210 School Series: Benefits of Private High School with Luke Baker

210. School Series: Benefits of Private High School with Luke Baker

 

Proverbs 9:9 (NIV) "Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning."

 

**Transcription Below**

 

Questions and Topics We Cover:

1. In your private school setting, what is something unique you get to teach?

2. What sets apart private high school from other schooling options?

3. For parents deciding which school option is best for their family situation, what are a few of your favorite reasons to recommend they choose private high school?

 

Luke Baker is an Adjunct Professor at Bradley, Illinois Central College, and Social Studies Teacher at Peoria Christian School in Central Illinois. He is a veteran teacher, world traveler, active club sponsor, and passionate scholar of history.

 

Thank You to Our Sponsor: Midwest Food Bank

 

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Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)

 

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

 

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

 

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” 

 

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” 

 

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

 

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” 

 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

 

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

 

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”

 

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

 

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“

 

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“

 

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

 

**Transcription**

 

[00:00:00] <music>

 

Laura Dugger: Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. 

 

[00:00:17] <music>

 

Laura Dugger: Thank you to an anonymous donor to Midwest Food Bank who paid the sponsorship fee in hopes of spreading awareness. Learn more about this amazing nonprofit organization at MidwestFoodBank.org. 

 

We are continuing our school series to learn from teachers in various schooling options, including private, public, and homeschool. If you missed the kickoff yesterday, I hope you also go back to tune in and hear from Brianna Haworth. 

 

Today, we get to learn from private high school teacher Luke Baker. On a more personal note, Luke is married to my sister, so he's been our brother-in-law for almost 20 years. He is a reputable teacher in our area, and I hope his perspective continues to challenge us to be thoughtful as we continue to ponder which option may be best for our family at this time. [00:01:19] 

 

Here's our chat.

 

Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Luke.

 

Luke Baker: Thank you, Laura.

 

Laura Dugger: So glad to have you with us today. Can you just start us off by sharing your personal testimony?

 

Luke Baker: Yeah. I grew up in central Illinois. I had, I think, a pretty typical small town near a small city upbringing. My family was really involved in our local schools. My mom, especially, was really involved in our local church. Grew up with an Anabaptist education and kind of had the central, Midwest, small-town worldview in many good and bad ways that comes with all that. 

 

And then I very deliberately wanted to wait to come to the Lord. I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do, but that was maybe some of Satan's way of keeping me back from a redeemed life. [00:02:19] But a little ahead of schedule, I came to Christ in college and really was surrounded by a very good group of young believers. 

 

But I kind of had a shift in my belief system when I got to travel overseas, do some stuff in the Middle East as part of a very secular college outreach group. But as a young believer, obviously being in places like Jerusalem and Nazareth really spoke to me. Clearly coming to the Lord was the biggest change in my life. But I would say that trip to Israel and getting married were the other two. And it kind of steered my worldview in slightly different directions than maybe my upbringing would have been. 

 

I went into education. I started out as an engineering major. After differential equations, I thought maybe teaching history was a better idea for me. I've been in public school and now teach in private schools. 

 

I have three kids, and it's been very interesting from top down, you know, sitting at high school and teaching as an adjunct in some colleges, to watch my kids come up towards me in age, towards the age group I work with. [00:03:31] 

 

I've been blessed to teach at a very good college prep school in Peoria, Illinois, that I'm pretty passionate about. It's been a good ride with the Lord. I really, every year, feel very blessed and very confident that either through the people He surrounded me with or through His own grace directly, God will provide.

 

Laura Dugger: And you are extremely intelligent and a very gifted teacher. And it's neat to see how the Lord took that interest in history and how you get to use that professionally now. So, Luke, in your private school setting, what is something unique that you have the opportunity to teach?

 

Luke Baker: One of my favorite things we do pretty much every year... we call it mini-term. Some schools call it spring extension or spring break at school. But we spend a full week teaching non-traditional classes. [00:04:33] So some teachers will take a group of students hiking for a week. One year I taught football because we don't have football at our school. We're kind of a soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball type school.

 

The past few years, I've been able to use computer games to teach kind of a space exploration, logistics, economics. It's this clever little program that lets kids really kind of simulate what a future economy might be like. They're essentially playing space truckers and delivering goods from point A to point B, but they get a real kick out of it. 

