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Dear Families,

I have been reading(and re-reading) John Milton Gregory's The Seven Laws of Teaching, sharing his lucid commentary with teachers. And then it occurred to me that some of his insights are so spot on that parents too would benefit from reflecting on even just a few.

"A truth can be fully seen only in the light of other truths. It is known by its resemblances."

"Truth must be clearly understood before it can be vividly felt."

"Attention [in the learner] will be steadiest when appeal is made to the strongest faculty. One person can give steady attention to objects sense,another to ...

Dear Families,

When completing my graduate classes in administration we read the popular business text, Good to Great (2001, Collins). The author puts forth the metaphor of a business as a bus. He questions decisions made pertaining to the direction in which the bus is moving, the bus’ final destination, and most importantly-- who is on the bus with you; viewing the latter as of preeminent importance.

Collins emphasizes the importance of getting “the right” people on the bus, the futility of driving in the “right” direction with the “wrong” people, and so on and so forth. Which makes perfect s...

Dear Families,

I often tell the story of how God's grace brought me to Catholic education. I can assure you it was not my plan. I vividly recall feeling a lack of fervor when selecting Saint Thomas Aquinas to be my patron saint at Confirmation. I merely attended a high school named after the angelic doctor, and it wasn't until I encountered his writings at Providence College that I became infatuated with his powerful yet humble intellect.

Little did I know that even when I wasn't acting intentionally, God was.

Saint Thomas' captivating use of natural reason is what ultimately turned my faith o...

Beginning in 1974, Catholic Schools' Week has long been the annual celebration of Catholic education in the United States. Tracing our roots to such primary figures as St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, St. John Neumann, and more; we are grateful to the contributions of so many who have worked hard and sacrificed to make Catholic schooling a possible choice for families.

Catholic Schools' Week is a unique opportunity to appreciate what we have at Mount Royal Academy: a personalized, prayerful, and purposeful pathway to sound education: education of the mind, body, and soul.  Our students have opportuni...

“A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn 10:10 

As our school prepares to journey once again to the nation’s capital for the 46^th annual March for Life, it is appropriate to reflect on its nature and purpose. Is it a protest, a rally, a memorial, or a witness? In fact, it is all of these things. It is a protest against injustice, a rally around the most vulnerable among us, a memorial to the victims of a cold rationality bereft of God’s grace, and a witness to the truth about life. In the face of a culture inc...

Test scores can indicate success but certainly do not define it. We measure success on a different plane. Nevertheless, it is good practice to utilize the assessments that are widely accepted in order to gauge relative academic achievement. As the results below bear out, our students generally achieve above average results.

CollegeBoard Assessment Data

Dear Families,

I hope your family is enjoying the Christmas season. I always savor the opportunity to just sit with my children. Jubilee and I recently took up playing the board game "Life", the merits of which I question on some level: money is not the measure of success. I do see the value in learning how to count, but perhaps the greatest value is just watching my daughter smile next to me. 

We are always present and conversing with the students. Just this week, one student curiously commented on my habit of reading between the lines and analyzing the implications of certain lines of think...

Dear Families,

The Advent season is upon us, full of hope and anticipation. Anticipation of Christ’s birth. Hope for the world. It is a time full of small, quiet joys: the sounds of carols, the smell of evergreen, the glimmer of candles. It is only fitting that our virtue of the month is hope. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 1817-1818, 1820) defines hope as the virtue by which we desire, “Eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit… Buoyed by hope, man is preserved from sel...

Dear Families,

Our liturgical calendar reflects the rhythm of our universal human experience. In these closing weeks of Ordinary time, the lectionary (daily Mass and Sunday readings) direct our attention to what is commonly conceived to be the “end times”. These apocalyptic messages are not intended to secretly reveal the state of things before God returns; instead, they reveal (apokaluptein, Greek, “uncover”, “reveal”) the profound mystery that happens next in our calendar: the Incarnation.

My small mind likes to reduce important lessons to a simple phrase: we are only ready for the end if we...