1. What is your experience with classical education?
I have been involved in classical education for sixteen years: as a student at St. John’s College and Baylor University, as a teacher at Great Hearts Academies, and for the past five years as a school leader at Treasure Valley Classical Academy in Fruitland, Idaho.
Classical education keeps us focused on the most important questions we all face as individuals and as citizens. We all want to lead truly happy and flourishing lives, and we all want to help our families and friends, and fellow citizens to do so, too. Classical education also helps us build the habits that help us achieve these goals—habits of good character or virtue, and habits of humble curiosity or wonder.
2. Ascent Classical™’s motto is “I will learn the True. I will do the Good. I will love the Beautiful.” Why do you think this motto is important and what impact do you think it has on students’ attitudes toward learning?
Aristotle described human beings as potentially the best or worst of animals, depending on whether or not we are well educated. This motto speaks to our best and most distinctly human potentials, and the kind of education Aristotle had in mind was one that cultivates these potentials. Only human beings have the capacity to learn the true, do the good, and love the beautiful. If we develop these capacities we can become excellent and flourishing human beings and citizens. If we do not, we leave our potential unrealized and can do much harm to ourselves and others.
3. What was your favorite subject or book when you were in school?
My favorite subject was always history. I remember reading and re-reading the story of Walter Raleigh, John White, and the Lost Colony of Roanoke Island as a fourth grader in Virginia and being endlessly fascinated by it—I was carried away by the drama of the story! I still have this experience when I read history. To learn and think of the choices faced, the virtues shown, and the goals realized or unrealized by those who have made history is both humbling and inspiring.
4. What is your leadership style and how do you hope to bring enthusiasm and intentionality to the inaugural role of Headmaster for the ACA Fort Mill campus?
I do my best to listen well and speak effectively—I can say for sure that I am interested in what all the stakeholders of our new school community have to say. I see it as an important part of my job to keep our mission, vision, motto, and virtues on my own mind and on everyone else’s by discussing how everything we do relates to these most fundamental commitments and how we can work together to promote them.
5. From your own rich experience in opening schools, can you share with parents the markers or indicators of a successful first year?
There is something very special about the first-year experience. It takes courage, perseverance, and commitment to be part of a school’s first year—from students and parents as well as from faculty and staff. But it is also uniquely rewarding to be part of a school’s founding because the character of the school and its traditions have to be built and defined. While this effort takes well more than one year to do, the first year offers the most open frontier of opportunity.
A successful first year will require us to focus on doing the most fundamental things well—buiding a school culture on the foundations of our core virtues, and giving a priority attention to literacy and numeracy (or mathematical literacy), since these subjects represent the gateways to so much other learning.
6. Ascent Classical™ teaches seven Core Virtues to students, including Courage, Moderation, Justice, Responsibility, Prudence, Friendship, and Wonder. Which Core Virtue do you resonate with the most and why?
This is a tough question because all of these virtues are so important, but courage is the one I have foremost in mind as our school community prepares for our inaugural year. The virtue of courage empowers us to face and overcome our fears, and it is natural to feel fear when facing something unknown—What kind of school will this be? Will I make new friends? Will my child succeed? Courage is the virtue for us to call and rely on as we dare to found a new and noble institution together!
7. In your day-to-day life, what inspires you and brings you closer to the virtue of Wonder?
Plato famously described wonder as the beginning of philosophy. Wonder is our natural curiosity, which deserves to be cultivated into a lifelong love of wisdom. The virtue of wonder is like our other core virtues in an important way: we have to work on it, one choice at a time, until we build it into a habit and it becomes “second nature” to us.
For me, wonder tends to involve losing track of time. My sense of wonder is often activated while I am reading a book, visiting a museum or historic place, or even teaching a class—especially when a student comment takes me by surprise and opens up a line of discussion that demands to be pursued.
Growing up in Yorktown, Virginia helped me to find reliable inspiration to wonder at history—in addition to the Revolutionary War battlefield, the Jamestown colony and Colonial Williamsburg were also close at hand. I don’t think I will lose this sense of wonder about history, because the more I learn about it, the more I realize how much more there is to learn!
8. What is your favorite part about classical education?
One benefit of leading a classical school is that I get to work alongside people who are continually engaged in teaching and learning—and I can say from my own experience that teaching is a kind of learning. Observing teachers gives me the chance to learn or appreciate something about what they are teaching and how they are teaching it, and to share what I observe with others so that they can benefit from it. Observing students offer thoughtful answers and ask insightful questions reminds me how much natural potential we all have to inquire and learn, and what a privilege it is for us to engage in this activity together.
All this is to say that my favorite part of classical education may be that we all aim at virtue, wisdom, and excellence—the very best things we can aim for, and things that we can all share and honor together.
9. Ascent Classical™ partners with parents. What does this mean to you and how do you envision partnering with parents at the ACA Fort Mill campus?
Parents and guardians are the primary educators of our students, so our partnership with them is indispensable. I have seen parents contribute their time and talents in all sorts of ways—from volunteering in classrooms or elsewhere in the school, to forming committees dedicated to organizing special events, showing appreciation to teachers, and many other things. So I envision a partnership in which parents and I are engaged in an ongoing conversation that comes down to this: How can we help each other and work together to cultivate the mission, vision, and virtues of our school?
10. What would you like to share with Ascent Classical™ families and students before the start of the school year?
A new school is a new frontier, and we are all set to blaze a new trail together. We will face challenges together and rise to meet them.
Parents: we will do our utmost to communicate not only what is happening at our school but why it is happening, how it promotes our mission, vision, and virtues, and what our virtues look like in action during a school day—so be ready to hear from us!
Students: it will be a new experience, and at first maybe even a slightly uncomfortable experience, for each and every one of you to learn and adapt to our new and special school environment. Remember that you are all facing this experience together, and you will soon see how worthwhile it is!