Dear North Phoenix Prep Families,
A thousand thanks for a fantastic first week back! Our teachers and students were truly joyful as they participated in their projects, and our student-led conferences were a fruitful time of reflection and goal-setting. Thanks to all the families who have reached out to me with words of gratitude and support. I am so incredibly proud of our whole community for the positive and joyful way that we've begun 2018!
Student-led conferences are particularly well-suited to a classical liberal arts academy such as ours. Central to our approach is a way of life modeled by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, who famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. We teach our students to live Socratically through student-led conferences by encouraging them to examine their past behaviors & habits, to submit those to the standard of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, and to set goals that bring them closer to those ideals. In short, we ask them to live the examined life. Engaging in this kind of liberal arts dialogue is not always easy, but it is incredibly rewarding and worthwhile.
I am so proud to be a Gladiator, and to engage in the life-transforming activity of educating young people together with our faculty. They, too, deserve our praise for their compassionate, humane approach to our students. They are truly mentors and coaches to the tender souls in their charge.
With Devotion,
Headmaster Weinhold
