Announcement: How does a year with NO tuition sound? Enter to win one year of no tuition ($4,000 value) for the 2013/2014 school year at SLOCA! Entries are $100/each and will be available starting tomorrow, exclusively during the month of May in the office.
Last Wednesday we hosted our 6th annual Legacy Breakfast in the Lewis Library for parents, family members, and people in the community to experience SLOCA first hand. The purpose of the breakfast was to facilitate the building of a legacy. For those who have children who attend SLOCA, they clearly invest in their individual legacies, but certainly we all want this very same thing for our communities, our families, our state and even nation.
Sadie Richert recited O Captain, My Captain
The focus of the morning was on the power of Story, and how experiencing history through literature enriches our students' (and our own) understanding of our shared past, and sets a firm foundation for discussing ideas and thinking deeply about life as they head into the future.
To demonstrate this, Primary Teacher Lisa Ann read “Pink and Say” by Patricia Polacco aloud to the group, as an example of one of our purposeful literature choices. After a few tears were shed at this poignant story, she asked some of the literary analysis questions that are often used in class and exhibited how these kinds of questions “light a spark in our students and help them make connections, inquire, go deeper, and come away from stories a little more inspired, determined and excited to do their part in this life – whatever that might be.”
Currently, Fortune 500 companies report that there aren't enough hire-able people who can think outside the box, come up with creative solutions, work together to solve problems. In an information age, on the surface, it might seem like you can just do a search for everything that you need. But the reality is, digesting new information requires synthesis. The hallmark of the rhetoric stage of Classical Education, is this exact kind of synthesis and these are the kinds of skills that will take them into the future. These are exactly the skills that the students at SLO Classical Academy are cultivating.
So as we finish this school year and you continue reading great literature to and with your kids, keep these ideas in mind. Be excited and encouraged about the great work that you are doing. And while tuition helps keep SLOCA for our own children, generous giving helps ensure SLOCA is here for the larger community. If you are interested in providing a legacy beyond your own, please contact Cozy Faber: [email protected].
How has your family experienced the power of great literature? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
