A Letter from the Headmaster

Dear parents:

Welcome to Kootenai Classical Academy and thank you for choosing this institution among the many schooling options you have in the area. KCA is a “classical” school in the very finest meaning of the term. A tremendous amount of wisdom magically bloomed in the classical world, unfolded across the centuries, and remains powerfully relevant today. KCA is dedicated to highlighting that very wisdom as part of your child’s education.

As you can probably surmise from the opening quotation above, there is obviously a tremendous amount at stake in Plato’s phrase “well brought up.” In ancient Greece, the phrase “well brought up” meant “Paideia” or “the process of education” which translated more practically as the intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and physical qualities that were the core ingredients to a flourishing life. The Greeks defined “virtue” as “excellence” so that even a knife can have a “virtue” which is how well it cuts, or its “sharpness.” A dull knife, in other words, is not a virtuous knife.

Like everything they addressed, including mathematics, drama, music, art, politics, engineering, rhetoric, logic, poetry, the sciences, the heavens, history, ethics, and philosophy, the Greeks naturally directed their energies and brilliance toward uncovering the truths about human nature and what kind of education would make a human being “excellent” or “sharp” in body, mind, and spirit. They concluded that only the best education in the areas of intellectual, moral, aesthetic, and athletic endeavors could produce a “flourishing” human being.

As one of history’s first democracies, Athenians were also highly interested in the human nature question, since normal citizens were tasked for the first time with governing a state. Needless to say, the decision about what kind of educational curriculum would serve these citizens was crucial in this regard. Indeed, one of the ancient world’s greatest thinkers, Aristotle, conducted studies of almost two hundred Greek city state constitutions and concluded that the most crucial variable in a state’s tendency to flourish or decay was whether the “young are trained by habit and education in the spirit of their constitution.” Despite what some in the community may say, says Aristotle, “men should not think it slavery to live according to the rule of the constitution; for it is their salvation.”

As a Hillsdale College Curriculum School, KCA is very proud to offer what Hillsdale calls “An American Classical Education” which provides the students with a tremendous amount of important and fascinating material that highlights the American Founding period. Per Aristotle, students who are “trained by habit and education” in their constitution will understand how to serve it, defend it, and feel gratitude for it.

The broader mission of Kootenai Classical Academy is to train the minds and improve the hearts of young men and women through a rigorous, classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in good character and civic virtue. It is a high calling, and a difficult one. But it is a calling that can be realized if we are clear in our aims and joined together by a common purpose.

Our methods are the old-fashioned ones, or, as Dr. Terrence Moore likes to say, “we’re teaching new dogs old tricks.” We diagram sentences, we read great, challenging, and life changing books, we memorize and recite poetry, we revel in the beautiful works of great artists and composers, we do mathematical proofs, we learn Aristotelian logic, we take intellectual journeys along with the great scientists, we study classical and modern languages, and very importantly, we discuss prophets in history such as Alexis de Tocqueville, who warned about equity’s assault on freedom, or Blaise Pascal, who warned us in the 17th century that newly developed technology was dangerous without a deep understanding into the nature of human beings who wield those tools.

Very importantly, our teachers convey this wonderful material in the classrooms via direct instruction and the Socratic Method. In other words, rather than staring at a Chromebook, your children will be asked directly to analyze, ponder, make connections, and contribute to class discussions. For some insight into the absolute brilliance of this teaching method, take a journey with Socrates and his disciples in any of Plato’s thirty-five dialogues. It’s an unmatched formula for student understanding, growth, excitement, and achievement. More importantly, the method is designed to nurture and protect your child’s unique identity and perspective, which cultivates a sense of freedom, independence, and confidence as well.

Indeed, British historian and Oxford educated E.B. Castle, when writing about classical education, has said that for the ancient Greeks, “education was for the making of men, not training men to make things.” Back in 1961 Castle observed the following: “The danger of technical education, as Plato clearly saw, as many see today, is that a particular technique or narrow scientific study tends to become an end in itself, cramping the mind of the student and limiting his vision to a point where he remains unaware that his technology and the machines which he makes, have become his master and not his servant.”

