Cool Kids: Religion important to youth

RATHDRUM – Being a Christian is cool. Just ask 12-year-old Buck Whetstone. Buck, whose real name is Albert Charles Whetstone IV, has attended Christian schools his whole life and says he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I went to public school once when I was younger,” said Buck. “But I was only there for six days.”

He said one reason he enjoys the setting of a private school is the freedom he has to express his beliefs.

“It’s a lot of fun and you get to learn about God and speak freely about it (religion),” he said.

Buck attends Classical Christian Academy in Post Falls where he will enter the seventh grade this fall. Up until a year ago, Buck lived in Sandpoint with his mom, Dani Cunningham, where he attended Sandpoint Christian School. Last fall he moved to Rathdrum so he could spend more time with his dad.

He said he and his dad enjoy doing a lot of the same things. His mom is cool, but “she is a girl,” said Buck, showing signs that there comes a time in a boy’s life when he feels a need to identify more closely with a male role model.

Although Buck says his favorite class is math, he also enjoyed his history course this year. The nearly year-long study of the Civil War culminated with a spring trip to Washington, D.C., for the sixth-grade students.

“We visited Gettysburg, the Library of Congress, the Air and Space Museum, The Capitol, The White House, Harpers Ferry, the battle of the first and second Manassas,” said Buck, trying to recall all the sights he took in during the five-day trip. “We also visited the Lincoln Memorial, the Kennedy Memorial and the Washington Monument, but I still feel like I am missing something.”

Buck said he especially enjoyed visiting the Library of Congress, even though they were not allowed to touch any of the books. He explained that visitors have to be 18 to even look at the books and must be a member of Congress to check them out. But that didn’t stop him from being amazed at both the information housed in the library as well as the structure itself.

“They have the world’s largest collection of baseball cards and comic books,” said Buck. “The pillars were cool. It was gigantic.” He added that he was also impressed that the Library of Congress has the first printed Bible.

In anticipation of their trip to the nation’s capital, the sixth-grade class held the Civil War Gala, an event attended by families who watched each student present a speech about a certain Civil War era historical figure.

“I was assigned Robert E. Lee,” said Buck. He wrote an essay on Lee which he presented in costume during the gala. As part of his assignment he and his dad, Sheb, made a warship out of cardboard and spray painted it gray.

Buck said he has really enjoyed the time he has been able to spend with his dad since moving in with him a year ago. The two share a love of the outdoors and do as much as they can together.

“I am more of an outdoors person than most kids,” said Buck. “Nowadays all they (many kids) want to do is sit on the couch and watch TV.”

This summer Buck has learned to water-ski. He went on two skis only a couple of times before learning to slalom.

“My dad said I caught on pretty quick,” said Buck. “He said it took him forever to get up on two skis and I skied double for only like two or three days.”

As for winter sport, Buck said he enjoys snowboarding. Last year he went to Lookout Pass for a day with his class and prior to moving to Rathdrum he also boarded at Schweitzer in Sandpoint.

Buck spends every other weekend with his mom during the school year and also the weeks during the summer. She has taught him a lot about Christianity and the value of community. They own the first Habitat for Humanity house in their development and his mom continues to be very involved. He is obviously proud of her. Together they attend church and they spend time with Buck’s younger half brother, Andy.

And although Buck says he would like to find a church to attend with his dad, he said that the two have trouble agreeing. Buck, who prefers a more contemporary church service, said his dad is more traditional.

“My dad is stuck in the ‘80s,” said Buck. “He wants a church with a hymn book and now so many churches have PowerPoint.”

There is no doubt that Buck is an articulate, confidant kid who has given a lot of thought about what he wants to do in life, even at the age of 12. He says he will continue to go to a Christian school through the 12th grade. “Then I am going to college and get a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering.”