Brand new playground equipment, refinished floors, and fresh paint are exciting improvements for St. Mary’s school this summer, but the biggest restorations going on at the school these days are much deeper and more enriching to our community’s students.

With over 121 years of strong educational tradition on which to build, St. Mary’s teachers and staff have recently begun an inspiring renewal of their instructional methodologies.  As the oldest private school in the county, St. Mary’s was founded by the Dominican sisters in 1896 and began educating with methods of the classical Catholic tradition -- deep analytical thinking, well-rounded in the fine arts, music, and physical education, well-read in the great books of the western civilization, and the development of moral character and service to others.

Today, this “classical” purpose and method of education is still the core of St. Mary’s, and the staff has recently returned from a week-long training in  Nashville, TN to re-dedicate their teaching practices to this classical model of education.  In the midst of a 21st-century world saturated in both information and misinformation, St. Mary’s believes that it is called more than ever to teach young people to think clearly and carefully, distinguish between truth and opinion, and to communicate articulately and eloquently.

St. Mary’s has always educated students in a way that goes beyond departmentalization, test preparation, and learning mere facts. In order to strengthen this tradition, the school staff has begun aligning the basic knowledge and skills that the state education system requires with more classic literature, original writings of the greatest scientists, historians, and philosophers of Western civilization, and active learning experiences that are integrated with technology, mathematics, science, and the local community environment.

As the St. Mary’s teachers and staff receive continued training and begin implementing more of these classical methods in the classroom this year, their primary focus will be to stir students’ minds with the wonder and awe, and propel their natural curiosity into lifelong self-motivated learning and mastering the art of living well.

If you are interested in learning more about St. Mary’s and how they are strengthening their instruction with classical methods, you are invited to a presentation on Tuesday, July 10 at 6:30 pm-8 pm in the school cafeteria at 520 Washburn Street in Taylor.