Letter from the Headmaster
Hello Heart of Ohio Classical Academy Parents,
My family and I are so excited to join the Heart of Ohio community! My husband, Chadwick, three daughters, Elyza, Eliana, and Elyse, and I made the long voyage from Texas to Ohio this past summer, and I’m blessed and thankful to work along side with wonderful teachers, staff, and students to pursue what is true, do what is good, and love what is beautiful.
Our mission at Heart of Ohio Classical Academy is to provide a content-rich education that stimulates the mind, feeds the hunger for learning, and nourishes the heart through a fully integrated liberal arts and sciences curriculum. We are devoted to forming young men and women who embody the ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty, and who are intellectually curious, morally grounded, and civically engaged. We are not only developing students, but also adults who will have lives of purpose and make contributions to a free and prosperous society.
As we begin this journey together, I want to highlight the three key areas of growth we will be focusing on: knowledge, virtue, and parent culture.
Knowledge
We are committed to helping our teachers develop their classrooms with an intentional sequence of content that builds cultural literacy and intellectual depth. This summer, our teachers received professional development from excellent classical education resources. We will continue to use Hillsdale’s Curriculum Guide to the fullest extent possible for our program. We believe strongly in Hillsdale’s emphasis on American classical education and are grateful for the academic support they provide through their resources. Our students will encounter the best that has been thought and said across Western civilization, from classic literature and primary sources to science, art, and Latin.
We will also prepare our students for state tests. The tests are not our ultimate goal, but we do have a responsibility to our authorizer and Ohio’s Education Department for our performance. This means we will work on being informed about the various ways students can see vocabulary and understand how to answer questions. Our teachers will look at both the curriculum and the state standards to ensure students are prepared.
Virtue
Our goal is true education, which is more than just intelligence, it’s about intelligence plus character. We are not teaching religion, but rather the classical virtues from Greek philosophers, such as wisdom, justice, humility, and courage. We also focus on virtues essential to our country’s founding, like self-governance, civility, and perseverance. These virtues will be integrated into instruction, assemblies, and everyday interactions on the playground and in the hallways. We aim for consistency from grade to grade, ensuring that what is right in one room is right everywhere, helping students develop integrity and live by an honor code.
Parent Culture
We want to partner with you to help grow this school and build a culture where our children can truly flourish. We want to give you opportunities to be a part of our school community, and we encourage you to volunteer and get involved. We’ll be communicating frequently through our weekly parent newsletters and in-person events.
I want to end with a thought from our recent parent meeting: we are not educating our children for the person they are today, but for the adult they will become tomorrow.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. I look forward to working together to make this a wonderful school for our children.
Kind regards,
Angel Hennig