When Back to School REALLY Means Back to School

Most Back to School Nights involve some line-up of speakers charged with imparting “essential information” to parents, followed by break-out sessions in individual classrooms during which teachers do much of the same. Not so at Lumen Gentium Academy, where parents really go “back to school” for the night.

For two hours last Thursday evening, the LGA community gathered together in the school’s idyllic courtyard as, one by one, the faculty immersed parents in mini-classes. It started with a breathtaking science experiment, during which Mrs. Mainardi wowed the crowd by combining the same two liquids in six identical beakers, yet yielding six differently colored solutions. Despite repeated pleas for the big reveal, Mrs. Mainardi would no more divulge the method behind the magic to the parents than she did to their children! Next, Ms. Pizzigoni took them through a fascinating Euclidean proof; when all heads began to nod in understanding and acceptance, she surprised her pupils with a gentle and cheerful rebuke for their lack of skepticism in her original claims. Then the parents grappled with a gory passage from The Iliad with Dr. Bond, in which it became increasingly clear that the author actually quite admired the gore for the calculated ruthlessness with which it was delivered. After that, Dr. Bolleia delighted the class with excerpts from The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and pressed them not just to hear the music, but to really listen to it. Next, Mrs. Bolleia and Mr. Davis mesmerized them with a fun and funny lesson on Latin and its enduring beauty. Finally, it was back to Dr. Bond for a conversation about the esteem in which Scripture holds Tradition as determined by the living mind of the Church.

At the conclusion of the night, parents walked away with no emergency contact forms, no wish list of needed classroom supplies, and no handouts about the grading system. That information was missing from the evening for one thing because it’s easily accessible elsewhere, but more importantly, because the teachers only got two hours to introduce parents to the school year, and they had to spend the time wisely. They, too, had to focus on essentials. And at LGA, “essentials” does not mean logistics or schedules or even grades; it means a vibrant and moving and memorable encounter with truth, goodness, and beauty. So the teachers chose to show parents exactly how they impart their own love for their subjects and share their own journeys to discovery and understanding. As a result, the parents gained a whole new level of clarity and trust that the members of the LGA faculty are in the education profession not to teach kids how to “test well” or “play the college admissions game well,” but rather how to live well. And for these teachers, that’s not a job -- it’s a calling.

Too many parents have suffered through dreaded Back to School Nights that sadly mirror their children’s school experience: It’s a draining, tedious chore and they can’t wait to get home. Sent forth with Headmaster Douglas Minson’s final impassioned reflection that good education is a child’s birthright and therefore our responsibility to provide, LGA parents, by contrast, lingered long after the evening’s official conclusion. They simply did not want to leave, for, much like most other parents, their Back to School Night had also mirrored their children’s school experience -- and this time, it was a source of wonder, delight, and a passionate thirst for more.