Mission Moments Blog

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

All parents want the very best for their children. All parents want to give their children the strongest foundation possible in academics. But what does this foundation really include? What are the important building blocks that young children need to be well prepared for the many challenges ahead in high school and beyond?

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

The door into 2022 is just around the corner…and often the new year offers us a time to be more optimistic and hopeful about what lies ahead. We all have dreams about what we would like to accomplish in the year unfolding before us. This is a part of the human condition and dreaming is a good thing. Dreams are a start, then we need to turn them into reality by setting concrete goals. Goal setting provides focus. It pushes us to think more clearly about the best direction and the tools we’ll need for success. With this understanding, we can more easily and steadily begin to make progress.

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

Brookfield Academy had the great pleasure last week of hosting Roger Ream, the President of The Fund for American Studies in Washington, D.C. and Trustee for the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). He spoke with us about The Blessings of Liberty.  He shared remarks from leaders all over the world that recognized what wonderful blessings we Americans have. It seems that these world leaders appreciated our good fortune so much more than we do.

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

Do you love to read? Or, maybe, do you wish that you were a more voracious reader? Either way, if you are a parent, you want your child to enjoy reading and develop a good habit of regular reading. But how?

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

For many years now, screens have replaced loose leaf and notebooks, while keyboards have stepped in for pencils and pens. This progress has given us many advantages with the use of technology in schools, but it has also pushed some subjects aside…cursive writing being hit the hardest. The fact is there is only so much time in a student’s day -- how do we determine what is most important, what can be retired, and what skills or content need to be preserved?

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

The parent as the primary educator is one of the most important principles on which Brookfield Academy is firmly built and no doubt, always will be. Our mission is to partner with parents to support the goal of academic excellence.  That is our strength - the academic program is well rounded and exciting, our instructional approaches are time-tested and classical,  and our intentionality is consistent and reliable.  We focus on our students as individuals with unique strengths and challenges.  We do not desire to homogenize them but rather to help them shine -each in their own way. Human flourishing is our aim for each and every child as we strive to inspire them with our  Five Stars:  Intellect, Individuality, Character, Heritage, and Truth.  This is not only our strength, but our commitment to BA parents.

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director, The Center for Mission & Academics

Education has the reputation of being a trend chaser - always looking for that magic bullet, that next big thing that will change how we help young people learn. The result is a good deal of change in curricula, pedagogical instructional strategies,  terminology, and textbooks. And yes, some of these trends or new approaches have been positive and helpful. But, in my opinion, others have taken K12 education down the wrong path. For example, grammar instruction is currently on the outs. Inventive spelling has not proven itself. And sadly, memorization has been given a bad name - drill and kill - to name just a few.

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director of Mission & Academics

Each year at Brookfield Academy we spend time thinking about an appropriate theme for the new school year ahead. I always enjoy the process as we try to determine what message we need to move our Brookfield Academy family forward in the most constructive manner while remaining focused on our Mission. This year the decision was made quickly -- we chose Embrace Challenge as the 2020-21 school year theme. It was an easy choice -- and an obvious choice. We knew opening our campus this fall would have its challenges. We asked ourselves how we wanted to proceed; and by moving forward with a positive attitude and big hearts for our students and their families, we were already committing to our new school theme.

By Linda Pryor, Executive Director of Mission & Academics

What truths do we face in the middle of a pandemic? During the last two months of the school year, the first truth that came to mind -- it was quiet. The children, our greatest joy, were missing. There were no messes in the halls or locker banks, telltale signs that our favorite people were not present. The hum of conversation and laughter in our buildings was no longer there. What a difference - you could feel it the moment you stepped into one of our buildings - it was just too quiet. We suddenly had a new normal. Our schedules were very different. The workload
was strangely more and less at the same time. Everything had changed and yet, nothing really had changed. These were and continue to be the truths of life at Brookfield Academy during the COVID-19 pandemic.