Going to a Christian high school is weird. It's still high school, and all the fun and struggling and drama that come with it, but there are a few extra expectations and traditions unique to a school that's connected to a church. Most people feel a sense of pride for their high school alma mater, but sometimes people who graduated from a Christian high school can seem especially—almost annoyingly—nostalgic about those days. To help explain that, here are some of the things you probably experienced if you grew up in a Christian school.
1. Starting anything without a devotional and prayer feels really weird.
In high school, almost every class opened with your teacher giving a meaningful word from the Bible and then taking prayer requests and praying before anyone brought up schoolwork. So, when you get to college and every class and organization you’re a part of jumps straight into their agendas without a prayer first, you always have that feeling like you’re forgetting something very important.
2. “No homework on Wednesdays” and its long-term side effects.
Because most churches have a weekly service on Wednesday nights, your school may have had a policy that didn’t allow giving homework on those nights to encourage everyone to go to church. It was a blessing then, but even though that policy doesn't exist in college, the habit of not doing anything on those nights persists. Wednesdays are arguably the hardest days to find motivation now.
3. You’ve mixed up the Pledge of Allegiance with the pledge to the Christian flag.
I mean, they're kind of similar. And reciting both of them somewhat mindlessly every day could get them a little jumbled up in your head sometimes. "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands... one brotherhood, uniting all true Christians—wait."
4. You miss chapel.
Chapel is something so unique to Christian schools, and it's one of the most memorable and meaningful parts. It's likely the only church service where everyone in the room is required to be there, but for the most part, they wouldn't rather be anywhere else. There's something so special about student-led worship and ministry and getting to experience that with all your classmates every week.
5. Even though it always made you a little uncomfortable when you walked in and someone had changed the lyrics of a secular song to be about Jesus.
I’ll never be able to listen to Usher’s “Without You” in the same way again. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing.
6. You don’t miss the uniforms.
This is one of the very few things we can collectively agree we did not enjoy. Private school uniforms are notably miserable. Not only are the rules a little stricter than public schools, but they’re significantly uncomfortable, especially for girls—I don’t think anyone misses wearing stiff plaid skirts and pantyhose every single day. Except, maybe, until you have to pick out a different outfit every day and realize you only own five real shirts. You know what, maybe you don’t miss uniforms that much, after all.
7. And you don’t miss shopping for homecoming dresses, either.
As with school uniforms, dances had strict dress codes, which is totally understandable until you’re at the department store, and there are approximately three dresses that fit that dress code. Your options then become 1) break the rules or 2) look like a nun. Or, 3) if you’re crafty, sew makeshift straps onto a strapless dress.
8. Your teachers found a way to work the Bible into every lesson.
Like chapel and daily devotionals, this is one of the things you miss the most while you’re sitting in a college classroom. Whether it was a literature class or a science class, your high school teachers taught you how to see God and his Word in everything, from themes in classic literature to the workings of biology and physics. It may have even been the reason you fell in love with the subject area you decided to major in. But when you’re in a college class talking about the same or similar subject matter, no one else seems to see those things, so discussion is hard. But you thank God your high school teachers taught you how to find it for yourself.
9. You even had a whole class for the Bible.
Bible class is a staple of Christian schools. It was a required class, and at most schools, there are multiple levels. You may have had mixed feelings about it because you’ve been learning Bible stories since you were three years old in Sunday school and you felt like you had to get every question right. Even though it could sometimes feel like it was just another class you had to go to, it was so great to be able to prioritize the study of the Bible with the rest of your schoolwork.
10. Your teachers cared about you and prayed for you almost like you were their own child.
Chances are you had a parent or friends' parents who taught at your school, but even if you had teachers you didn't know before taking their class, you always felt loved and supported by them. They cared about you, encouraged you, and supported you more than the job required, and it probably helped you get where you are today. (And when they prayed before a test that you would remember everything you studied, you felt like a heathen because you probably didn’t study at all.)
11. It’s still a little shocking when your college professors go right into teaching evolution without some kind of apology first.
In high school, every time a science class reached “the evolution chapter,” you knew your teacher was going to give the class a little preamble explaining that you don’t have to believe this if you don’t want to, but the state required them to teach it. It wasn’t that your teacher rejected everything about evolution, but they made sure to teach what they were required to, as well as what the Bible tells us, and how the two might overlap. So, only hearing the textbook side in college feels somewhat incomplete.
12. You prayed for wins.
Every sport’s games, matches, and tournaments were preceded by a team prayer for victory, among other things like safety for both teams, sportsmanship, and representing Jesus well. Some people may have thought it was a little controversial to pray for wins, but your coaches made sure you knew winning wasn’t your accomplishment alone, and that all the glory was to go to God. Like the Bible says, “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so the Son can bring glory to the Father” (John 14:13-14). So, sure you wanted to win, but you were taught that winning meant you were given more opportunities and responsibility to glorify God. (And you don't think it was a coincidence that you did win... a lot.)
13. Your teachers and school faculty constantly reminded you how privileged you were to be there.
They may have use words like “blessed” or “sheltered” to describe your being at your Christian high school, and, especially if you’d never been to any other school, they made it sound like going to public school was the most miserable experience ever. But you learned along the way that's not what they meant. They just wanted you to know that the “real” world, after high school, wasn’t quite like what you were experiencing then. The “real” world wasn’t going to keep you accountable for reading your Bible or make it easy for you to go to church or always provide a Godly perspective. And they were right. The privilege was not that you didn’t have to go to public school; it was in the accountability and responsibility to God that you were taught in every aspect of school.
14. You made lifelong friends.
Even if you didn’t attend that school in middle school and elementary school, too, going to a Christian high school gives you close friends and unique connections that will last pretty much forever. Praying for each other every day, worshipping together every week, and growing in your faith together over the years gives you friendships that will remain no matter how much time passes.
15. An unexplainable sense of community.
Although Christian schools do many things a lot differently than most schools, there's still a lot of the same stuff that goes on, including the not-so-great stuff. Just like all Christians will admit they're nowhere near perfect, neither are Christian schools. There's drama, there's controversy, there are disagreements, and sometimes it can get a little ugly. But there was nothing you couldn't come back from. Through every problem your community faced, you stuck together, defended each other, and, most importantly, held each other accountable. "School spirit" is a massive understatement.
Going to a Christian school may have been weird, but you wouldn't have had it any other way.
