Oliver Brown Elementary

I graduated from Flint Hills Christian School in 2003.I would not say the school prepared me particularly well for the world I entered after graduation. Academically, it was a small and limited environment, and I left without the breadth of coursework, resources, or exposure to different ideas that I later realized many of my peers had received elsewhere.What it did prepare me for, unintentionally, was learning how important it is to question the institutions around you.I learned that authority and expertise are not the same thing. I learned that being told something with certainty does not make it true. I learned how limiting an education can become when maintaining a particular worldview is treated as importantly as encouraging curiosity about the world itself.Most of the intellectual growth I am proud of happened after I left.I eventually built a career around data, systems, analysis, and solving complicated problems. Those fields reward curiosity, evidence, skepticism, and the willingness to change your mind when the information changes. In many ways, those are skills I had to develop in spite of my high school education rather than because of it.That does not mean every teacher was bad or that every student had the same experience. I am sure many people remember their time there fondly. I don’t.Flint Hills Christian School did help prepare me for adulthood, just not in the way it intended. It taught me how valuable a broad education is, how dangerous intellectual certainty can be, and how much of your education you may ultimately have to take responsibility for yourself.