Language Investigation 3

My entire elementary and secondary education experience was spent in either private Christian or charter schools, which I believe gave me a very different experience than those students who grew up in the public school system. Most of the reading and writing I did in elementary, which was at Heritage Christian School here in town, was focalized in the Bible. I remember I had a verse, or number of verses, to memorize from kindergarten up until 6th grade, the year I moved from private Christian education to Liberty Commons School (a charter junior high in town). I enjoyed my time at Heritage, but I did encounter the occassional lunatic teacher, who in a young kids mind was completely unreasonable. I'm sure these teachers really weren't as bad as I remember though. The writing I was required to do at Heritage was next to none in elementary, mostly consisting of spelling tests and basic grammar worksheets. It wasn't until I came to Liberty that my writing skills began to be challenged. I remember in my German class at Liberty having to write a 5-7page report on a German monarch during the conquest years of the country. I also remember having to write a 5 paragraph essay for every text we read in my literature course. My finals always consisted of essays and big papers. Mind you, this was 7th and 8th grade, and it seemed like this Core-Knowledge curriculum-based charter school was in the business of challenging their students academically. The reading we did varied from Gilgamesh, the Declaration of Independence, and The Diary of Anne Frank. Liberty was a challenge for me, but helped prepare me for college-level writing probably in more ways than my high school did.

Going into my 9th grade year, my family and I moved to Littelton, CO and I attended a small Christian school called Front Range Christian. My mom, who was a music teacher, had gotten a job here, and I had a bunch of family connections to the school (my aunt was a teacher and my uncle the president). I loved my time at Front Range, but not because of the teaching or schooling. In fact, most of my motivation for becoming a teacher was to work in a Christian school like Front Range someday and actually do an effective job of teaching, unlike what I commonly came in contact with at Front Range. The reading we did in high school included the Bible, The Scarlet Letter, the Crucible (which came under hot protestation from parents claiming the piece supported/encouraged witchcraft!!!), Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Shakespeare. The problem wasn't the reading itself, but how it was instructed. Most of the time, the teacher would simply have us read the text, then we'd talk about it, memorize some facts about the author, and take a test or write an essay. There was not much application or crossover to the realworld us kids lived in. It made it very hrd to become interested in the subjects. The writing the students were given was, in my mind, far behind what I saw at Liberty. At my junior high, we were writing 5-7 page papers, but my 9th grade year my class was just learning how to write 5 paragraph essays. By my senior year, the longest paper I had written was a 3 page essay on Lord Byron. Only one teacher really took time oout of her schedule to encourage me to practice writing and gave me personal critique of my writing in her class. As far as rules and regulations go, every paper had to be proper grammar and spelling, even a simple handwritten journal. It was fairly strict as to that college-level writing was constently required of all stuff handed in as well. How these experiences at Front Range effected my college writing... I definitely learned what my own voice was because despite the strictness of proper grammar/spelling, there was no regulations on a particular voice the paper must be in. All the teachers encouraged students to find their own ways to write within the Standard system, which out of all the faults of Front Range, this part they got right. In many ways, Front Range encouraged me to teach myself how to learn, but in writing my high school helped me get very comfortable in my writing.