 

We learn a little science, a little math, a lot of economics and a lot of kind of resource management, stuff that I don't think kids usually get very excited about. But when all of a sudden you put it in space and it's a computer game, they really enjoy it. So I get to scratch that engineering side a little bit, even though I'm a history teacher.

 

Then after school, one day a week, we have a board game club, which I really enjoy. [00:05:36] And it's an attempt to get kids to unplug. Instead of sitting in their basement on a computer or on their phones, they're sitting across from somebody playing a game. They're pretty complex little games. They scratch a lot of the same itches that those less social, very intelligent kids kind of need. But it does it in a way where they get to work on people skills. So those two things I think I really enjoyed.

 

Laura Dugger: I love the freedom that you're talking about in those many terms. And I'm just curious, is that typically a highlight for the students?

 

Luke Baker: I hope so. Usually, they fill up pretty fast and I get quite a few repeat customers. I mean, some students would just rather do school. But especially juniors and sophomores, because they're kind of seniors, they can have some internship opportunities and stuff during that week that they really do well. [00:06:34] Or go on mission trips, which is why it exists. It gives extra time next to spring break for mission trips to happen without leaving so much school undone. But it's really fun for the rest of us. 

 

You really get to connect with your students in a really different way. I really don't know how it works for me, because it's kind of hard to see yourself. But I can totally see teachers and students that either would never interact with each other because schedules and interests and subjects don't align, or they're interacting with a teacher that they've had for some core subject and now they're both doing woodworking or they're both doing cooking. It's an extra connection in their interest that normally they wouldn't have. And it's a lot of fun to see that happen.

 

Laura Dugger: That sounds like a lot of fun. I'm also curious, just as we're looking at this series and parents and students may be listening in as they're considering private or public or homeschooling or other options, what would you say sets apart private high school from the other schooling options? [00:07:42] 

 

Luke Baker: That's a very good question. That's a loaded one. I would like to start by saying I have seen and interacted with homeschoolers and kids who've gone all the way through public school that have done really, really well, have been in an incredible place with their spiritual walk, and they just knocked it out of the park. 

 

So I'm going to have a hard time not sounding like I'm trying to sell my option as better than the others. But I'm just talking about like when things go wrong or when things go right, this is the differences I see. Because we do get a fair amount of public school kids that come in freshman year. We do get a fair amount of kids that are transitioning from homeschool to high school because, you know, mom and dad don't want to do AP bio or chemistry in the house. Or, you know, they're not qualified to teach a college credit class. So I feel like I have a pretty eyes wide open cross-section of everything. [00:08:43] I went to public school the whole way through in the area. 

 

But to me, like if you're looking at homeschool, whatever people ask, kind of the analogy I use, my students make fun of me for using analogies way too much, is like being a YouTube contractor. Like you totally can build your own house by watching YouTube. And it could be a great house. And there'd be no problem with it. And people can do that. 

 

But for a lot of us, we get pretty lost in the woods really fast and we would be in trouble just because it can be done or it's good enough. It would be tricky to say that somebody doing it on their own using resources would ever do as well as a professional, that this is what they do, that they're certified. They're bringing in professional electricians, professional carpenters, HVAC people, people that do siting and gutters. We all know in our circles, people that this is their entire professional career. [00:09:41] 

 

If you're homeschooling, you're kind of taking all that on and you're not a professional. That's what makes it really tricky. Again, I have a good friend who built his own house, sold it, and it's remarkable. You know, there are people that do that and do it really, really well. Even my analogy, I think, holds well that it can be done and the right people know, yeah, I can do this. 

 

But especially with COVID, we saw a lot of people experiment with homeschooling and it went really wrong really fast for some of them.

 

Laura Dugger: That's super helpful to hear the comparison from your professional standpoint. Is there any other advantage that you see specifically that private school offers beyond the professional certified teachers?

 

Luke Baker: Yeah, the classroom environment... and homeschools have done good with having co-ops and all that. And I've seen some students really excel in that. But I coach Scholastic Bowl and Scholastic Bowl tends to get a lot of kids who don't do team sports, don't understand a team attitude and they struggle. [00:10:48] You know, this is their first time doing any sort of organized, competitive, anything. 

 

I've coached football and tennis and other things as a varsity high school coach before and the contrast gets really obvious really quick. The idea of existing in kind of a shared space where others get, I mean, everyone gets to have the spotlight. Everybody gets to ask questions. I mean, that's for most people where their professional goal is going to end up too.

