For us, the primary purpose of school is still to learn. We place a very high value on education, and to us being an educated citizen of a democracy means several things. First of all, our students must be able to read. This is our first curricular goal, and in fact the only mandatory one for our K-2 class. From third through fifth grade, we focus on arithmetic and writing, thereby rounding out the grammar stage of education and readying our students for the rich content they will learn in middle school. Finally, our high school is all about high level course work and individual counseling, both of which prepare our students for university, to enter the job market directly, or for whatever other path they may choose. When students leave The New Classical Academy they are prepared to analyze, criticize, evaluate, and decide for themselves.

Close behind academics we place social and emotional growth. Being part of an active democracy means being able to work with, and empathize with, people from all different backgrounds, religions, and political viewpoints. That is why we started a school which respects people of all faiths and all beliefs. In a democracy we don't feel that segregation of any kind works. Children need to grow up knowing that no matter how different people may be, there are decent human beings from all walks of life. We have a social inclusion policy at school which states, "You're not allowed to say you're not allowed to play." We actively train and encourage students to get along with everyone, and we take our students' mental and emotional well-being very seriously.

As our school grows the list of extra-curricular activities grows too. We now offer a middle school sports league, the Pokemon Club for grades K-5, the teen club for grades 6-10, and the newly formed American Girl Club for everyone. We also take field trips and volunteer in our community, as well as putting on plays and musicals and puppet shows. In addition, our middle and high school students compete in the Odyssey of the Mind competition and take the National Latin Exam. We plan to add the Math Counts competition and the Science Olympiad as well, because our kids love to compete (all for fun of course!)

This year we partnered with another local non-profit in order to give back to the community. We chose the Animal Compassion Network, and what an amazing choice it was! The children have had the opportunity to volunteer with the animals, helping to socialize the cats and play with and care for the dogs. It has been a great experience for everyone, as the children saw up close how their efforts can help those who can't help themselves. The children raised money for the animals and collected food for them as well. Each year we will partner with a different non-profit so that our students will be exposed to the many different options for service in our community.

Because we believe that all of the above should be available to every child, regardless of economic circumstances, we have started a scholarship fund and we have accepted our first financial need based scholarship student. To read more about it, or to donate to the fund, please go to our website. Thank you for reading our newsletter and for supporting the work we do.