Profile of an LGA Teacher
There is no such thing as a cookie-cutter teacher. Like their students, teachers are unique human beings with distinct talents, aptitudes, and life stories. Yet beyond their many gifts, our teachers are united by the same priority: love. They teach for the simple reason that they love their students. For them, teaching is the chance to unlock the highest potential of mankind’s next generation. As St. John Chrysostom said, there is no more important or worthwhile endeavor on this earth.
What Love Looks Like in the Classroom
Our teachers unlock their students’ potential by cultivating within them wisdom and virtue.
Wisdom is like a magnet upon a human soul: We are born to seek it, and we are restless until we find it. A teacher’s work, therefore, is threefold: to properly orient students towards wisdom so that they may progress in its direction; to clear away those things that might tamper with the integrity of wisdom’s magnetic influence; and to validate students in their attraction to wisdom -- to reassure them of its rightness, and to celebrate with them when they find what they have sought.
Virtue (from the Latin virtus, which grows from the root vir, or man) is the necessary condition for being fully alive -- that is, fully human. Virtues are God-given, natural aptitudes trained to the heights of excellence. Humans, for example, have the natural ability to talk; that ability trained to the point of excellence is the virtue of eloquence. Our teachers train their students to develop moral virtues (e.g. faithfulness, courage, justice); intellectual virtues (e.g. logical reasoning, persuasiveness, intellectual honesty); physical virtues (e.g. speed, strength, endurance); and spiritual virtues (faith, hope, love).
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness: The Teacher’s Road Map to Wisdom and Virtue
Our teachers cultivate wisdom and virtue by orienting students’ hearts, minds, and souls towards Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. By facilitating daily encounters with these transcendentals -- that is, timeless and universal attributes of reality -- our teachers create the conditions for students to develop a deep understanding of life’s most crucial elements, which in turn triggers both the longing for and advancement in wisdom and virtue.
First, students learn about the world around them: those things that can be discovered through reason and empirical observation. Second, they learn about themselves: who they are, and who they can become. And finally, they learn about the divine origin of all creation: the God who loves the world - and them, in particular - into existence.
A Total Immersion Program
Our teachers achieve these daily encounters with Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in two ways: modeling and immersion.
Modeling: Habits of heart and mind are caught more than taught; therefore, students absorb far more from a teacher who is a lifelong learner than one who is a lifelong lecturer. Our teachers prioritize their own development in wisdom and virtue not only for themselves but also for their students: They delight in being real-time examples for these children, and they speak and act in ways befitting the beloved role models they are.
Immersion: From the earliest grades, our teachers immerse students in the greatest thoughts, discoveries, and works of human history. They introduce them to the scientific, literary, and artistic giants who have made immeasurable contributions to our shared repository of knowledge. They submerge them in that which is most noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, because anything less diminishes both teacher and student.
Four Results Great Teachers Can Attain
This constant process of imitation and immersion yields four effects upon students’ understanding that nothing else can legitimately simulate:
It communicates knowledge more fully. The world is a nuanced place, and the quest for the good life often succeeds or fails in the details. Imitation and immersion allow students to notice and experience these minute yet crucial distinctions in ways textbooks and lectures often do not anticipate and cannot convey.
It embeds itself in the mind and heart. Many adults who once had a good enough grasp of trigonometry or physics to get A’s in those classes can now recall almost nothing about the subjects. Learning for the sake of scoring well on a test or report card isn’t real learning - it’s cramming - and it lasts about as long as a house built on sand. Imitation and immersion, by contrast, is a foundation of rock upon which students can build a rich mental storehouse that will last for years.
It is excellent preparation for future success. When it comes to mastering some of life’s most important practices, there is simply no substitute for watching and doing. Whether it’s intellectual understanding (e.g. public speaking, analysis, debate, investigation), relational understanding (e.g. patience, service, leadership), or spiritual understanding (faith, hope, love), taking notes is nowhere near as effective as practicing.
It reminds students who they are called to be. By giving students role models to emulate, introducing them to great figures and feats throughout history and literature, and familiarizing them with the reality of Christ’s saving love, our teachers these young minds and hearts out of themselves and into His One Body.