Video transcript

The full spoken content of our four-minute introduction film. Speakers are identified by role; the film names them on screen.

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A student — I feel more like capable of being who I really am here. I don’t worry about, I don’t know, the hate comments or like the bullying here. Like it’s a lot like it’s a breath of fresh air coming here.

A parent — This has been an absolute godsend in our lives to help us. Our kids are not only doing well here, they are flourishing here. And it’s absolutely been an awesome experience in our family. It would be the best choice they could make to put them in Star City Christian. They really could. The teachers are so kind, so nice. You can’t go wrong with it. If my daughter wouldn’t have had this option for first grade, I don’t know what we would have done, because homeschool didn’t work and public school didn’t work, so I’m not really sure — we would just kind of been stuck on what to do.

A student — Yes, I very much do feel like I can be myself here at Star City Christian Academy. I just feel like it’s going to be better for me, and it’s absolutely better for me. I love it.

Staff — This is like, ‘be yourselves, open up, feel free to talk, feel free to ask questions,’ setting. And we just wanted them to feel like they were choosing to be here and that they felt comfortable to ask us to help them in their learning process. When children come here, they know and see that they are loved and cared for and seen, valued, respected. Star City Christian Academy — it is a Monday through Thursday year-round full-time school, eight to three, that serves kindergarteners all the way through the twelfth grade. We use Abeka curriculum for all of our core subjects, and we also include things like art, library, computer, PE, music. We put God first. So we start every morning with a worship service and prayer, and we memorize verses and have Bible every day, chapel once a month. And we try to let Him direct the decision-making process and how we want to do things. And then we also have a heavy emphasis on hands-on learning and field trips. So we do at least one field trip a month, based on what we’re learning about in class at the time. Sometimes we go school-wide, sometimes it’s grade level.

A teacher — Star City Christian Academy — we meet your child where they are at. When they come to us, I don’t look at their age. I set them down and I have them read to me. And if that child cannot read, I do what I need to do. If we need to go down, we go down. We are going to take a test at the end of the year, but that does not define the student here. They are not a number, they are a human being, and they are loved.

Staff — All of research shows — Maslow’s hierarchy of needs shows — that if those basic needs aren’t met, hunger, thirst, feeling safe, feeling comfortable, they’re not going to relax and become stressless enough to do the higher functioning learning.

A student — Here at Star City Christian Academy it’s more like spread out and it’s more fun in a way. I wake up like, what’s going to happen today? What fun stuff is going to happen today? Is there going to be a T-Rex guy in a costume? I like a good amount of structure, but also I don’t like too much. I love how you have the freedom to — you have more recesses, you have the freedom to where you want to eat. Kind of more choice over what you can do. But I do like the amount of structure here.

A parent — It’s not a tense environment. They can just breathe, and they can be human, and they can be children, and they’re not so confined to one stigma of what school is supposed to look like. This is homeschooling in these four walls but with a school structure.

Staff — But I feel like every kid who graduates here is going to be so much better off for it — not just academically, but we’re trying to prepare them to be citizens, and good citizens. And then more importantly, in our opinion, is their eternity. We’re trying to help them to focus on an eternal perspective in life. What really matters — we want them to understand that that’s most important. Doesn’t matter what you get on the standardized test when you die, doesn’t matter what grade you had in seventh-grade math. It does matter when you face the Lord — what you can answer for, and who you can answer for, and how you impacted the kingdom.