Unhappy to say, I attended this place for seven years before returning to a much higher quality public school, in a higher-quality state, I might add. There's a common misconception that private schools provide higher quality education than public ones; I can safely refute this. The one thing I knew the school to do well was English, but two of my teachers in this field were very ill-equipped and unsuited for their positions, as were several others who were the only teachers they could find (read: keep through the good ol' boy system) for a particular subject.
To be fair, I enjoyed my first few years there, being young and impressionable, believing the A Beka curriculum's anti-evolutionary pseudoscience (and worse, their blatantly anti-Catholic stance, and I know several Catholics that went there!) to be irrefutable. Those first few years, the band program was in excellent shape, which was about the only credible music activity, other than Pioneer Sound, in which you had to be able to sing AND dance (there was no choir, go figure). Then it went downhill my 9th grade year, when we had a change of band directors; the band, I soon came to realize, was my source of enjoyment there. (I hear it has improved tremendously in the ten years since I left, thankfully.) But my ill feelings about the place never recovered.
In addition, you must remember that this school was founded as a response against integration in the 1970s, and some of my worst memories surround the unabashed expressions of racism among many (not all) of the 95% white population. Second, the overtly religious assemblies gave way to a herd mentality, almost cult-like. Third, this school is run by ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalists, so there is no room for dissenting opinions. If you do, at best you're frowned upon and subject to incessant gossip; at worst you're sent home with a note to your parents threatening expulsion. Even my still-very-conservative parents noted this and have a negative opinion of the school to this day.
Bottom line: If you're looking for a school that encourages critical thinking, diversity, and Christian LOVE, this place is not for your children.
Please save them the misery that I endured while attending. read more