Headmaster Letter

Dear North Phoenix Prep Families,

The semester is in full swing as we returned to regular classes this week. I had the pleasure of joining the Juniors as they began studying Plato's  Republic , a highly treasured text in our curriculum. As I observed their conversation, I was impressed with just how thoughtful and intellectually curious these students are, and I was reminded of the intentional way that our Humane Letters curriculum matches the intellectual development of adolescents.

The sequence of our readings in Humane Letters is not precisely chronological. Instead, we begin with what is closest to our young scholars, so we teach them the literature and history of America. In this first Humane Letters course, our students gain proficiency in basic seminar habits such as speaking to their classmates rather than the teacher, or noticing the difference between a textually-based comment and one based on mere personal opinion. These habits of mind continue to develop in the 10th grade Humane Letters course, which expands the students' horizons through a study of Modern European history and literature. In their study of history, students learn to see the American Revolution in light of the French, thus making their understanding of both more rich and complex. They also encounter many of the underlying philosophical ideas that influenced the American Founders through the writings of John Locke. Their studies are, at this point, still fundamentally based in the concrete, not abstract ideas. They tend to employ large concepts like freedom or goodness naively and without real reflection. Literary characters, not concepts, are the appropriate focus for Sophomores and Freshmen.

But the works that our students encounter in their Junior and Senior years raise them to new heights and delve them more deeply into the world of ideas. Particularly in their study of Plato and Aristotle, our scholars begin to consider the ideas themselves, for Plato's Socrates vigorously investigates the underlying definitions of justice and the good life. By the time they are Juniors, our students are well-prepared, better than many university students, to engage with a challenging and incredibly rewarding book like the  Republic.   It warms my heart to witness our Juniors reading and discussing this great book!

In the coming week, I am excited to host  Dr. Joseph Clair from George Fox University , who is visiting our campus to learn more about the great conversations that we are having at North Phoenix Prep!

With Devotion,

Headmaster Weinhold