Life Skills Class

by Mary Kathryn Healy: What good is it to know everything about Aristotle and Shakespeare if you do not know how to do laundry, cook meals, or manage money? Many students are facing this problem as they go off to college, their ears still ringing with all the dates and terms they learned in high school, only to find out that they do not know how to do laundry. It is for these reasons that the state of Florida now requires students to take a Life Skills class to graduate high school. CCA complies with this requirement but, as usual, does it slightly differently from other schools.

Mrs. Drury, the main teacher for Christ Classical Academy’s Life Skills class, recalled, “I remember distinctly my freshman year at Florida State having to assist a lot of other students who didn’t know the basics of how to operate a washing machine or how to grocery shop, and a student who blew up the microwave in the dorm kitchen trying to cook a hot pocket.” It is most likely for this reason that students in Florida are now required to take a Life Skills class during high school in order to graduate.

On September 26, the CCA high school met for their first Life Skills class at the Shackelfords’ home and met with “successful mentors to work on resumes and [talk] about interview skills,” in the words of Brower Hague, a sophomore taking the class.

Half an hour after the students arrived, each bringing a steaming dish for dinner, Mrs. Drury began telling them all the ins and outs of interviews: what to wear, how to sit, what to bring, what to say about yourself, etc. Some of the parents chimed in, telling stories about how the people they once interviewed made grave mistakes by leaning too far back in their chair, wearing heels they couldn’t walk in, or forgetting their qualifications because they hadn’t thought to bring a copy of their resume. Both the parents and the teachers then began giving the students tips on how to avoid these awful fates. “It was really helpful, and now I won’t be so scared when I go into an interview,” said Evan Earnest, a ninth grader.

Once Mrs. Drury thoroughly covered every aspect of job interviews, the students and a few parents enjoyed a delicious dinner of rosemary chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, focaccia bread, and salad, topped off with a rich, dark chocolate cake for dessert, which the students nibbled while they turned to their next topic for the evening: resumes.

Mrs. Shackelford took the platform and extensively taught the students how to format their job resumes. She also went into detail about the things possible bosses are looking for in a resume and what the students should include in theirs. For practice, she had the students write down everything they could think of in their life that would be resume worthy. When they finished, the students met individually with an adult to get tips on the content, wording, and arrangement of their resumes.

By nine o’clock, the students were equipped with dozens of skills for job interviews and tips for resumes, along with a “very extensive binder which is basically the guide to life,” said Hague. “It has almost everything we need to know, including college applications and checklists.”

This casual, friendly, one-on-one approach to a Life Skills class sets it apart greatly from those offered at other schools. Even more notably, Mr. Shackelford and Mrs. Drury have altered the curriculum. The Florida public school and virtual school curriculum for a Life Skills class covers a multitude of topics, like “quality nutrition, substance abuse, coping with stress, and sexual abstinence.” They also teach students mental and physical health, how to communicate feelings and opinions effectively, skills in advertising and credit cards, and earth-friendly practices that will help the environment.

Mr. Shackelford preferred to eliminate some of the topics that he found pointless or out of place in an academic class. He explained, “What we’re doing this year is concentrating on job applications, college applications, the financial stuff that we’ll get to later on . . . some cooking and basic living-by-yourself skills.” Mrs. Drury added that she and Mr. Shackelford “are focusing on job skills, like resumes and interviewing, personal finance, cooking, grocery shopping, first aid, all skills that one might need for going off to college.” She explained, “We want to make sure that, instead of going and taking a class at public schools, [students] are getting a class that is truly applicable to both the skills we feel [they] need and the Biblical principles [the school is founded upon].”

So far the students find it immensely helpful. Ben Morrow, a ninth grader, said that he expects to learn “how to manage a household budget if you’re living on your own, how to basically get a job and maintain a job.” Junior Christina Morrow said, “I think it will be very beneficial to add to our skill sets, and I think that the skills that we will learn are fundamental ones for life on our own.” Hague agreed, saying, “knowing [these skills] will help me be the type of person I want to be.”

Despite the important skills that students learn in the class, Mr. Shackelford does not think that it should be required to graduate in the state of Florida. “This is a place where I think school systems are trying to move over and take the responsibility of the family. I think the family should be the one who is actually teaching many of these topics. So, [we are] going to have to continue [offering it] because, without a formal class, they’ll say that [the students] didn’t graduate from high school, but, it’s something I personally don’t feel we as a school ought to teach.” As a compromise, he is working to make the class as academic as possible and to include parents in the process.

However, based on the stories Mrs. Drury related, many parents and schools do not seem to be doing a great job in this department. Mrs. Drury sees the class as one way that the school is trying to “[live] up to our motto in preparing students not just for college but for life.” She says, “We are giving [them] both the theoretical and practical skills to go out and tackle the world.”

