Looking For a Nice Safe Community with a Fairly Conservative College

12.07.02 | mlmr

[mlmr]

I am looking for a safe, conservative community for my family. I live in the middle of liberal La-la land and homeschool my children. There are some changes in our lives and I now have to work and the children need to be in schools. They are not going to be quite as supervised or protected as before and I need to provide a safe community for them. I have a gifted and talented daughter who could take college courses. I have three younger children who I need to place in good public or Christian schools. Safety and conservative culture are two major factors here. Any input from Freepers would be gratefully received.

[Steve Eisenberg]

Grove City is not so "quaint" that bi-racial would be a big deal.

I've never been to Grove City, but I'll just make a comment about Pennsylvania. It is an usually moderate state--the conservatives are not all that conservative and the liberals are not all that liberal. By and large, I think this is good, and we are not known for racism.

Not often mentioned, but I am afraid true, is that our state is not all that friendly, at least in a superficial way. I remember reading a passage in a novel by the late great Conrad Richter. A character walking down a road in Maryland yells out a hello to a farmer working in this field, and the farmer waves back. He (or was it a she?) then tries the same thing a bit north, in Pennsylvania, and the farmer looks at him like he's nuts. This was written in the 1950's, but I think it is still kindda true. However, Grove City has to be better this way than where I live, right outside Philadelphia.

As you can see from the last paragraph, Pennsylvanians also do not tend to brag about their state.

[CWRWinger]

Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana

Valpo does not have good conservative values. Your post is disinformation.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Agreed, Huntsville, AL is another one of those little secrets where the living is quite good. Beautiful country and fairly mild weather, too.

[crystalk]

Oh, actually it wasn't very difficult during daylight hours, especially on Sabbath afternoons, but the doors were supposed to be kept open at least 8 inches if men were in the room...

No women EVER in men's dorm, though, unless they were mothers, sisters, etc and even then this was supposed to be business day only (10 to 6) and was announced by loudspeaker.

[Engine82]

Franklin Springs, Georgia is the place for you. We are 90 miles north of Atlanta, 90 miles south of Greenville and 3 hours from Charlotte North Carolina. Franklin County, Georgia has 3 elementary schools, 1 middle and 1 high school. I teach at the middle school. We start every faculty meeting with prayer and our other schools share prayer needs, etc.

I attended 2 years at Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs. UGA is 35 minutes down the road. Visit Emmanuel College @ www.emmanuel-college.edu .

[maestro]

Bump your#11).............BTTT

[Consort]

Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

[Robert A Cook PE]

Do you own now?

Or rent? Housing here is dirt cheap compared to CA.

This neck of the woods, figure 60,000.00 to 80,000.00 for a good starter house; 80-120,000.00 if you have any equity at all for a 3 bed+(or more) 1500 sq ft place, new ones can begin from 120,000 for 2000 sq ft plus.

[Jael]

How far do you want to go? How about Birmingham Al? They have one of the top rated Christian Day Schools in America. There are many safe neighborhoods in the Jefferson County area. It's conservative in many areas.

[mlmr]

I would appreciate the information

[mlmr]

Thank you

[mlmr]

We have a SDA elementary and highschool abouat 25 miles away that is well thought of...

[mlmr]

Thank you for the information...this is a very infomative thread

[crystalk]

Oh, just in case you didn't already know, Adventists also still operate quite a number of coed boarding schools at the secondary level in the USA.

I don't know where you live now, but if you gave the names of states you were interested in I could tell you if any are there.

The two best known in the USA are Shenandoah Valley Academy, at New Market Virginia, 100 miles due west of Washington, and Monterey Bay Academy which is at Watsonville Calif near Santa Cruz [hope this info is not TOO out of date]...

Since you had expressed an interest in the Northwest there are two each in Wash and Oreg on this list too.

The whole SDA church has included many homeschoolers for generations, and they have operated a Home Study Insitute out of the church headquarters to provide materials and help and defend homeschoolers since about 1902 or so.

[AnAmericanMother]

I'll second the proposal of Cobb or Paulding counties NW of Atlanta, but with this caveat: stay the heck away from the public schools, which are dreadful. I made the mistake of placing my son in the Cobb system -- briefly. It is boomed as a "good" system but it is not. He is now in private school. His sister has been in private school for some time.

Fortunately, there are a good number of excellent private schools to choose from. They range from the creme de la creme - Westminster (probably the best and nominally "Judeo Christian"), Pace (non-religious), Marist (Catholic), Lovett (Episcopal but no longer church-connected) - all except Marist are in the city but within easy reach of Cobb County - through smaller and frankly denominational Christian schools - through newer Christian schools like Whitefield Academy (which has made a strong and impressive start)- to very small specialty schools for children with special interests and/or special needs or disabilities. The best thing about Atlanta is that a private school for almost any budget and for almost any type of school you desire is available.

Like all major metro areas, there are pockets of "bad" areas even in Cobb and Paulding, both with respect to property values and crime. My advice to folks moving to this area from far away is ALWAYS to rent for a time while you scope out neighborhoods, shopping, schools, etc. to make sure it's a good fit. Another idea is to introduce yourself to the sheriff or police chief and just ASK where the good neighborhoods are. I did this when we moved to Cobb county . . . the local precinct captain was a little startled, but I told him I believed in talking to the people who knew and he was happy to speak with me about the various neighborhoods we were considering.

[AppyPappy]

Appalachian State University, Boone, NC

I was going to interview with Samaritan's Purse but found I couldn't afford to live there.

[keeper53]

~~~~Check out Liberty University(www.liberty.edu)~~~
My sophomore loves it!Very generous with scholarships(academic,athletic).Good programs of study.Fun!lots to do.
I know of a family that was hit by cancer(both parents at smae time) and Liberty gave them a generous gift to let the son continue to attend... check out their website--you may be pleasantly surprised!
Another school we looked at seriously:
Cedarville(Ohio)--excellent engineering program.Friendly to homeschoolers...

comment:we looked at Grove City--excellent of course,but also quite a bit of $$ to attend.Also one must be in the very top of the SAT/ACT to be accepted.

[TopDog2]

Yes, it's close to Gary and Chicago, but it is in conservative Porter County. Voters in Porter County have voted down casino gambling, strip clubs and porn shops. Porter County residents can't rent X-rated videos either. Valparaiso's proximity to Chicago means that events there are within easy reach. The Indiana Dunes are nearby as well which is a plus. It is a pretty good, safe place to live.

[TopDog2]

Pardon me? It is a "fairly conservative college". That's what was asked for. How is that disinformation?

[mlmr]

I am always amazed with the grace of Christian charity. A couple of years ago I signed my daughter up to a Christian camp and paid the initial deposit. We subsequently took a major financial hit and I called to cancel her placement and renounced my deposit. The camp director said, bring her and forget the fee. I got off the phone and just cried. People we didn't know were just so openhearted. What a blessing.