 

The homeschool students can really, really struggle with that. And it can really kind of throw them off. One of the things I often tell parents is your kids are not the same kids when they're not around you. I mean, they just aren't. I had experience with my middle child. There was a stage when she was younger where she was our discipline challenge. She really was at home. Every single teacher for those like two or three years in elementary school, they would just go on and on about how kind and quiet and helpful and just tenderhearted she was. [00:11:56] I was sure we had got the wrong teacher conference. How could this be this kid who's just, you know, hitting the fences nonstop? 

 

Everybody has different ways to behave in different environments. One of my cautions with homeschool parents is those other sides of your kid don't get cultivated when they're not around other people and other authority figures. There's a dynamic that can really get lost in any time, K through 12, a developmental stage that, I don't know, that I think is pretty vital. Because, I mean, we all know when we grew up, we were different around our bosses, different around our grandparents than we were around our parents. You just got to be careful that you don't get too small of a circle.

 

I think parents often think, especially the older grades, like middle school and high school, that school's about content. And homeschoolers knock out the content like nobody's business. Homeschool kid shows up, they will be well-read, they'll be well-versed. 

 

I teach a Bradley class on education when I taught last year, a class on education to kids who are going the next year to become teachers in high schools. [00:13:06] And I really had to hammer into them, your content is just a vehicle for skills that students need. I think it's very easy for a homeschool parent to hit the wrong target. That you're so worried about getting the math and the science, what you don't understand is a professional who's doing it right. And I'm not saying they all do. We're really teaching skills like how to defend a topic, how to analyze information, and see the bias in a source.

 

I mean, I always tell my parents at PCS, the school that I teach at, if they learn the skills and they hate history, I would take that over the flip, over them learning all the history, which I really am very passionate about. I love history. But there's all these skills we're cultivating, that's the targets we're really caring about. Whether it's English, math, or history. 

 

When I taught math, students would always be like, "When am I going to use this?" [00:14:08] And I'm like, you probably won't. You will never have to figure out a parabola for 90% of you. That's not why we do this. We're doing it, can you take rules? Can you take procedures? Can you apply them? Can you articulate what you've done? Can you then see other times when those rules do or don't apply? That's vital to every life path you might be on. Math is just a vehicle for teaching that. 

 

And it's very hard, I think, for an amateur educator or a student reading on their own to get all that. Again, some do, many do. But that's a challenge, I think, in homeschool.

 

Laura Dugger: That's a great perspective. Luke, what positive impact do you see private high school making in the lives of your students and of the community?

 

Luke Baker: Community, I think, is unique for... I mean, especially my private school, we draw from like 12 different school districts. I think we draw from 130 different churches. I am at a private school where parents have to sign off on a statement of faith. We have to have at least the parents saying that, you know, they support a Christian worldview. [00:15:20] 

 

So our community is that. It's like a central Illinois community. It's really neat to me, and especially with my own kids, my oldest daughter is a freshman, that they have this area-wide community of Christians from different backgrounds, different family heritage, different cultures. But they all share Christ, and they all share the school experience together. 

 

And all the time, that grows, right? You know, they'll run into somebody who knows somebody. It's really neat to see how well that has worked, that they all get to interact with each other. 

 

There's also an accountability to that. I remember we had a kid years ago transferring. It was a Caterpillar family, which is a big company around here that's constantly moving families in and out. And the kid said, "Mr. Baker, this really stinks. I can't go anywhere without running into someone from PCS or somebody that knows me from PCS." [00:16:20] It's like everyone's watching me all the time. And I said, "Yeah, isn't that neat?" And he's like, "No, no, that's not neat at all." 

 

But I like that, like this idea that iron is always sharpening iron, kind of in our extended PCS, you know, private Christian school community. I think accountability is something we've lost as a culture and, you know, an area of private school can kind of help wrestle that back a little bit.

 

Laura Dugger: Yeah, accountability is the word that came to my mind as well. And I'm thinking even for those families who are moving in, that's exciting to be a part of a larger community and hopefully feel more connected and make it feel more like home. So I'm with you. I see that as a benefit. 

 

Let's take a quick break to hear a message from our sponsor. 

