Before Ambleside, I attended traditional Christian schools. In third grade, I was depressed, acting out, behind in math, trailing in reading, and I hated school. I was deeply convinced that I was stupid. My parents were fearful for my future, questioning if I would even graduate high school.
I didn’t simply read about Abraham Lincoln or study algebra in the same way that other secondary school students did. Rather than having reading assignments for homework, I read and discussed living books together with my classmates. We made discoveries and came to understanding, and I was enlightened to the past.
In the five years since graduating from Ambleside, I have held close the loves that it shaped in me. I love peaceful learning; Ambleside formed in me a diligence and deep interest which outlasts and supersedes the bribery of grades, the perfectionism that drives procrastination, and the harshness of hurry.
May 2023 marked the trip to Washington, D.C., when Ambleside high school students from around the country gathered together for a time of learning in our nation’s capital. It was a beautiful week. We shared meals and delighted in conversations with other students of a similar age, who are participating in the same educational model that we are.
