On behalf of our faculty, families, and students please accept my appreciation for visiting our website. A stroll down our hallway reveals just a glimpse of what we as faculty enjoy daily at Cedarcrest Academy-our students. Reflective and representative of their families, the students of Cedarcrest Academy are truly a good bunch of children. Our students are exceptional in a growing number of ways. How can I make such a claim?
For nearly two decades, we have been reading and hearing about excellence in education. Many schools have even enshrined the notion of excellence in their mission statements “a school of academic excellence.” One might, on occasion, be led to conclude that excellence and education are synonyms. After all, what else should schools be about? As schools are places where learning takes place, it naturally follows that they should be academically focused. However, are lessons in mathematics, literature, rhetoric, and the arts the only things taught? Considering the amount of time a student spends in school each week are we to conclude that their lessons are restricted to the academic disciplines? What about lessons in virtues like honesty, prudence, and fortitude? Ought not a school seek excellence in all things for every student? Perhaps, if not possible for a school, no doubt a requirement for an academy. Cedarcrest Academy is a school of excellence without limitations. A student’s mastery of a discipline like mathematics, as objective as math might seem, is of little good if the student lacks the judgment and care for how math is best used in the world. We seek excellence for every student, which is achieved through our unique model of Integral Formation.
An academy dedicated to unfettered excellence doesn’t happen by accident. At the heart of our academy is something of inestimable value. At the heart of our academy is charity, a surprise to some. Cedarcrest Academy is a school of charity-the queen of all virtues. The exceptionality of our students wells up from their deepening practice of charity. In an environment of love almost anything is possible. Our students teach us daily in many ways, but none greater than the care they show for God and one another. These are smart students, who are smart enough to master one of the most essential lessons. As we all know well, essential and easy are not synonyms. When is the last time you darkened our doors? Come and see what excellence can be. Semper Altius!
In Christ,
Jason E. Slattery
Principal