 

[00:17:05] <music>

 

Sponsor: Midwest Food Bank exists to provide industry-leading food relief to those in need while feeding them spiritually. They are a food charity with a desire to demonstrate God's love by providing help to those in need. Unlike other parts of the world where there's not enough food, in America, the resources actually do exist. That's why food pantries and food banks like Midwest Food Bank are so important.

 

The goods that they deliver to their agency partners help to supplement the food supply for families and individuals across our country, aiding those whose resources are beyond stretched. Midwest Food Bank also supports people globally through their locations in Haiti and East Africa, which are some of the areas hardest hit by hunger arising from poverty. 

 

This ministry reaches millions of people every year, and thanks to the Lord's provision, 99% of every donation goes directly toward providing food to people in need. The remaining 1% of income is used for fundraising, cost of leadership, oversight, and other administrative expenses. Donations, volunteers, and prayers are always appreciated for Midwest Food Bank. 

 

To learn more, visit MidwestFoodBank.org or listen to Episode 83 of The Savvy Sauce, where the founder, David Kieser, shares miracles of God that he's witnessed through this nonprofit organization. I hope you check them out today. 

 

[00:18:34] <music>

 

Laura Dugger: Do you have any systems or goals in your own classroom that you've seen have proven over time to be most beneficial?

 

Luke Baker: Yeah. One of the things I really try to grow in the students after their freshman year. Freshman year, they're trying to do school, they're trying to... I mean, about 30% of our kids did not come from our eighth grade, so they're having to think critically now instead of a little bit more rote memorization, all that.

 

But as they get older, the idea of questioning appropriately things you're told, things you're taught, things you read, whether that's a teacher saying, "Here's how I think something is," whether it's a social media news article that you ran across on Facebook or whatever, whether it's a YouTube video or a news outlet, to have an appropriately critical mind to where you're trust but verify, prove all things, kind of that mentality. [00:19:41] And how to do that right and how not to be, you know, abrasive or rude or to the other extreme, you know, naive and over trusting that there's a balance there that I think is tough for all of us.

 

But then with a safety net, we can kind of do that at a private Christian school and really talk about things from a Christian worldview too. You know, just like the Bible answers this, you know, how do you find this in the Bible? How do you understand how to use the Word and how to make that a living daily decision tool, referring to the Word and leading with your church community and listening to the Spirit?  It's a lot of fun when it clicks. 

 

I would say for a lot of our seniors, we get to see that moment when they're kind of up and running and they're doing them really, really well. Some of them you find out two or three years down the road, you know, you got to wait a little bit for that seed to bear fruit. But I really enjoy that. That's fun to see. 

 

And I will say our kids are really good at coming back and telling us their stories after they're gone because they're excited. [00:20:42] You know, they want to come back and tell their Christian community that they finally got it, you know?

 

Laura Dugger: Wow, that's encouraging. Is that something you would say you're even using daily? Is it more organic that you're opening the Bible with them, or is that part of your curriculum?

 

Luke Baker: I would love to say it's daily. I would say they take me on my word a little bit sometimes. But we have Bible classes that they take every day, just like a regular class. Often they'll come kind of locked and loaded with the Scripture. And it's fun to see how the Spirit kind of orchestrates it all. I cannot say how many times... I mean, probably 50 times in a school year, if not more. They're coming straight from, or yesterday they just covered a Scripture or in chapel, because we all do chapel together once a week. You know, the topic came up, or this story was told, or the verse was read, or this Bible lesson was taught that immediately links into exactly what I wanted to talk about and gives them the Scripture kind of like mentally in hand that I would have wanted to reference to. And it really feels good to see how well that all works.

 

And it has nothing to do with... you know, I didn't know that was going to happen. I would love to say I know all my fellow teacher schedules and knew that this was coming. But it is very much just the moving of the Spirit through our curriculum. [00:22:05] 

 

I think after a couple of years there, almost all the teachers, you know, you learn to just be ready for it. It's a lot of fun. It also saves a lot of teaching time when they're already kind of ready with the stuff you were kind of hoping they'd get. And then you can do next-level stuff or have a little bit deeper conversation because we're all on our staff kind of building off of each other back and forth.

 

Laura Dugger: That is so exciting. I love moments like that when truly the credit can only go to the Spirit orchestrating those events and that timing. Luke, what do you see as the most important thing for students to learn or master by the time they leave high school?

