuals. The experiences on the other hand could not be more different. I think going to such a small school was good for my character building. I also have a party trick of reciting almost any bible story in vivid detail. But I am also glad that I got the real “school experience” of pep rallies, football games, riding the school bus, and other events. Most of my classmates from Christ Covenant either ended up as drug addicts or peppy sorority girls who have never said the F word in their lives, so I think I turned out just fine. I got my high school diploma and went on with my life outside of required education, but I will never forget the staggering experiences of that time in my life.