Hillsdale network schools like ours naturally produce extremely impressive students on paper, graduating seniors with high SAT scores who often enter their collegiate institutions at the very top of their incoming class and have the kind of excellent preparation needed for careers in law, medicine, engineering, etc. From the classical point of view however, what good is a perfect SAT score if the student lacks the moral virtues of friendship, courage, generosity, and justice, and the intellectual virtues of prudence and wisdom? Instead, we think that our work is to help our students learn to be good, to teach them to be independent men and women with sound minds and well-formed characters.

In discussing his ideal educational curriculum at the end of his masterful work Politics, Aristotle addresses parents in this regard:

“To be always seeking after the useful does not become free and exalted souls.” Any KCA student who decides to go into the trades after high school will always take pride in knowing that he or she is “educated” in the most meaningful sense of the word. Most of us are indeed employed in “useful” professions, but a classical education will nevertheless help establish the foundation for a “free and exalted soul” throughout our careers. We promise to pursue the truth without shame and without any agendas. When students in the middle and upper school consider terms like “equality” and “justice” for example they will be asked to read, discuss, and consider the most influential thinkers in history who addressed these very loaded terms in diverse, creative, and often unhealthy ways as the record and evidence clearly demonstrate. Our curriculum is unmatched in presenting an impressive array of perspectives in multiple subject areas.

This important and challenging education naturally relies upon a close partnership between parent and teacher. Because a classical school aims for more than just supervising students, or training them for careers, we cannot go about our work without your support. We ask that you get to know us and get to know classical education, and most importantly, enjoy learning about both. Two outstanding, three volume sets of books provide a comprehensive picture of the meaning of “Paideia” and of the birth and significance of the American constitutional heritage: Werner Jaeger’s Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture, and Paul Rahe’s Republics Ancient and Modern. The material is important, often riveting, and always profound, or in other words, it’s a real education!

Nineteenth century British poet and commentator Matthew Arnold believed the same when he encouraged “culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world, and, through this knowledge, turn a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits.” At KCA we are grateful to be part of an institution that highlights “the best which has been thought and said in the world,” and in transmitting this wisdom to your children we are confident they will develop nothing but the highest standards of intelligence and conduct.

Finally, KCA is committed to creating an outstanding sports program, since athletics was an integral part of the Paideia experience. Socrates, one of history’s greatest thinkers, was in addition an accomplished wrestler and infantry soldier, and he famously stressed the importance of sports and music in a young person’s education. Sports, says Socrates, is instrumental in “harmonizing” the body, and music in “harmonizing” the soul. Indeed, according to Professor Castle, “to the Greeks physical education was a serious affair” in which teachers and trainers started with courses on nutrition and body awareness, and then taught fundamentals in the various sports, including “wrestling, boxing, running, throwing the discus and javelin, the long jump,” and the “pankration” which closely resembles today’s MMA!

This year KCA will offer co-ed cross country and girls volleyball in the fall, girls and boys basketball and boys wrestling in the winter, and co-ed track in the spring. We are also actively planting the seeds for future football, baseball, and soccer programs as well. In addition, KCA offers a wonderful after school Jiu Jitsu program, and, in the spirit of the complete Greek Paideia, our beautiful new gym will also include space for a weight room and a potential boxing and kickboxing program.

Aristotle famously claimed that “happiness” was a kind of “blooming” or “flourishing” in the combined areas of intellectual, moral, and athletic excellence. With that powerful definition in mind, it’s hard to put into words the gratitude I have for all of those who have made this experience possible: our outstanding faculty and staff, our KCA board of directors, Hillsdale College, our building construction team at BoumaUSA, our Post Falls and greater area civil servants, the Idaho SDE and IPCSC, and all the supportive families in Kootenai County who have invested their trust in us.

We all look forward to a great year three!

Sincerely,

Dr. Kaitz