 

Luke Baker: To really know yourself. To know here's the gifts God gave me, here's where my strengths are, here's my weaknesses, here's the things I need to have a mentor for, here's the things maybe I could be a mentor to younger believers on. [00:23:11] You know, just to have... I mean, I know I struggle with knowing yourself, understanding how has God made me, where are my strengths and my weaknesses.

 

And not to maneuver away from your weaknesses, but to have support with the communities that God puts in our lives to take care of those. One of the stories I bring up quite a bit is the story of the talons where a young prince hands out, you know, sometimes it's told as money or chests of gold. And some of his subjects invested it and grew it and then were like, look what I have. But the sad part of the story in the parable is there was a servant who had buried it all. So nothing changed and then just gives it back to him.

 

There's a bit of a pun in the old English on what the word talent means there, but it kind of works that like don't bury your talents. God gave you these gifts. I think high school students so much want to already be like, I know I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be an accountant. I know I'm going to be a fashion designer. [00:24:19] And I try to very gently pull out of them. They're like, you have other talents and other gifts. Don't put yourself on a rail yet. Invest in those. You're biblically called to take the things you were given and invest all of them in all the ways. Don't be the single-note person when God's given you the ability to play chords. 

 

Navigating that is the thing that... if I could pick one thing that students know, it's that they know how God's made them to be and are embracing that.

 

Laura Dugger: Wow. I love that so much. A lot of wisdom in there. What would you say is a helpful way parents can partner with you for the benefit of their children?

 

Luke Baker: That's a bit of a self-serving question. I think parents kind of grow up with their students. Again, having kids that were very young when I started teaching at the high school and watching them come up. [00:25:23] I think parents just kind of knowing that they're growing up alongside their students... I mean, I don't want to say immature because that's not what I mean. But like you kind of exist in the mind space of your child because you're thinking for them and with them.

 

I think so many parents really, really want to endorse and make their kids feel like everything they did was valid and right. And that's not really what we're called to do. I think when parents and teachers, both well-intending buttheads, that if they're doing everything right, that that's still a battleground. Especially with that oldest student coming through, I see it with freshman parents a lot, they want to validate everything their kid's done. 

 

That's not what God models for us as an authority figure. That He doesn't exist to say everything you've done is good no matter why you did it. He can make it good, but He's there to shepherd us, to guide us, to provide us things like the Bible and the Holy Spirit. [00:26:28] And I think parents so much want the win to be on their kid's team that they're forgetting where their place is on the team. 

 

They're trying to be a teammate and a cheerleader and supposed to be coaches. We're supposed to be having a big picture in mind, guiding the kids along. 

 

And you kind of should think of a teacher as an assistant coach. That we exist to help that goal of parenting and raising a kid, but everyone's got to kind of embrace their role. Assistant coach can't be a head coach, and a head coach can't be a player or a cheerleader. And it's tricky. It's hard with all the emotion. Every time I have a second or third board come through, parents have already got it. I mean, they're good at it. They learn really, really quick the do's and their don'ts. 

 

But if a parent and a teacher want to get along, I think parent is the head coach, but that's how we need it to be. And that's how it works best is when everyone's doing what they're supposed to do in that relationship.  [00:27:30] 

 

Laura Dugger: That's a helpful analogy.

 

Luke Baker: Then I think parents always want to hold cards really close to their chest about their students, whether that's allergies or learning disabilities or family problems. You should be at a place with your school where you can feel like you can share that stuff with your teachers and with other people that are around your kids. Because if you don't, it really does create a lot of problems for everyone.

 

I don't know how many times things have come up, even at Peoria Christian, but certainly when I was in public school too, and we just needed to know. As a young teacher, before I had kids of my own, I was always very like, Why would a parent not tell us? Why would they not give us everything we would need to know about their students so we could help them in class? 

 

Well, now as a parent, I know it's because you have to trust the person you're giving it to. And yeah, the schools I was at and some of the places I was in the past, I could see why a parent knowing everyone that was involved wouldn't want that information out there, wouldn't trust the proper handling of that, the sensitivity to it, the right way of approaching the kid, you know, tactfully and talking about it. [00:28:42] 

 

And when a parent or a student is thinking about, am I at the school or in the educational environment I should be in, if you can't trust the people who you're interacting with every day with really important information about you that either affects your education or your physical well-being, that's a good red flag on you're not maybe in the best teaching environment and learning environment. 

