Wednesday, January 11, 2012

When Repeating A Grade Is A Good Thing


After going to several open house afternoons at area high schools, Paul decided he would like to go to Loyola High School. He was graduating from the eighth grade at Shrine of the Little Flower in June. Early on in elementary school, Paul had skipped a grade. Due to a gap in his chronological age, emotional maturity, and academic abilities, school was stressful for him even though he had very good grades.

One evening, Larry and I took some time to pray about Paul's education. After a few minutes, we sat quietly to see if God wanted to give us any insight about this. This time, we sensed that we should have Paul repeat the eighth grade at another school if possible, and maybe that would give him the opportunity to narrow the gap that was causing him problems.  However, the school had to be able to give him subjects he'd not had before, and it needed to be close by since I had a toddler and an infant, and we had only one car which Larry used for work. We talked to Paul after that time of prayer and he felt okay about repeating the eighth grade at another school, but he said he still wanted to go to Loyola High School the following year.  Loyola was at that time the most expensive high school in the Baltimore area. We told him to pray that God would provide if that's where God wanted him to be.

The next day, my friend Nancy stopped in and I spoke to her about what we sensed we were to do.  Our stipulations looked impossible
to us, considering the public middle school in our area. Nancy suggested calling the superintendent in our district to see if he had any suggestions.  We did, and he advised us to call the principal of the new Northeast Middle School that was being built just outside of our district, but still within walking distance from our home, and would be completed before August. We called the principal, and "yes," she said, they "could definitely give him subjects he'd not had." And, "yes," he could start in September.  What a blessing!  God had provided for all of our needs. 

This school placement was a miracle to us, but God was not finished.

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