Welcome to the new academic year! I pray that by now you are feeling more settled into the rhythms and routines associated with the education of your children and students. The Curriculum Department is thrilled to be partnering with you in leading your children towards Truth himself through encounters with timeless materials chosen specifically to prepare them for a love of the transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness. I look forward to building upon the solid academic foundation at Regina Caeli Academy as we continue our journey together.
I haven’t had a chance to meet or interact with many of you, so I’ll share a summary of my experiences and what led me to RCA. I grew up in a faithful Protestant household; my parents love the Lord and raised me in a Christian environment. I was homeschooled until 4th grade, when my parents divorced and sent us to public school as a result. I attended public school for the rest of my K-12 education, then spent 4 years at Marquette University pursuing a double major in Secondary Education and History.
Before graduating high school, I was accepted into the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) program on a full-ride scholarship, so after my time at Marquette, I was commissioned as a Naval officer and served 5 years as an active duty Surface Warfare Officer. I was deployed or underway (at sea) for most of my time in the Navy, which led to countless invaluable personal and professional challenges. I also converted into the fullness of the faith during the first year of my time in the Navy, thanks be to God!
After resigning my commission and being honorably discharged, I worked in two diocesan high schools in Southern California. I quickly discovered that students hungered for authentic, challenging, yet relevant learning materials that stood the test of time. As I incorporated more primary sources into my teaching and found that I spent more time engaging in dialogue with my students than presenting PowerPoints, I began to question why this wasn’t more typical in a classroom setting.
Students responded positively to interacting with the writings from the periods we studied; they were able to get a glimpse into the human aspect of history, the lived experiences of our forebears, thus giving them, as Andrew Zwerneman calls it, a humane approach to our shared history. I am so thankful for the administration and my fellow teachers at these schools for letting me stumble into this realization through the flexibility they had with each teacher and our curriculum.
In 2022, I was blessed to be involved in the founding of a classical academy in the Catholic tradition, serving grades 9-12. As a founding teacher and an interim administrator, I dove head first into the elements of a classical curriculum. Given that my own education was not classical, and that my former jobs were not in a classical environment, I was worried I wouldn’t be up to the task of delivering lessons and content properly.
I soon found that was a silly concern; classical education is, at its heart, natural education in the sense that it caters to all learning types, it transcends trendy pedagogical methods, and it rests on relationship: relationship between the instructor and students, relationship between the human beings and the ideas being studied, and ultimately, relationship between the human person and the Divine. Instead of students being the objects which are educated, students and teachers become the subject of education, within which a love of learning is cultivated.
This was the vision of education I sought after during those first years of teaching; I wanted my students to ultimately know, love, and live according to the truth above all else, rather than view their academic experiences as a series of boxes to be checked in pursuit of an economic and social status. My time teaching at Coeur du Christ Academy was one of the most rewarding, humbling, and beautiful chapters in my life thus far, because it fulfilled the longing I had for vocational integrity as a Catholic teacher.
At the end of my second year with Coeur du Christ, the Lord made it evident that He had something else in store for me. I submitted my resignation at the end of the year. As I was perusing various options that would work within the context of my life, the opportunity at RCA popped up. I looked into the organization and instantly fell in love; I especially appreciated that RCA intentionally partners with parents and forms communities centered around the intellectual tradition and the practice of our faith. I was also attracted to RCA’s dedication to classical education. The history and vision of RCA are beautiful; it is a gift to be part of this team and to come alongside our parents and staff in educating our children!
The Curriculum Department is excited to embark on intentional reviews of the entire academic progression at RCA to further align everything that we do with our mission as a classical hybrid academy in the Catholic tradition. Right now, we are working on updating our Lower School Literacy curriculum. We are also excited to begin looking at ways to improve our course offerings in the Upper School, where there is great potential for a more classical academic experience. In these decisions and every step moving forward, RCA will collaborate with parents, staff, and experts in the Catholic classical education world to ensure our lesson plans and all associated materials are the best they can be.
At the end of the day, our families, students, and staff are the reason we do this work, and the reason we love what we do. We pray that Christ directs and blesses our efforts, through the intercession of Mary, Queen of Heaven.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam,
Grace Drinkwater,
Director of Curriculum
Comentários