Our Philosophy of Education
(and a few guiding principles)
Education is rooted in love and wonder. The energy that comes from love and wonder and pushes us to learn and persevere when learning and growing is not easy is what we call Gumption.
If you are reading this, you probably have a wide scope of interest. Specialization is for insects; God made us with enormous capability, and we in North America have unprecedented opportunity. You could work for a month and buy a flight anywhere in the world. A near infinite library of books, lectures and lessons is at your fingertips.
Our Philosophy of Education is, at its core, a holistic and long range pursuit of knowledge and understanding toward right living. Our belief is that the traditional academic subjects (history, literature, philosophy, mathematics, science and art) should be studied throughout one’s life. A part of the balanced life is a lifelong engagement with the Liberal Arts.
There are other subjects that we believe should also be pursued if one has the opportunity: travel (geographic and socioeconomic), basic survival, finance, the manual arts (working with materials, machines and tools), health and wellness, music, and the social arts of storytelling, negotiating, and friendship.
We believe that most folks are capable of learning a vast array of skills and having many interesting experiences, and that these skills and experiences should be anchored in an conscious nurturing of good habits and relationships.
While we recognize that there are seasons in one’s life, the basic approach we want to encourage is asking “how do I want to live?” and then beginning to live that way NOW by forming relationships and habits that will carry forward for a long time and adding to that as many skills and experiences as one has the Gumption to try.
We want to be good citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, live with gratitude and adventure, and value the place where we are and the gifts of language, learning and living here with others.
Our patron saint is, of course, Tom Bombadil.