Beye himself: Student lives, works and attended school at Stuhr Museum

Sonya Beye said she started home schooling her three children in part because officials from the Cedar Hollow and the Grand Island Public Schools couldn't agree which district contained her family's house.

That perhaps is understandable.

Sonya and Dale Beye's house is on the grounds of Stuhr Museum, where she and her husband serve as museum caretakers, especially during the off hours when the grounds are not open to the public.

"We take care of any problems," said Sonya, who noted those problematic situations sometimes include "critters" on the museum grounds.

Aaron is the only one of the Beyes' three children who has lived anywhere but the house just south of Stuhr Museum's Railroad Town, but his mother said that provides only a small distinction from his two sisters, Miki, 16, and Tori, 14.

"He was 20 months old when we moved here," she said. "He really has no memory of anything else."

Aaron spent three years studying at Christ Lutheran School in Grand Island before he started home schooling. Most of his classes were literally in his home at Stuhr Museum.

He is sticking close to home this summer, serving as an interpreter at Stuhr Museum, a job he has had the past three summers.

But the 18-year-old will be venturing farther afield this fall when he becomes a Hastings College freshman.

Asked why he chose to attend Hastings College, Beye did not hesitate with his answer: The good scholarship offer. He received a new scholarship from Hastings College, offered to those who become National Merit Scholarship Finalists.

It is a full-ride scholarship that covers tuition, room and board, and fees. Aaron also is receiving a separate scholarship that will cover most of the cost of his college textbooks.

At one point, he said, he talked to Hastings College officials about living at home and commuting to his college classes in Hastings. Aaron said his interest in commuting was strictly financial and was not linked to any reluctance to live away from home.

Once he discovered his scholarship covered room and board, he quickly opted for dorm life.

Living in a dorm with other students can be an education in and of itself, but Sonya has no doubt Aaron is ready for it. She noted that studies show home-schooled students typically are more independent than students from a traditional school.

For his part, Aaron already has taken traditional college classes, earning 26 credits from Central Community College, including 10 hours in Spanish, 10 in physics and six in English.

There were several reasons for taking the CCC classes, he and his mother said.

Sonya noted that whenever she tried to teach Aaron Spanish, she would start off in in the proper idiom but lapse into French, which she studied as a student. The two languages are closely linked as Romantic languages.

Aaron said another reason for taking the college classes was because he wanted a greater challenge than he could get from some of his high school classes.

Finally, he enrolled in the CCC classes for the same reason any  high school student takes a "dual-credit" course: To earn credit toward high school graduation while getting a head start on the general education credits he will need to graduate from college.

"That will give me more time to study my area of interest," explained Aaron, who said he will be majoring in political science at Hastings College.

When asked why he chose that major, he answered, "Because of the really sorry shape of American politics. I'd like to do something -- with God's help -- to fix it."

Aaron said he could see himself working as a staff aide for a state senator or for a U.S. representative or U.S. senator. But he also is very interested in serving in elective office himself. He can see himself serving in the Nebraska Unicameral before eventually holding a federal office.

Aaron has attended a Patrick Henry College teen camp in Washington, D.C., where young people learn about the political process. Before choosing Hastings College, he had considered attending Patrick Henry College.

He also has attended a Family First City on a Hill camp in Lincoln, where he learned about politics on the state level.

Aaron said Family First is a Nebraska associate or affiliate of Focus on the Family, which describes itself as a "political group dedicated to advocating family-friendly policies."

In some ways, growing up on the grounds of Stuhr Museum is an education all by itself.

Working as a historical interpreter at Stuhr Museum has given him a better understanding of a specific time in history, the Victorian era of the 1890s, but that knowledge never formally counted toward his high school graduation, Aaron said.

But he also noted, "I'm learning all the time."

One example of that is a letter to the editor that he recently wrote to the Platte Valley Independent, the Stuhr Museum newspaper. It took issue with a proposal to install a street lamp for Railroad Town. In the letter, Aaron questioned the wisdom of installing the lamp.

Even if the installation can be justified, he wrote, the method of financing for both installation and ongoing operation should be very much up for debate. He said he would like to have a summer-long letters-to-the editor debate in the newspaper.

If that happened, it might serve as preparation for the Hastings College forensics team, which Aaron plans to join once he becomes a college student.

Sharpening his written and oral debating skills certainly would help him if he does get elected to the Unicameral, U.S. House of representatives or U.S. senator.