 

Of course, if you are in that environment, please share, because it's so much easier to handle things if you know they're there than to be guessing at it all the time.

 

Laura Dugger: For parents deciding which school option is best for their family situation, what are a few of your favorite reasons to recommend they choose private high school?

 

Luke Baker: Well, private high school, I mean, I'll talk about my school in particular, there are families that I deeply love and really enjoy their children. If they ask me, "Should we be coming to Peoria Christian? Why would we come to Peoria Christian?" I would honestly tell them probably not for you. [00:29:45] 

 

For example, private schools are usually very limited on things like vocational technology. We don't have a welding team. We don't have a shop class. We don't have a lot of those things. And very few Christian schools would have that. So that might be a reason to stay with a local public school. 

 

I would also look at your school board. There are certain communities in Central Illinois we just don't draw very heavily from. And I know why. It's because those schools are very well run. The teachers are as open about their faith as they can be. The board is very intentional and very parent-centered. So in so many ways, it's almost like a public Christian school. If you have that, maybe we're not for you.

 

Sometimes I make the analogy of someone looked at my 15-year-old SUV and said, "A Range Rover would be a much nicer vehicle. And here's why Range Rover is better." And everything they said would be perfectly true and 100% correct. [00:30:50] It just doesn't make sense for me to go out and buy a Range Rover, not because my car is better, but because it just that makes sense for where I am in life and my income and all that. I think a lot of that plays into it. 

 

On the flip side, we do pull some kids from very good schools where the student just really, really needed a reset, whether it's a year away or just to be able to start over without a reputation. Sometimes kids just don't ever click with a friend group as people change, you know, middle school and high school. I don't know if there was a big push in local churches to kind of reconsider giving your kid a reset, but I feel like we've had quite a few students last four or five years where that's kind of what their mentality was that they wanted to do over.

 

They wanted to be able to come and reset everything their freshman or sophomore year. And most of the time, I think that goal has been pretty well achieved. A good school can kind of be a two-edged sword sometimes if it's just not working for your students. [00:31:55] 

 

Laura Dugger: And what encouragement would you want to leave with any students or parents who are listening right now?

 

Luke Baker: I would encourage parents and students, especially if they are in public schools, to really think about what are the motivation of the authority figures in your life. I mean, I can tell you because I've taught in the education side of the college level. Young teachers, they very much want to change how your kid thinks, how your kid feels, what your kid's worldview is.

 

And to them, for all the noblest of reasons. I'm not a big fan of most of the major news outlets. But I know this whole idea of teachers trying to shape students has been pretty front and center. And, yeah, that's 100% true. And so then who are you sending your kids to be with? Or if you're the student, who are you sitting in front of? 

 

It's a tricky duality to say, I'm going to trust them to teach me math or science or English. But they know what they're talking about, the authorities. But then when they switch to how do I handle life's problems, how do I handle life decisions? How do I deal with these really important things? [00:33:14] I've got to know when to shut them off because they don't share my worldview, they don't believe the Bible, they're not looking through the same decision matrix that I want to.

 

And especially for, I think, middle school ages, but also at high school, that's really, really hard. How do you trust a person half the time while they're talking and then feel like I have to ignore them the other half? If you feel like that's what you're dealing with, if private school can work, we can kind of take that off the table, where not only are they having to not listen to a worldview or listen to kind of an indoctrination, but like we're in sync with what the student or the family wants to learn.

 

I can't tell you how many times I've had students ask me very tricky religious questions. And we break open the Bible and we read it and then I send an email to the Bible teacher and say, "Hey, so-and-so's really talking about this. If you have any insight, talk to them." It can become a running month-long conversation. It just happens alongside their schooling.[00:34:20] We're all helping them and we're all supporting them. If that's what is lacking in a public school experience, I think that's a good time to start thinking about private education.

 

Laura Dugger: That's a great perspective. It sounds like at your school, you all can kind of come around and support them as a team, support the student. That is such an invaluable gift as a young person to have so many trustworthy mentors. So I appreciate you sharing that. 

 

How did you find out about The Savvy Sauce? Did someone share this podcast with you? Hopefully, you've been blessed through the content. And now we would love to invite each of you to share these episodes with friends and help us spread the word about The Savvy Sauce. You can share today's episode or go back and choose any one of your other previous favorites to share. Thanks for helping us out. 

