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Rules of Order
Parents say code of conduct at Cary Christian School teaches respect.
Rose Thompson remembers the first time she walked into Cary Christian School. The students were walking single file down the hallway. They looked at her and addressed her immediately. "Hello, ma'am," they said. That discipline and respect were a large part of Thompson's decision to pull her son, Patrick, out of public school and place him in Cary Christian. And it was that move that changed Patrick Thompson's future. "Since then, it's been up hill all the way," Rose Thompson said.
Cary Christian takes a unique approach to respect and discipline not found in public schools. Students stand to address the teacher or to do a recitation. During certain parts of the day, they sit at attention. They walk single file down the halls. And perhaps most unique, they can be spanked if the principal has the parent's permission.
"Parents are made aware of Cary Christian's philosophy when they apply to the school," said grammar school principal Teena Armstrong. "One of the key things is that parents are on board," she said. "In the school, students are trained from the start to obey the school rules at all times -- 'Obey all the way, right away, everyday, in a cheerful way.' In addition, each classroom teacher may have his or her own classroom rules. Teachers deal with discipline in the classroom as much as they can. Students do their part to help in that effort," Armstrong said. "They hold each other accountable. In grammar school, for example, a student will get his name on the board if he breaks a rule. If a second offense takes place, he'll get a check next to his name. That usually results in a call home and a note to the principal," Armstrong said. "That is so effective, children rarely get sent to the principal's office. Students might be sent to the office for things like cheating, fighting, vulgar language, or 'blatant rebellion and disrespect'," Armstrong said. If they are sent to the office, the principal can, with the permission of the parents, spank the child, but Armstrong said that is rare.
"Usually, because Cary Christian is a religious school," Armstrong said, "discussion with the child will 'go to the word of God.' Administrators will discuss what the child has done and the child is asked to confess what he or she has done. We want them to see that they represent something bigger than themselves. Children are also required to apologize to anyone else whom they wronged in their misbehavior. The order that is maintained 'promotes conformity'," Armstrong said.
Rose Thompson said Patrick's issue was not as much one of discipline as of being mislabeled in his public school. He was diagnosed with attention-deficit disorder when he was in third grade. In school, he was diagnosed as "mildly retarded," she said, and sent to a special class. It was there that Rose Thompson began to question things. Kids in Patrick's class were spelling words like "with" and "them." But he would come home and beat the top levels of his video games. She realized he didn't belong in the class and started looking for other alternatives, which is when she found Cary Christian. At the time, school violence was in the news and she had even seen police investigating a fight at her son's elementary school. She saw the discipline at Cary Christian and felt much more secure. "I don't worry when I send him there," she said.
Now, Patrick is in sixth grade, and his mother said she is impressed with Patrick's experience. Particularly, she likes the way the students learn respect, manners and courtesy. And Patrick is succeeding academically as well. "It's a real success story," she said. "Now he's spelling words I can't even spell."
This article originally appeared in Cary News.