Editor, Gazette-Journal:

While enjoying breakfast at a church in Mathews last week, I was in conversation with a Protestant pastor who was born outside the United States. He now lives in and preaches at a church in Mathews. He said that when he was growing up in his country, learning about Christianity was available, and was pursued by school-aged children, but was not readily encouraged by the adults.

He said the parents considered Christianity to be a sort of social club, so they only allowed the children to pursue this exposure to Christian teaching as long as they kept their grades up in their academic training. He went on to ask how training about Christianity was handled in the schools in Mathews. With great enthusiasm, I told him about my exposure to Christian education in the second and seventh grade classrooms at Cobbs Creek School. This conversation caused me to think about my exposure through all grades in elementary school.

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended...