Asheville+Chrisitan+Academy

Hello Class! On Wednesday, Feb. 21 I went to visit the Asheville Christian Academy. I thought to visit the first grade since I wasn't able to visit it the first time, but they weren't available again so I went back to my fourth grade classroom with Mrs. Davis. She was happy to see me and I just took the seat in the back of the classroom and observed. I came in right as they were start their bible studies. It was really interesting because I was never a part of the Christian faith growing up and watching how these children were being taught the bible. They were given a work book bible and a normal bible and they were to follow along. Before they started their lesson the teacher told them all to bow their heads and she said, "father this has been a crazy day, calm our hearts, soak it up like a sponge, we love you and want to learn from you, we pray to you Jesus Christ." I don't know why I felt uncomfortable as this was happening but I did, maybe because I wasn't part of this tradition or because I was never raised to do this, or maybe because of the kid in the back who kept looking back at me to see if I was bowing my head or not. After this was done, the teacher had a little question and answer period about their previous reading in the bible. I wondered if the older kids in the school had bible studies as well. As this was going on I watched the children to see what they were doing, thinking they were going to be paying more attention for reasons that they were discussing god and were to be more respectful in that sense. But this one girl who sat near me kept wiggling around and would sit on the floor and organize her desk, and at one point she covered her face with her bible and stuffed a huge piece of candy in her mouth and kept the bible there until she finished eating. I also noticed today that the children were especially rowdy and restless. After bible studies, the computer teacher came to take them to class, but it wasn't the original computer teacher, it was a substitute teacher. All the kids were really excited about this. We got in single file line and the teacher said that everybody has to be quiet in the halls and to stay in line. The children were no obeying the rules and the teacher kept stopping and talking to the class and telling them that they were holding up the class time. To one girl she told her to hold her hand over the mouth and keep it there until we reached class, she wanted to her to keep her mouth shut.

~ Sara Methven