The School’s Vision

by Mary Kathryn Healy: A vision is more than a dream. It is a sacred hope for the future that governs our actions and defines who we are. If we do not fulfill our visions, we have wasted much of our time and energy in life.

Christ Classical Academy’s motto is “preparing students not just for college, but for life.” The school’s goal, according to Mrs. Yang who helped found CCA, is to prepare students by providing them with a “Christ-centered, Biblical, and strong academic school.”

In order to fulfill its vision, CCA uses a Classical approach to education, “designed to equip students with the proper tools for learning and the desire to use them for the glory of God,” according to their website.

Classical education was used by the Greeks and Romans and was very popular in early America. It separates learning into three stages: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

In the grammar stage, students learn the fundamentals of Mathematics, Science, Bible, History, and Latin by chanting and singing songs to aid in memorization. In the logic stage, students are urged to begin to think critically and form opinions of the world around them. In the rhetoric stage, they learn how to convince others of their opinions by reading classic philosophy that has endured over the centuries and crafting persuasive essays and speeches.

These are challenging goals for teachers to bring to fruition. Jennifer Drury, a middle and high school teacher, said she hopes her students come away with “an ability to find answers to questions, to explore knowledge, and a better understanding of humanity,” building on the Christ-centered foundation the students have acquired in lower school. She said that other schools simply do not have CCA’s “commitment to writing, developing critical logic, and critical thinking skills.”

For students, this approach to classical education is definitely more challenging than other schools. “My first year, I remember doing a summer reading essay for Mrs. Eller’s writing class in ninth grade, and that was the first five paragraph essay I had ever written,” said Christina Morrow, a junior who has been attending CCA for three years. Martha Hague, a sophomore, supported Christina’s comment saying, “The amount that is expected of you, not only academically, but morally, physically, spiritually, and mentally, is so much greater at CCA.”

This rigorous Classical curriculum is one of the most fundamental parts of CCA’s vision. Mrs. Yang believes that CCA “is probably the best school academically in Tallahassee.” Yet, according to Dr. Yang, another founder of CCA, the most important part of CCA’s vision is not found in the Classical approach, but in “teaching the students the Truth,” which is found in God’s Word.

At CCA, the teachers try to incorporate this Biblical approach into their teaching as much as possible. Julie Caylor, a lower school teacher, said that “like our motto,” she wanted her students to see that learning is “Christ centered, so that it all starts with Christ.” She said that the other Classical schools at which she has taught did not have this Christian aspect to them.

Students definitely perceive this focus. “In the middle and elementary schools, especially, everything we learn is very Christ focused,” said Martha Hague. She explained how the focus persists through the upper stages of the Classical curriculum: “In high school, the teachers show us different theories about religion that clash with what we know the Bible says. But using what we learned earlier, under the guidance of our teachers and peers, we work through these new ideas and think critically about what we as individuals make of them.”

Even though Christ Classical is a tiny school composed of sixteen teachers and sixty-seven students, according to these students, teachers, and parents, its vision is equally or more ambitious and important than that of most other schools. And though the school is small, it has been able to preserve and fulfill this lofty vision over the nine years since it was founded. From parents to administrators, teachers to students, their efforts have not been in vain.

1st Grade Statue of Liberty Presentation

photo credit to Mrs. Stephanie Robinson Avello (picture published on the CCA Facebook page)

by Grace Gilbert:  This past Thursday afternoon, Mrs. Stuckey and her first graders proudly hosted a ceremony in honor of the Statue of Liberty, complete with vibrant costumes, a lovely poem, a small song, and numerous facts about the statue itself. The play began in Mrs. Stuckey’s first-grade classroom mid-afternoon, and the parents of each child participating sat in chairs as the audience.

The first-graders boldly stood before the audience in their beautiful white-wrap costumes, shimmering golden crowns, and long “torches” with brightly colored streamers. Mrs. Stuckey went around the first grade assembly and asked each child to recite the answer to a question concerning the Statue of Liberty. The questions widely varied from the year of the statue’s founding, to how it contains its turquoise color, to its height and width. The students knew their facts precisely, and the parents applauded with praise. Next, the students delivered a fun, entertaining poem about the Statue of Liberty, as well as a sweet, bouncy song.

Virginia Gilbert, one of Mrs. Stuckey’s many bright pupils, states that her favorite part was “announcing the facts” and “learning the history of the Statue of Liberty.” Though the costumes were gorgeous, she explains, “The costume was uncomfortable and difficult to get on.” To Mrs. Stuckey she would say, “Thank you very much for an enjoyable, fun activity.” As perceived, the students broadly enjoyed this exciting event and highly anticipate a fun year with the amazing Mrs. Stuckey!

