A Note from Headmaster Philabaum
Dear families,
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits, having spent the quality time you had hoped for with your loved ones during fall break.
Today you will receive your student’s first quarter progress reports. All the essential information about accessing these can be found in our past newsletters and is linked again in the rest of this email. Please do feel free to reach out to me or to our Assistant Headmaster, Lisa Picazo, if you have questions about accessing your student evaluations.
I would like to share a few thoughts regarding how we understand grades here in our academy. For many of you this is merely a reminder and something you are well versed in, for others, this may be for your first report card at our academy and it is fitting to welcome you into our philosophy of student evaluations.
We cannot state often enough that our mission is to cultivate the heart and mind of each child in the pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. A successful outcome for a quarter is that your child, in some way, has had their heart and mind cultivated – that we have seen growth in them both morally and intellectually. This is something that, upon reflection, seems like it should not be quantified. We do, however, seek to cultivate our scholars not only generally speaking, but in and through a liberal arts education. We seek to harness and hone specific academic skills such as reading and writing, build knowledge of the sciences and history and the arts by committing to memory important facts, dates, and poems, and cultivate a sense of wonder in each of these subject areas. Some of these things are more easily quantifiable than others. Though there is considerable thought given on the part of our instructors in how grades are finally determined, a letter or number only tells so much. It is, in many ways, an artificial symbol. Not arbitrary, but not meaningful without context. We know that each of your children is a unique person, and though our standards and curriculum are universal, each child is on a personal journey and cannot be reduced to a set of numbers or letters.
One way in which we partner with you as parents to aide your children in this journey is through our evaluations and our conferences. Nothing can truly replace the qualitative human expression that comes the written word or a personal conversation. As part of the report card, you will see a narrative that should give greater depth and meaning to the individual scores given to each category. These narratives will be expanded at greater length during the second quarter, and they will be continued in a more concise format during the second semester to highlight areas of growth or change. Our teachers work diligently on these before and during the break to make sure they are capturing the progress of your child in a way that allows you to better see the big picture, rather than sending merely a number or letter that cannot fully reflect the growth of the whole child.
Likewise, our conferences are an opportunity that we cherish as an academy. It is a human partnership between loving parents and loving educators. We each bring with us different and indispensable perspectives. Like any human relationship, meaningful dialogue is essential to come to unity, and a unified partnership is essential to the success of each child. We hope you can benefit from this time by reading the evaluations, coming to the conferences with questions and all of the insights you bring as parents, and that we can partner together to help each of your children reach their full potential at ATE. We also want you to know that though we only have formal conference slots during the first quarter, you are welcome at any time to reach out to us to set a time to invest further in our partnership with you as parents through a personal conversation.
Much more can be said on the subject of grades, but I will simply remind us all that the goal for each child is to develop their given talents and abilities, to learn perseverance and patience and courage, and to not measure themselves against their siblings or peers. Rather, they should learn from their mistakes, strengthen areas that are more difficult for them, and most importantly, celebrate all of their many successes.
As always, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at all. I look forward to a second quarter filled with wonder and with further growth in our partnerships together!
With Devotion,
Stephen Philabaum
Headmaster
Archway Trivium East
