End-of-Year Message to Parents
Knox Academy is committed to supporting parents in the instruction of their children by providing a classical education with a Christian worldview. It is vital for all of us who are partnered in the work of education here at Knox – parents, administration, faculty, and students – to review our mission statement and work together toward its realization. John Ruskin, a nineteenth century educator and artist, once said, “The final result of the education I want you to give your children will be, in a few words, this. They will know what it is to see the sky. They will know what it is to breathe it. And they will know, best of all, what it is to behave under it, as in the presence of a father who is in heaven.”
Like our school’s mission statement, Ruskin’s admonition on education is simple. Psalm 14:2 says that “The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek God.”
Understanding, in the sense described by the Psalmist, Ruskin, and the mission of our school, is not summed up in test scores and completed subjects, but rather indicates an assumed or accepted place in the order of creation, a place that is more empty than it is full, more poor than it is rich, a place of wanting or longing.
Again describing education, the Psalmist says “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all your works; I muse on the work of your hands. I spread out my hands to you. My soul longs for you like a thirsty land.” (Ps. 143:5-6).
The understanding described by the Psalmist, the education encouraged by Ruskin, and the education that is classical and Christian is ultimately a pursuit of the divine, a recognition that we are created for natural purposes that have spiritual and eternal consequences. This does not diminish our natural and earthly studies, but rather invigorates and inspires them.
This is the tradition of the liberal arts, the great conversations, the great books, and of philosophy. It is why truth, goodness, and beauty are ultimate goals of our school, and why our students sing, wear uniforms, and practice order and etiquette. It is the paideia of the Western tradition and is ours to inherit and pass along to our children.
As we come to the end of the school year and anticipate next, and as we make parent surveys available, please take the opportunity to provide constructive feedback on how we, as a school, can better serve this mission, which is a service not only to your home but to the future of the rogue valley. We want to do it well. We must do it well.
Thank you for partnering with us!
