Our New School Name

 

I’ve homeschooled 4 children for over 23 years and we have never chosen a school name. In our state, we use cover schools rather than register as private schools, so we’ve never been required to have a name. On occasions that I was asked for a school name I would write “Lott Homeschool” Borrrrring!

I was recently asked to do a review for HomeschoolDiploma.com (Watch for the full review in a few weeks!) and I realized that we should have a school name to put on the diploma. Although just having a heading of “diploma” or “high school diploma was an option, I felt that an actual school name would be best. So Emily and I started brainstorming.

I really wanted a name that would be meaningful and would convey our values and reason for home educating.  Not just something cutesy. Our last name isn’t very interesting as part of a school name. My first thought was to center around the idea of wisdom. My goal for Emily is for her to be wise, to be knowledgeable about the world and about our Christian and Western Civilization heritage, to think critically and to be able to spot and counter faulty logic. And to acknowledge that all knowledge comes from God. Using a concordance, I searched the Bible for passages on wisdom, searched the internet for translations of the word, but didn’t come up with anything we liked.

We finally decided on the name “Oak Tree Academy.” Although the name isn’t meaningful to anyone else until we explain it, it does have an origin that reflects our goals and values.

1. Psalm 1: 1-3 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.  I want Emily to stand firm in the Lord, focusing her life on Him.
2. Isaiah 61:3 … to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. We have been through some hard trials over the past ten years. Yet God has sustained us through it all. If Emily graduates from high school as an “oak of righteousness,” standing firm and confident in God, then our years of homeschooling and training are a success.
3. We do have many oak trees in our yard, so the name is fitting in that respect as well!