Dissatisfied with the overly secular local schools where his three young daughters attended, a retired U.S. Navy fighter pilot has launched his own K-8 school, which by implication, apparently provides an alternative to wokeism.
Located in the Annapolis, Md., area, Divine Mercy Academy provides a classical liberal arts education in the Catholic tradition that inspires students.
(Video: Fox News)
According to founder Ali Ghaffari, the rapid growth of the independent Catholic school is, in part, fueled by, a curriculum “that inspires kids to learn and to want to learn more, to go deeper, by using the greatest works of Western civilization.” He also noted that “our faith is infused in everything we do.”
Ghaffari told the “Fox & Friends Weekend” crew in the video clip embedded above that his family has a lot of experience with schools after having traveled all around the country during his military career.
The lieutenant commander’s last tour while on active duty was at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, and the family settled in the area.
After enrolling his kids in the local school system there where he thought “they’d be well off,” he became disappointed.
“[I] realized I was not getting what I was hoping for. And for me, I want my kids to go to heaven; I want them to love Jesus and to be saints, and to live lives of virtue. And that wasn’t the path, that I felt, that they were traveling,” he said.
Watching one of his daughters struggle with Common Core math every night was apparently one of the motivators.
“And then I heard about classical education. And then I thought about potentially starting a school. Went to visit one; I was absolutely amazed by what I saw…that’s what I want for my kids.”
Summarizing the philosophical underpinnings of the school, the Navy vet explained that “Classical education comes from the Greeks. The Greeks wanted to know, ‘What is a good life look like? How do we live our lives?’ And they came up with living lives of virtue, and asking the big questions, and living a life that is honorable. And that life frees you to have many choices and to do many things…a classical education focuses on training these children up in virtue. And it does it through the greatest works of Western civilization…”
Drawing distinction with the prevailing ethos, Ghaffari elaborated that “the education that our kids are getting out there in the public schools, and even sadly in some of our parochial schools, is very secularized. And that agenda is contrary to them going to heaven. And It’s very focused on the here and now, and it ignores heaven and the eternal…”
His school instead puts “God back at the center, where he belongs…God’s in the center of our curriculum.”
Praising Ghaffari for his initiative, Fox News co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, a mom of nine, punctuated the studio discussion by recalling that “I always say to my kids, my job isn’t to get you to Harvard, it’s to get you to heaven.”
Pete Hegseth writes 'return to sender'; on Harvard U degree, admits mom going to be 'very' mad via @BIZPACReview – https://t.co/mJtWShf9Wh
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) June 21, 2022
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