August 6, 2011
Dear Principals Golich and Van Leeuwen,
Firstly, congratulations on being selected co-principals of Valley Classical Christian Academy! We see outstanding and complementary skills in the two of you, and believe that you can lead VCCA in its venture of faith as it climbs the next set of mountains before us, making VCCA even better and greater.
My wife, Birdie, and I spent considerable effort in choosing the “right” school for our two children and have written this letter to explain why we think VCCA is one of the top schools in Phoenix and the right choice for our children. Please feel free to share this letter with your school, alumni and friends.
Birdie and I were blessed in receiving top class educations. Birdie, whose father was a Lutheran medical missionary in Asia, attended Woodstock High School in India, a private Christian School, gracefully catering to the many faiths of Asia. Woodstock is located on a 300 acre campus in the forested foothills of the Himalayas and is the premier academic school in India. Not surprisingly, Woodstock attracts students from all over Asia and the world, and was recently ranked as one of the top ten boarding schools in the world. After Woodstock Birdie went on to study at Cornell University and then Mayo Medical School. I attended St. John’s College, an Anglican school in South Africa, followed by the University of the Witwatersrand and then the University of Colorado; studying engineering and mathematics.
To find the “right” school for our children we turned to the Internet to evaluate schools and test scores, read the latest research papers on effective education, visited schools’ open houses, interviewed teachers and principals, slept on sidewalks overnight to gain acceptance into sought after schools, spoke with our friends and harked back to our own educational experiences, parsing out what was really important.
You probably already have an idea of what is important to us in a school. So that there is no misconception, here is what we think is important:
- A loving and caring Christian environment that is fun for the children.
- A diverse student body open to all people and accommodating all faiths.
- Small classes with good teaching.
- Structure and kind discipline.
- Academic excellence, but with room for children who may not be academically inclined.
- A curriculum that focuses on the basics, emphasizing rigor and creativity.
- Art, music, drama and joy.
- Promotion of healthy eating and lots of exercise.
We are not interested in fancy buildings, state of the art sports facilities or exotic course offerings.
So after visiting a Montessori School on every second corner (or so it seemed), St. Francis, St.s Simon and Jude, All Saints, Christ Lutheran, all the Madisons, Benchmark, Rancho Solano and on and on, we eventually stumbled on VCCA – a tiny school with no sign; unknown by even the neighbors, hidden in the lush trees of the Living Streams Campus. My wife’s visits to schools were arranged and announced. I rounded these out with stealth visits.
My first visit to VCCA was one of these stealth visits. Mrs. Powell was the first person I met and immediately wowed me – her passion for teaching and the school was obvious. As we learned more and more we found that we liked VCCA’s small classes, the structure and the caring environment.
We kept VCCA in the backs of minds as we visited and thought about the many other schools.
Finally, we attended VCCA’s open house. It was sitting in Mrs. Grant’s tiny art class when we both felt this is the right school. Her class was fantastically engaging, the art on her classroom walls was interesting and beautiful and our little art project was incredibly fun. Mrs. Cox’s English class, and her emphasis on good grammar, brought a little shiver down our spines, but is just what we want for our children – as we believe one cannot pursue any career successfully without a command of language. Then onto the polymath Mr. Van Leeuwen’s class. Yes, Latin, the bane of my life as a school boy, somehow seemed interesting. His love for mathematics, Hebrew, Theology and just about everything was infectious. Mrs. Pinkerton’s caring and loving history class was very interesting and elicited the most extraordinary exchange between her and a young student – he asserted that the British won the Battle of Bunker Hill and she reminded him at what cost – it was the most interesting exchange of historical ideas and interpretations, which could only happen in a small intimate classroom. Unfortunately we could not attend all the classes. But afterwards, we were able to speak at length to the teachers and the board members – no other school was so open.
VCCA’s open house was hands down the best of the many we had attended and strongly swayed us towards VCCA.
After the open house we did one more thing, we carefully compared VCCA’s test scores to those of the many other schools we had researched … and…VCCA’s scores were outstanding – possibly the best. We were thrilled! The little school we had fallen in love with had passed this acid test with flying colors. We made the decision that VCCA would be the school for our children.
Now months later, somewhat more sober, we remain excited by this little gem of a school. We are ready to work very hard for this gem and, as we look around, we see other see parents, teachers, members of the board, friends and alumni all working very hard.
We thank everyone for this wonderful school and look forward to growing with our children.
Sincerely,
Stephen Taylor and Birdie Matern