New high school challenges teen’s beliefs
A high schooler is challenged on his beliefs after moving from homeschooling to public schooling.
By Chloe Peter | Reporter
Judd Martinson walked through the halls of Alexandria Area High School for the first time. He was used to sitting in his room studying alone all day but found himself surrounded by hundreds of students in this unfamiliar environment. Until freshman year of high school, Martinson’s only experiences with school had been two years of private Christian school and homeschool. When Martinson realized homeschool wasn’t the norm, he decided to give public high school a try. Although he had some friends from being involved in band and basketball, he soon realized he was stuck in the middle of the crowd at his new school. Martinson wasn’t a star quarterback or the kid sitting alone at lunch every day. He realized he was just your run-of-the-mill freshman. But, in the coming months, he would soon be pushed to evaluate the bubble of beliefs he grew up in.
“He’s always been ready for the stuff he takes on.” — Jennifer Martinson, Judd’s mother
Martinson grew up as a homeschooler who could work at his own pace and spend time learning what he needed to work on the most. Jennifer Martinson, Judd’s mother and former teacher, mentioned how fitting the switch to public schooling seemed at the time. Alexandria Area High School was brand new and state of the art. Martinson’s friends from marching band and basketball were already at the high school. And he was already ahead in his studies.
“He’s always been ready for the stuff he takes on,” Mrs. Martinson said when talking about Martinson’s preparedness for going to a public high school.
During his homeschooling life, he was always connected to youth groups, went to church, and was raised in a Christian household. Although he was still connected to his faith life, not all of his friends were. He soon realized the rarity of expressing a religion in public schooling. Outside of Martinson’s normal comfort zone, his eyes were opened to other people’s beliefs.
“The high school definitely challenged me to go deeper in my faith. All of the sudden I needed to know why I was a Christian,” Martinson said.
One day during ninth grade, he was walking toward the band room with one of his friends. A conversation about same sex marriage came up. Martinson stood by his Christian belief of homosexuality being a sin. His friend then brought up: if being gay was a sin, she could then stone him.
“I didn’t know how to respond…it’s a sensitive topic that Christians need to go about with love… I just didn’t understand the Bible well enough to respond,” Martinson said.
He began to spend some of his free time reading missionary works like the Apologetics of Rabi Zacharias in order to more fully grasp the reasoning behind his thoughts on bigger topics like abortion and homosexuality. Martinson spent an entire 20-hour car ride to Houston for a missionary trip helping in hurricane relief discussing different topics of faith with one of his teachers. He asked the pastor at his church and was told to look at a website that talks about tough questions as a Christian. Martinson didn’t want to continue rattling off the typical church answers to big questions.
“Judd has always been mature…he is a role-model among friends,” Jordan Tacker, a long-time friend of Martinson’s, said when talking about how he fits in with the crowd.
In later conversations, Martinson implemented what he had learned from talking with his pastor and reading Apologetics in order to approach them with more sensitivity.