 

Luke, you already know that we're called The Savvy Sauce because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge or discernment. And so as my final question for you today, what is your savvy sauce? [00:35:29] 

 

Luke Baker: Well, my savvy sauce, when my firstborn was growing up, we're a little bit older than most parents with kids our age, especially in the towns we live in. And so I had an opportunity to kind of watch for four or five, six years, whatever it was, all the people around me, whether it was family, church, co-workers, how they parented. And I decided that I was going to always answer any question my kids asked honestly and to the level I think it needed to be answered. But not to make up... I'm not picking on my father, but like, you know, if you don't eat your green beans, the police are going to come arrest you, you know. And sometimes silly, harmless stuff like that. But I just didn't like that. It did not appeal to me. 

 

So there have been many times I've told my kids, it's not really something we need to worry about now or it's not something we need to talk about. I think at least for my children, the idea of just always being honest with them and answering every question, which kids can ask a lot of questions and I get that. [00:36:43] But I mean, I'm a teacher. If I have a talent, it should be answering questions. And so I would just encourage parents, like it's so easy to fall into little truisms or clever little stories, but it has paid off really, really well.

 

Especially now that I'm into the teenage years, my daughters, because that's my oldest two are both girls, know that dad's always telling them exactly what he believes, what he knows to be true. And I'm not being flippant with my answers. I'll tell them I don't know if I don't know. There's no harmful filler information to try to avoid saying something creative. I just tell them the truth. 

 

And then anytime you can make something have an educational impact, don't force it, but do it. Sometimes I get eye rolls from my daughters and the growns. My youngest, Leo, is seven, so he's pretty much up for anything. [00:37:43] 

 

Like, for example, my middle school daughter had a friend over and we have a traveling section of the Vietnam War Memorial. It's called the Wall that Heals, coming through a local community. It was late at night. It was dark. They were still roaming around the house, not getting to sleep. It's like, hey, let's go check out the wall. I know they weren't super thrilled with the idea of seeing something that felt like it was a history thing, but I think it paid off well. 

 

Not always are my kids happy to go to a museum or read a historical marker, but if you moderate it appropriately... you know, I never get to spend as much time at a museum as I would love to. But you figure out to what degree can my kids handle this stuff and then maneuver it around. It has been really fun, especially with my oldest child, to watch her go through middle school, having been to places, known things, seen things, read about things. I mean, it's not just history stuff. We do science museums. She's actually a counselor this summer in a science camp that she attended when she was younger. [00:38:50] 

 

To be able to have actually done those things, know those things, have experience hands-on, not just through a YouTube video with all of her subjects. Sometimes she knows more than her teacher about a thing because she's done it, she's seen it, she's been there. And we still have fun vacations and we still hit the beaches and go to the amusement parks and all that. But it's okay to make even fun things a little educational.

 

Laura Dugger: I love that. Spoken from a true heart of a teacher. Luke, I just hear so many comments in the community about what a fantastic and impactful teacher you are. I love hearing from your students or their parents. So I just want to say thank you for caring well for your students. And thank you for being my guest today.

 

Luke Baker: I do want to say, you talk about reputation and you and Mark and the East Peoria Chick-fil-A, it is always so fun to interact and meet people that either work there, that just go there. The community at large, especially when they don't know that I have any connection at all, really does just love the restaurant. [00:39:58] Both with the students that work there from all the different schools, but also just the experience being there. 

 

I wish you could unknowingly hear all the things I've heard about your family in the store, because I'm very proud always to let people know about my connection with it, because it has such an incredibly good reputation both for the food, but also for the light and the Christian example it puts out there in a community that needs it.

 

Laura Dugger: Thank you, Luke. I'll pass that along. That's credit to Mark. I'll pass it along, but thank you. And likewise, it's the same exact feeling of pride when they share and "Well, Mr. Baker is actually our brother-in-law.

 

Luke Baker: My families are very kind at PCS. Well, it's been my pleasure. Thank you for thinking of me when you were doing this.

 

Laura Dugger: One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. [00:40:59] But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him.

 

This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.

 

This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. 

 

We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. [00:42:04] Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

 

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen. 

 

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him. 

 

At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?

 

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. [00:43:09] Start by reading the book of John. 

 

Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. 

 

We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process. 

 

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. 

 

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.  [00:44:08]