Wildwood Christian School

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Wildwood Christian School
WCS logo
School type	Private Christian
Established	2000
President	Bill Bayer
Head of School	Rev. Chris Baker
Colors	Green and Gold
Location	Wildwood, Missouri
Website	wildwoodchristianschool.org

Wildwood Christian School (WCS) is a classical Christian highschool in Wildwood, Missouri. It teaches grades 7-12 and has around 70 students total. Tuition is around $5,000 annually. Head Master Rev. Chris Baker has been with the school since its founding. The current senior class is the eighth. The previous class consisted of nine students. WCS boasts a difficult curriculum, a tight social community, and that all but one of her graduates went on to college.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Shakespeare in a Week

One of the most notable aspects of WCS is the annual Shakespeare in a Week. For one week all classes are dropped and the school puts on a performance of a Shakespeare play. It is great fun for the students, teachers and parents who often volunteer their time.^{[verification needed]} Many people comment on the amazing high quality of the presentation given the fact that participation is mandatory and high school students do the majority of the work: from lighting and set construction to makeup and acting. Some of the audience has commented on how they previously had never enjoyed Shakespeare but found themselves enjoying Wildwood Christian School's Shakespeare in a Week. A professional reviewer of Shakespeare plays attended the first performance of Macbeth and enjoyed it so much that she returned for the other two performances. She later exclaimed that it was one of the best presentations of Shakespeare that she had seen in a long time. The following year she returned for a Midsummer's Night Dream and said that it was the best she had seen since the previous year. It is believed she wrote an article on it but it has not yet been located.^{[citation needed]}

For the first two years Wildwood Christian participated in Shakespeare in a Week it was in conjunction with another school, Providence Christian Academy. The second play preformed, during the school year of 2002-03, was Twelfth Night. Starting in 03-04 WCS decided that it would rather do its own SIAW rather than simply participate in someone else's. Since Heritage Presbyterian's building was too small to house the production, WCS was forced to find someone else to house them for that week. Ballwin Baptist Church, located in Balwin Missouri, was kind enough to let WCS use their building for the production and has allowed WCS to return every year since. In 03-04 the school preformed Henry the Fifth, in 04-05 was Macbeth, in 05-06 was A Midsummer Night's Dream, and 06-07 was The Merchant of Venice. It has not yet been revealed what play will be preformed during the 07-08 school year.

[edit] Community

Wildwood Christian boasts a high level of community. Due to its small size, most WCS students know every other WCS student. Some even say that they have visited every other student's home at least once. Again, due to the small size of the school, it is not uncommon for a senior to take the same class as a seventh grader. Because of this, most students continue to be involved with WCS years after they graduate. With the exception of several of last years graduates, every WCS graduate has returned to visit at least once. It is expected that the few 2006 graduates who have not yet returned will at some point in time over their Christmas Vacation. Many visiting teachers have commented on how well behaved the students of Wildwood Christian School are. One of the aspects of WCS's community is a fierce loyalty to the teachers. This may be due to the early days of WCS when the majority of the faculty either had children enrolled or were the children of other faculty members. The first Latin teacher was the daughter of Headmaster Rev. Chris Baker. The curriculum is based on the classical model of education, with an emphasis on humanities and theology. One former student comments, "At my high school the question wasn't who's the better baseball player, Babe Ruth or Alex Rodriguez, the question was who's the better theologian, Luther or Calvin. Personally, i like Mr. Baker."

[edit] Curriculum

As mentioned above the main focus of the school is on history and theology. Both are the subject of near constant discussion in the student body. Humanities, the history class, is divided between four years; Antiquity, Christendom, Modernity and Early American History. This year is Antiquity, last year was Early American History and next year will be Christendom. At the end of each year all Humanities student are expected to do the "dreaded" 40 hour project. This project is assigned shortly before or after spring break and id due in mid-May. Each student is required to spend forty hours researching and preparing a project presentation on a subject of their choice that falls within the time frame that was studied that year, however most students spend upwards of fifty to sixty hours on it.

Two years of Latin are required for graduation along with two years of a modern language--at present only Spanish is offered. For a list of other requirements please visit the school website. According to most graduates the difficulty of the curriculum can be compared to junior or senior year in college. Many student drop out to attend less challenging public schools. One example is a student who was pulled out by his father because he was getting almost straight Ds. He enrolled in a public high school where he got As and Bs. Just about every graduate says that college is easier and several students who transferred to Eureka HighSchool, which was named one of the most challenging High Schools in the country in 2004 by Newsweek, say that in comparison to Wildwood, Eureka is a "breeze."

The main focus of the cirruculum is on the Trivium of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, all of which are offered at Wildwood Christian as English credits. The majority of the literature used in the cirruculum is classical, including many books and stories that date back by the millennia. Such books include The Epic of Gilgamesh, Aesop's Fables, Paradise Lost, and City of God. The school also focuses on insightful, modern literature, especially that of Paul Johnson (Modern Times, A History of the American People) and famous biographies such as Carry a Big Stick. The entire curriculum is heavily involved in reading and writing. Students are required to keep journals of what they read and how it is impacting them, called "Reading Journals" by the teachers.

[edit] References