The Right Thing

Two weeks ago, Kate turned three. With kindergarten over two years away, we seem to already be talking about school a lot. When you talk with parents in Baton Rouge, school is a popular topic of conversation. The public schools have struggled and while we are hopeful that our children will have the opportunity to attend public schools like we did as children, we feel a responsibility as parents to check out all of our options.

So we visited a private elementary school last week. I have to admit, I drank the Kool-Aid immediately. Pristine playgrounds, cute little science lab coats, class pets, dance classes - the opportunities for Kate to expand her horizons seemed boundless. But I'm trying to temper my enthusiasm by thinking about education in a broad sense.

How do you measure the value of becoming friends with someone whose family is very different from your own? Can you overstate the importance of the daughter of a Christian minister becoming friends with a child from a different faith background? If we send our children to private elementary school, are we making a decision that will set them on a certain course?

The only answer I have right now to all of these questions is that God created our children and he alone knows what is right for each of them. We have to seek his wisdom to make the right decision. So that is what we'll do.

But those little white lab coats were so cute.