Dear TRA Families,
I was on a field trip with seventh grade students before Winter Break. On the car ride up to Leavenworth, several students were playing with their cell phones and making music with the Garage Band app. I was struck by the fact that they were able to “play” songs on the guitar virtually via a cell phone regardless of whether they could actually play the guitar in real life. In other words, they could do things virtually that were completely divorced from reality.
Wow, I thought to myself - this is quite a temptation for these young souls. After all, virtual life is much easier than real life. I could learn to play a quick riff on Garage Band in a day. That would likely take me months to learn in real life.
Likewise, I can have virtual friendships with a click of a button, when in reality, it takes courage to go up to a new person and initiate conversation.
So how do we equip our students to live with these temptations that many of us never faced as teens?
No one disputes education's power to form young souls. Beginning with Plato back in the 4th century B.C. and has continued to this day. Education is a powerful tool to form the attitudes and affections of the youth. For this reason, education has become such a battlefield today; it literally holds the future in its balance.
How do you want your child's soul formed?
My running assumption is that one of the main reasons you want your child educated at The River Academy is because you see the power education has to shape the souls of your children. With this in mind, we have to think a lot about what we aim to instill in these young, impressionable minds.
This is why we have aligned ourselves with the inculcation of virtue here at TRA. Virtue has long been viewed as one of the primary goals of education. And history has proven out those virtues which are most important to instill in these young minds. Specifically, we are aiming to help our students grow in love and appreciation for the Cardinal Virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) and the Spiritual Virtues of faith, hope, and love.
I’ve grouped fortitude (courage) and temperance (self-control) because they go hand in hand. This is my definition of each:
Fortitude - the ability to confront and not back down in doing good.
Temperance - moderating our dispositions to avoid excess or deprivation.
Why do our young men and women need these virtues today? I bet you can fill in your own reasoning, but here are my quick thoughts on each:
Fortitude:
It has been said that we are living in a “post-Christian world.” I don’t think we need to look too far to see signs of this everywhere. For example, here in Washington State, the recently adopted “Comprehensive Sex Education” curriculum is a telltale sign that our society no longer values traditional Christian values. In my estimation, this means that your children will need to stand up for the truth of the Gospel in ways many of us as adults have never been forced to do. This will require great courage. But I also think choosing to live life in person and face to face will increasingly require great courage. Social media friendships are easy (most of the time) and allow us to engage in friendships from the comfort of our beds. Going out, leaving the comfort of our safe spaces at home and risking a conversation with a friend in person will become increasingly an act of courage for our children. But their survival as humans depends on it.
I pray our young men and women here at TRA are gaining in courage in preparation for challenges they will likely face in their future.
Temperance:
As Solomon pointed out in Ecclesiastes, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). While I believe this applies to all areas of temptation, I also recognize that our children have to navigate areas that we never did as children. Take my earlier example of the cell phone. While I think it is awesome that my daughter can text me when she is on her way home, I am also keenly aware of the inherent temptations associated with having a pocket computer that you take with you wherever you go. Whether it is the temptation to get sucked into social media feeds endlessly or even the temptation to relate with your peers via a phone rather than face to face, these are things I never had to learn to manage as a young adult. Yet students have to learn self-control in these areas at a much earlier age than I ever did. Maybe you can relate.
How do we help our children grow in temperance and fortitude? It’s a daily battle for sure, but here at TRA, we are working to regularly help our students navigate these real life issues. Whether through the regular in-class discussions which challenge students to participate and gain a strong voice for themselves or through the books we read which help them discern truth from lies, we are on your team in helping your children gain courage and self-control. We love that we can partner with you in these areas.
May God grant all of us wisdom to navigate these tough challenges.
Have a great week!
Eric
