Education and Me

I’ve been through every kind of school, with perhaps one or two exceptions. All of the different experiences led to new ways of learning, and understanding the world around me better.

First I was home schooled. When I was really little my family lived in the small town of Grand Marais, Minnesota, and rather than go to the tiny tiny school my Mom decided to start homeschooling me. It was simple preschool lessons the first year, and great kindergarten lessons the next.  After we moved to New Brighton, we continued to home school, we had good, Christian-based curriculum, and got involved with a home school co-op for a little while as well.

Once I was in third grade my parents decided they needed to try and save money and send us to a “family-centric” charter school. Well, it wasn’t family centric, nor was in particularly helpful. My Mom was able to work at the school though, and I made a couple of friends each year so we went there until the school closed down…two years later. So back to home school it was for 5th grade, we got involved in co-op again, and I better utilized my time that year.  Plus I actually went to the local elementary school to be part of the band program, that was fun, and I met some of the kids I would meet again the next year, because next was public school.

My parents decided to enroll us in the local public schools at this point, they wanted to do it before high school so we had a better chance to meet friends, because it was clearly cheaper for us, and we had grown up with a foundation of Christian education to take with us. These reasons don’t mean it wasn’t a challenge though. For a year my sister was home alone with my mom, which wasn’t the best for her, and I was having trouble fitting in with kids who had known each other from elementary school. But I pressed on, and thankfully it mostly worked because I think high school was much easier because of it, and I got to know one of my dearest friends during 8th grade.

Another reason I should note that we went to public school was because of the fact that neither of my parents went to school to teach and we all thought it was better for us to learn the more advanced curriculum from those who had gone to school specifically to teach. That and we could be much more easily involved with after-school sports and clubs, and other kids in the youth group went to school with us. Plus there was college advisors and ACT tests available at school which would make my transition to life after high school easier.

Next was private school, or university that is. I became a post-secondary enrollment options student or PSEOer for short. This is a program in Minnesota that allows upperclassmen in high school to take college classes, at university, online, or sometimes at their high school for free. The state pays for it since you aren’t attending all your high school classes. I chose to be part-time, as I wanted to take my math class from my high school which worked out nicely because my high school had partnered with a local community college to offer “college in the schools” , plus I could continue with the band program at my high school which meant a lot to me. But every day I woke up and drove the 15 minutes to private university for a year, and then back to my high school after lunch was great, as Hannah Montana may have put it, I truly had the best of both worlds.

The next year would be tough because of it though, I realized I couldn’t pay for three years of private college, so I would have to get my associate’s degree at community college and decide later on what I would do for the two years following. It wasn’t fun, I had been a private school student and most of my friends were now living in dorms there. or at the other private school in the area. Thankfully I had church groups and volunteering with junior high ministry, but it was still hard, and I made my schedule so that thankfully I could just go home before noon every day, get homework done and then some nights get to my retail job at the time.

Well I got my associates and got out of there, and after prayerfully considering a public four-year and going back to private school, I decided I would be much happier at the latter, so I took on a little debt each year and had an absolute blast. I was back with my friends, I had a short commute. I was back in a Christian community, I did some intermural sports, got an on-campus job I loved, and even studied abroad. All these experiences that I could not have had any other way.

I graduated two years later and had my share of job searching. I had a contract role for six months during which I decided to apply for Praxis, the program I’m in now. It just made sense and felt right, I was going to differentiate myself from all the other business school grads, and learn in a unique way. I’m learning by creating, and I’ll be learning by doing – in an apprenticeship I’ll be in come December.

All of these experiences made me a more well-rounded person, and I’m thankful for all the education I’ve gained. Including what I learned outside of school because that can never be overlooked either. I also know that I’ll never stop learning.