Looking back over the past five years, and in light of the school’s celebration of its twenty-five year history, it is fitting to consider recent gains, in Kingdom terms. While numerical goals are things that can be quantified and they do matter on a small level, these are always secondary to what is primary. Great numerical growth may be an example of giving attention to the wrong things. It is possible to grow a school, a church or a community to thousands and all the time be missing the mark of being faithful to one’s mission and identity.
As a lesson from the Biblical world, we should always remember that being fixated with the army’s numerical size did not bode well for David. Take for example his sinful counting (II Samuel 24) as he was trusting in the number of man and not the strength of the Lord. A lesson from the Classical world on not overly valuing raw numbers was the Battle of Thermopylae where the Leonidas led Greeks of only 7,000 impressively held off as many as 200,000 Persians until betrayed by a local resident. This battle waged by a qualitatively impressive Greek army more than held its own against a quantitatively ominous Persian presence.
The lesson in both the Biblical and Classical area is that one should always remember the larger picture and that goals must always be grander than the moment. Veritas has seen in the past five years a wonderful culture shift with the fitting emphasis placed on mission and identity. This renewed commitment to being a faithful Christ-centered Classical school has yielded tremendous atmospheric differences. People who have been here for more than ten years describe all of the good that has always been a part of the fabric of Veritas, but readily recognize that reclaiming our identity has been a difference that has made a major difference.
What we must always keep before us is our mission and our identity. By being faithful to this, God will qualitatively increase our numbers and all of this growth will be Spirit led, organic and sustained. This is exactly what we have seen in the past few years.
By adding Paideia seminars and various common arts classes that reflect Classical pedagogy, discipleship education, and community building that are now commonplace at Veritas, we demonstrate who we are and what matters to us. These highly interactive learning moments are found in pre-kindergarten through the senior classes. Both Paideia and common arts will increase at VCA in the years to come.
Just as people can be known by the company they keep, schools can be easily recognized by their professional associations. Veritas seeking and securing accreditation with the Association of Classical Christian Schools was possibly the institution's most profound pivot to distinguish us as the school we say that we are and will continue to be. Our relationships with the Society of Classical Learning and Classical Latin School Association publicly declares to all within our school and those outside of our borders that we are a Christian Classical school and have reinforced our heritage and identity.
Replacing the previously long standing modulars with the lovely C.S. Lewis Hall must not be forgotten. This change, as well as the addition of The Charlotte Mason Center, and our recent Nature and Art Studies are yet even more indicators of exalting our identity and mission.
By keeping the first things first at Veritas with the refocus over the past five years, by remembering our brand, and reaffirming our identity, God has blessed us more than ever with growing number of staff, students, and a like-minded beautiful school community who get who we are and who serve in concert to faithfully provide a Classical Christian education at this moment with an amazing momentum moving into the years to come toward our eternal vision.
