‘Family culture’ motivates Mayflower Heritage School teacher

Although the one-room country schoolhouses 100 years ago are gone, that doesn’t mean some of the concepts used are not still applied today.

Mayflower Heritage Christian School is one place that has those sentiments.

“It’s like family,” said Erin Long about the culture of the kindergarten through eighth-grade school that opened in 2002 within Crest Baptist Church. She teaches a combined third and fourth grade.

Long said what further defines the family culture is the pairing of an older student with a younger student.

“It’s like a mentor,” she said. “A junior-high student pairs up with a kindergarten student for reading once a week. The younger reads to the older kid.” During the school year, there are school events planned for the pairs.

Long can see the results of that relationship as her own daughter, Keira, is a kindergarten student.

“She loves it,” the mom said about her daughter’s school partner.

In December 2000, a group of Creston area people talked about their idea of a private Christian school in Creston

Mayflower Heritage opened its doors in fall 2002 with 11 students from kindergarten through sixth grade. In 2003, the seventh grade was added. Enrollment has fluctuated since year one. Enrollment has ranged from 11 to 45 and as many as 70.

“I love Mayflower’s smaller class size,” Long said. “The bigger kids can be with the little kids and build those relationships.”

Long is quite familiar with faith-based schools. From Des Moines, she attended Grand View Christian. The kindergarten through 12th grade school is one a few private, faith-based schools in metro-Des Moines.

“It was a great experience,” she said.

The school has no connection to the college in Des Moines of the same name. Long attended Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny with an interest in education.

After college, she returned to Grand View to begin her career.

“I was on the same staff with the teaches who I had in school,” she laughed.

Long said her main interest teaching is younger grades, although she has done middle-school grades, too.

Long would further her experience and career by teaching overseas in Portgual and returning to the states. She would eventually marry and end up in Creston and had previously taught at Mayflower Heritage. But she already has some familiarity with Creston.

A college friend, Brooke Weber, was from Creston. Weber showed her Creston a few times during those days.

After deciding to start a family, Long stayed home for children until she thought the time was right to return to the classroom. She was a welcome return said co-administrator Karla Powers.

“Erin was familiar with the school, knows how it functions and has a great heart for God,” Powers said.

Powers said what Long does in the classroom is appreciated.

“She is creative, she is smart and is great with the kids. She does a great job with what kids need and meets those needs.”

Powers said Long handles her kids in school very well.

“She has a kind heart and a heart of a teacher and of a mom. She does a great job being both.”

Long’s oldest child, nicknamed Nori, is in her third-grade class and maybe adds to the family culture Erin explained.

“She has called me mom,” Erin laughed. “It’s not a big deal to the other kids.”