It's You I Like

I look forward to sharing some of the experiences and insights that I gained during my time away last semester with you very soon. But before I do that, I would like to bring you in on something we are visiting and thinking about as a GS Faculty this school year. 

The more I read about organizational leadership and growth, the more I am struck by the importance of culture in the health and sustainability of an organization. Culture has been a consistent theme in the stated genre of literature for a while. In fact, we are broadly aware that culture eats strategy for breakfast, but I am becoming more and more aware of its significance in our work here at Covenant, specifically in the Grammar School, and most expressly as we add new members to our faculty.

There is a large learning curve for new Covenant faculty members. New curriculum, new pedagogy, and new expectations are only some of the things that must be supported with on-going training and assistance. Often, even seasoned educators beginning their tenure at Covenant find our classical and Charlotte Mason model distinctly different from anything they have experienced.

Starting at the interview phase, we spend a good amount of time exploring our distinctives and the expectations we have for our employees. We have a very clear and robust faculty profile we want our teachers to not merely adhere to, but to joyfully embrace. 

Because we are a Christian school, we unapologetically approach all issues out of a Biblical framework. Our desire is that all of our teachers are in a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is moving them toward a life of righteousness. So, could a Covenant teacher be interchangeable with another teacher at any Christian school? Possible. Or does the Covenant culture inform, cultivate, and require something different? Absolutely.

This year in our GS Faculty Meetings we are asking the question, “Who are we and how is it like for us to act?” Or put another way, as a Christian, classical, and Charlotte Mason influenced school, how is our culture distinctive for the educators, students, and families alike? Each month we are going to examine a distinctive and dig down to how that is fleshed out culturally in the classroom and in the community. In order to not state the obvious and to stretch our minds and hearts, we are going to be examining distinctives that are less prominent in our verbiage but very ardent in their scope and influence.

You don’t have to be at Covenant long to hear us say that we desire to move our students toward “the good, the true, and the beautiful.” We want to whet their appetites when they are young for these praiseworthy things, not for educational pompous or cursory virtue, but because we believe that it points them toward the Savior. 

This month we looked at goodness, specifically how goodness relates to beauty. If we are a school that values and promotes goodness, how is it like for us to act? While the word goodness rolls off your tongue with ease, defining goodness without using the word itself poses a bit of a challenge. 

We ultimately defined goodness as something that is right, pure, positive, wholesome, nourishing, and thoughtful. It is not something that is transactional or manipulated, but something that is motivated from a place of purity. Examples of goodness were anything from the sound of laughter to the feeling of contentment. From a slice of the most delicious piece of pizza to sunlight or relationships, examples of goodness were much easier to come up with than its definition. We know we have experienced goodness because of the warmth it brings to our hearts and the peace that it creates. 

Beauty is closely related to goodness in the ways that it explains and demonstrates it. Beauty is goodness manifested. Beauty is the radiance of truth and goodness.

So if we are a school that pushes our students to all that is good, true, and beautiful, how is it like for us to act? We determined that the sincerity and pureness of goodness would make it difficult for us to live personal lives devoid of goodness and then quickly adopt its tenants when we arrive on campus each day. 

As teachers, we determined that creating a space for thinking and reflecting and not performance was a way to promote goodness. Our curriculum is chock full of good stories and beautiful ideas. We do not want to just present it to our students as lessons, but enjoy it with them for the soul nourishment that it is. It is often tempting to take the easy way out or to prefer the popular culture to doing what is right and good, so we want to be courageous when it is easier to be comfortable. We want to know our students well and for them to feel known and loved the entire time they are in our care. This means greeting them each morning with the same new morning mercies our Lord meets us with, delighting and enjoying their uniqueness, and guiding them both to knowledge and maturity. The only hope we have for these lofty goals is to be daily abiding in the Lord and learning to love the things that He loves. 

Children are gentle critics most of the time, however, they are generally not fooled by insincerity. We cannot say we love what is good if we have faces that go bright over achievement and popularity. We cannot say we love goodness when we do only what is necessary to get by, or if we scoff and sentimentalize what is right. When we make excuses for our sinfulness, we cut ourselves off from God’s grace and create a culture where goodness is stunted. At Covenant, we have decided that goodness matters. What ways is the beauty of goodness manifested in your home? How can you join us in creating a congruent culture of goodness both at school and at home?

Non Nobis,
Laura Mountjoy
Grammar School Head