Good Shepherd School

For many years, Good Shepherd School has claimed to be a school that wants to carry a mission for Christ. In essence, it attempts to transcribe some of its church teaching methods to its school system. While the school may be particularly successful at being religious, it fails in all other areas.I learned some things that I feel the need to share in my review. I want to focus on the high school academics especially.

The school offers the usual core classes: math, science, history, and a core for all Christian schools, a Bible class. The following classes I will list are usually electives in other schools, but they are required in this school: physical education, debate, chemistry, rhetoric. There is a language class--the only language being Latin. There is a music class--the only instrument ever being learned (at least, when I was enrolled) being recorder. There is a wonderful drama class that no one ever talks about, and for which they hardly ever pay the teacher. Note to kids: Good luck getting into sports here. The sports department offers virtually nothing.The curriculum is all over the place. There is a tightly packed schedule, and yet students do not get the option to pick and choose. This is ALL REQUIRED MATERIAL. On top of the curriculum and homework schedule being a mess, tests are usually poorly planned, to the point of being announced at the last minute. This kind of disorganization would not be allowed in a college.

As mentioned previously, everything in this curriculum is required. EVERYTHING. Extensive lectures take away the student's time for working on his/her unnecessary amount of homework, which means that the time he/she spends in class working and the time he/she spends at home working are out of balance. The student will spend hours working after midnight--arguably, that is an experience one should never go through until he/she hits college.

Now, about the teachers: These are the kinds of teachers who are very prone to picking favorites, especially in such a small school. The competition is fairly tight, and they will go to the extent of picking one special student to use as an example. "Be JUST LIKE THIS!" they will tell your child. Your child will be under the pressure of needing to be perfect on top of taking pointless classes, having precious time wasted on lengthy lectures, and having an extensive homework load. Perfection is expected, and the teachers can change the definition of perfect academic performance whenever they feel it necessary. They might as well hold a weekly pageant for the favorite student. Under this environment, your child will feel the struggle of achieving little to no success.

To wrap this up, Good Shepherd, while trying to train up their students in the so-called love of the Lord, have allowed a lot of academic dishonesty to pass. I mean it. Students who have cheated at this school have been allowed scholarships in other schools. They have acted almost completely unaware of some of the cheating that has gone on within their own classrooms, mindlessly congratulating these students just as long as they shared one of the last names of the staff members. Note to teachers: I would focus more on catching them and putting them in their place more than idle student chatter and those who piss without your permission. Not only has this been allowed, but student ridicule has also been allowed: some borderline sexism, some racism, the works. These are basic things that would not be overlooked in most public schools, and word would get out the minute some of these things were uttered. In general, boys and girls were segregated to the point that each group could become sexist toward the other. Aside from the persisting sexism, students have been ridiculed for other things. For example, my friends and I were fans of Japanese anime, and one of our teachers was prone to making fun of our activities together in front of the whole class. For the most part, the things said in these classrooms have not reflected the so-called "holy mission" of this school. Might as well have a school that is honest about making pocket pickers out of your children rather than a school that is dishonest about godly teachers training up godly kids.

To summarize, nothing is special about this school in regards to making holier kids. In its system of trying to sustain a classical education system, it has completely botched up the rules of basic teaching. To make things more stressful, your child will be prone to being cheated by other kids, being ridiculed by his/her teachers, and being completely divided from the opposite sex. Unless you, as a parent, strive to have your child relive the century of Pride and Prejudice, I myself would say that you would even prefer basic public school over this mess.

GSS, take note: if your mission from God is not to teach children, just accept it, and move on.