REPOSTED VIA BLACK DRESS | RED WAGON MAGAZINE

You’re a great parent. Just skim through your Facebook mobile uploads and an array of magical memories (pumpkin patch, summer vacations, special outings) will reveal your parenting prowess. You love your kids—which is why you coach them, teach them, play with them, and pray for them.

It’s also why you’ve likely thoughtfully weighed where your children will attend school. After all, children will spend more waking hours at school than at home between the ages of 5 and 18. That’s a big deal.

As the new year begins, we often spend time reflecting on the year that has just passed. We glow in memories of joy, success, and contentment, and we ache over hardships, struggles, and trials. As I reflect on the past semester as the head of Mount Paran Christian high school, I can honestly say there were hardships – but far more moments of sheer joy.

The hum of florescent light bulbs overhead, a cardigan-clad teacher scribbling on a chalkboard, students yawning as the clock ticks monotonously: this educational system requires radical overhaul as our learning climate is affected by the globalization technology affords. If student academic learning is no longer restricted to textbooks and lectures and libraries, what is the best method of education? What if traditional approaches to teaching Shakespeare were married with the opportunities to interview locals in Stratford-upon-Avon, walk through his childhood home, watch a play performed at the Globe Theatre, and create a web-based presentation of discoveries?

For most of us, the beginning of the day can be hectic, and our school is no different. Parents are dropping off kids as they rush to work or begin the long list of tasks they have to accomplish that day. Kids are hurrying to their classrooms, unpacking backpacks, talking to friends, and looking over notes for the test in first period. Faculty are finalizing the lesson they will teach that day, catching up on e-mails, and organizing their schedule so they can accomplish as much as they are able on their to-do list.