P.E. at CCA

by Raquel Adair

The 7^th and 8^th grade P.E. class offers a very hard-core, though rewarding, workout. We suffer through all sorts of exercises, from push-ups to handstands, and while they are strenuous, they are truly beneficial to our health.

Although this is one of the better aspects of P.E. with Mr. Eller, there are certain others that make us want to commit suicide, such as ten-minute sessions of push-ups, burpees, lunges, and sprints. Some of the stretches we endure could be seen in Cirque du Soleil. But when we pointedly ignore the exhausting exercises and strange stretches (and the basketball games with the boys, which are incredibly intimidating), P.E. is actually very fun!

We might begin P.E. with some planks or arm stretches, depending on Mr. Eller’s mood, and if we look really tired, then we must do jumping jacks until we “wake up”. Then we move on to the hard exercises, meaning competing in relay races, holding the push-up position while keeping our arms and then our legs in the air, lunging across the gym and back, doing even more push-ups, and then maybe relaxing with a final stretch or two. But then, after the previously detailed ten-minutes of pure agony, we begin the long-awaited games. There are so many fun games to play in P.E., but my favorite include attempting gymnastics moves on the grass, playing Ninja, and engaging in an epic battle of World Tag, in which we stand in a circle, having been divided into pairs, each pair standing about twenty feet away from the neighboring duo. One student is chosen to be “It” and two are dubbed “Runners,” who dash around the gym desperately, trying to avoid whoever is “It.” We link arms with the person next to us and stay that way until a Runner links arms with either us or our partner, forcing the person on the other side of the chain to become a Runner, who must thereupon link onto another chain in order to avoid being tagged. It is a blast to play, especially with a lot of people.

So that is a general day in our P.E. class. I can’t say that I love the class, but the games definitely make it worthwhile. And all in all, it is good for our health to run around and exercise . . . though I still have to convince myself of that while I struggle through a round of burpees!

The Importance of Latin

A speech given by Martha Hague to the 9th grade class of CCA

Publius Virgilius Maro

“Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primes ab oris.”  Thus reads the opening line of one of the greatest literary masterpieces of all time: Publius Virgilius Maro’s Aeneid. This school year, a few of us are translating this poem into English. Twice a week, we meet with Mr. Wooden and work through it together. That class has been probably the most challenging class I’ve taken this year. Many times, after sitting in front the book for hours, I just have to toss it to the ground and say, “Why, oh why must I learn this? Why can’t I learn something useful, like Spanish or French?” I think y’all can sympathize with me on this one. Haven’t you asked yourself the same question before? So why do we take Latin? Why not Spanish, or French, or basically anything that’s not a dead language. Well, I want to encourage y’all. There are so many great reasons to take Latin, which are all too easy to forget the moment we sit down with our homework. We all know Latin is a dead language, but does that really mean it’s not useful? Are the other ways in which a language may be useful than just communication?

The first thing I thought of was derivatives. A large majority of the English language is based off Latin. Knowing Latin vocabulary has helped me so much with my English vocabulary, strangely. I can easily look at a word, dissect it for any root words, and poof! the word’s memorized. But English isn’t the only language which is based off Latin. In fact, all the Romantic languages are! Next year I’m taking Spanish, and I’ve been doing some prep work for it. I’ve found that, without ever taking Spanish before, I already know so much of the vocabulary. Also, the grammar is almost identical! So, Latin is great support for our native language, as well as languages we may want to learn in the future.

Also, I would argue that there are very few other languages that have as much history and heritage as Latin. Think about it, one of the greatest empires in the history of the world spoke Latin. In addition, St. Jerome translated the Bible into Latin shortly after the time of Christ. So, it’s the closest we, those who don’t know Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic, may get to studying the Bible in its original form. Through studying Latin, we gain an understanding of other subjects that we wouldn’t get studying French or Spanish. Dorothy B. Sayers says it wonderfully in her essay, The Lost Tools of Learning,

“I will say at once, quite firmly, that the best grounding for education is the Latin… I say this, not because Latin is traditional and mediaeval, but simply because even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin cuts down the labor and pains of learning almost any other subject by at least fifty percent. It is the key to the vocabulary and structure of all the Teutonic languages, as well as to the technical vocabulary of all the sciences and to the literature of the entire Mediterranean civilization, together with all its historical documents.”

Thus, there is a reason we take Latin. It’s not just because Mr. Wooden wants to make us suffer. Latin gives support for other languages, and for other seemingly unrelated subjects. So take heart! Latin has already helped us with our English vocabulary and Ancient History, and it may continue to help us, long after we put our Virgil on the shelf, when we take up a new language. Surely Latin isn’t useless!