February 5, 1999 Calvin College Chimes

Let go of high school stereotypes The following editorial was written by Sarah Potter, editor of Chimes. When I was deciding whether to go to Calvin, the admissions counselor informed me that 50 percent of Calvin students, like me, had attended public high schools. I think she meant it as a comfort, but it sent my mind racing. Where did the other 50 percent go? Were they homeschooled? Catholic high schools? What kind of bizarre place was this? Little did my puny non-Reformed mind understand the role of Christian high schools in the Christian Reformed Church. A Christian high school wasn’t even an option for me or any of my Christian friends. Now I’m becoming to realize that public high school wasn’t an option for many of my friends at Calvin. Even though many didn’t have a choice about which high school they attended, we’re willing to duel to the end to defend our form of education. We need to realize that our choices of high school were often not big moral decisions but a matter of logistics. If I grew up in Grand Rapids, I would probably be a proud graduate of Grand Rapids Christian High School. But I didn’t, and so I find myself on the public school half of the debate. Before coming here, I never even really thought about Christian high schools. I guess I just assumed that people who went to Christian schools knew the books of the Bible without singing some stupid song, voted straight Republican and had a high percentage of plaid in their wardrobe. On the flip side, I will generalize that many Christian high school graduates thought the public school half of Calvin would be liberal, religiously suppressed slackers. The public school grads think that we are so “open minded,” while the Christian school grads think that they are so “superior.” These views are somehow swept under the carpet until a conversation about the policy that requires faculty to send their children to Christian schools arrises. Then the mud and the stereotypes start flying, and everyone gets angry trying to defend the way they spent grade nine through twelve. My point is not to argue for or against the faculty requirements or to say that public education can produce well-rounded Christians. My point is that this issue should not divide us. I should not have to defend my parents’ decision to send me to a public high school any more than a Christian High graduate shouldn’t have to prove that they are open-minded. Before we can have a conversation about the faculty policy or Christian education, we need to step outside the battle lines that were drawn when we attended high school.