In the past seven years of teaching at The River, I have enjoyed many heart-to-heart talks with our junior & senior young men.  As you might guess, these conversations are often created by moments of personal crisis, and therefore end up cutting deeper than curriculum questions to broader life and character struggles…and aims.  These are the conversations that start with something like “Mr. Hettick, why do I have a failing grade in class?” (Did you finish the assignment? “Yes.” On time? “Almost.”  Did you turn it in?  “I think soooooo…Wait! Shoot!”)  But before long our talk turns to:  “Mr. Hettick, I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do with my life.”

A growing number of families value TRA’s whole person education, which focuses on helping students know God, value truth, beauty, and goodness, grow in virtue, think critically, and communicate effectively, and are willing, and able, to pay the actual, admittedly high, cost of a TRA education. But what happens when people need a lower tuition amount in order to send their child(ren) to this school that they love, as tuition increases to cover rising costs? It benefits our whole community that we make this education available to them as well.

Before my children were school-age, I began shopping for schools. I knew the type of environment I wanted for them but not where to find it. We interviewed several different schools in the area and each school I visited, I asked the same questions. One of those questions was, “How do you handle discipline?” It’s a loaded question, but I knew that when I asked it. Secretly, it was a test to see how well they handled the sensitive subject.

Our mission at TRA is to educate the next generation of Christian leaders. However, “Inspired leaders are not created in a vacuum; they are cultivated in a culture” (Hegseth and Goodwin, Battle for the American Mind, 127). TRA recognizes the importance of the culture and environment in which students are taught, as well as the ideas and values behind those decisions. We unabashedly operate and teach from a Western Christian Worldview that values reason, virtue, wonder, and beauty, and works hard to cultivate those values and attributes in our students by teaching them what is true, right, good, and beautiful. 

Christian communities should be the BEST at celebrating Holidays (holy-days!) because God calls us both to REST (Duet. 5:14) and to REJOICE (Deut. 12:7) and to FEAST!! (Ex 23:14) So, when it comes time to play games, feast and sing together, and dress up in fun costumes? Well, we do it up BIG! If you’ve ever been lucky enough to be a part of Reformation Day, you know what I’m talking about!

Oh, how I love Christmastime! Fireplace warming after fresh-fallen snow, nutmeg & cinnamon in my cocoa, red ribbons on trees and evergreen wreaths, colorful constellations of twinkle-light bling, holly and jolly and bright caroling! HOORAY! And oh, yes - of course, the birth of Jesus too…mainly that. “The reason for the season” ...shepherds & angels & manager & some special star & frankincense (isn’t that an essential oil?) & baby Jesus & peace on earth… the whole shebang.

What distinguishes The River Academy from all the other classical, Christian schools out there? Do we teach the Great Books? Many of them, just like many other schools. Do we educate from a Christian worldview that’s infused into everything that we do? Absolutely, just like many other schools. Do we have a House system? Absolutely we do, arguably far stronger than other schools (in our humble opinion). But what else? What’s truly unique about part of TRA’s secondary curriculum? Advent Electives.

As we reflect on all that the Lord has done at TRA over the past school year, we produce a Gratitude Report—also known as an Annual Report—to not only showcase evidence of His provision to our beloved school, but also to provide financial transparency to our families and donors. Created with deep appreciation for all who give selflessly to help make our mission a reality, this report acknowledges we could not stay on mission without your generous support. You should have received a printed copy of this report in the mail last week, but check out the flipbook below if you haven’t had a chance to thumb through your copy yet.

House Fridays are a time commitment that could be used for learning more science, but there are some deep life lessons and Godly maturity being modeled each week during our games and competitions that we wouldn’t necessarily see or be able to nurture in science class.

Uniforms are a traditional part of the classical and Christian education movement across our nation and even worldwide. I think our students look especially sharp! But it’s not just about looking nice, TRA students wear uniforms for several very important reasons.

It’s dark, and the disciples are shaken. Their Master–the one whom they’ve seen silence storms and raise corpses, the one from whom horrific demons flee and to whom tiny, trusting children flock–the God-Man who has spoken light and love and healing right down to their very bones–the One who has promised to give them life everlasting–this Jesus, has just told them (again) that He must leave them–tonight.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther–a law student turned monk–nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany. In short, these Theses (a thesis is an argument or an assertion–ask your TRA junior-higher or high schooler!) were Luther’s way of protesting against corruption within the Catholic Church and reminding the church of an oft-forgotten truth: that by grace and grace alone have we been justified from the consequences of our sins (Galatians 2:21; 2 Cor. 5:21). Any good works we might do are the reflection of our God-given grace upon our sinful state of being (Eph. 2:8-10). The sound of his nails fastening the Theses to those church doors was also the sound of the Protestant Reformation bursting forth.

The mission of The River Academy is to partner with parents to educate the next generation of Christian leaders. How does this partnership for leadership work? Primarily by building on the foundations you have laid as your child’s primary educator. As parents teach and train their children to be obedient and to love and honor God, those students will naturally be primed to learn more about God, and love Him and His Word. Such students learn to honor their teachers and classmates by being responsible for their actions and thinking of others more than themselves, which are key traits of Christian leaders.

Prior to all the disruptions to learning caused by Covid, The River Academy had a budding school-wide music program. As with many schools, Covid killed the music program at TRA and we lost our music teacher. Last fall, TRA began advertising and praying for a new music teacher to revive our music program. We had few applicants and the one who best met all of our qualifications and matched our distinct classical, Christian culture was Jessica Morlan.

As a Classical Christian school, we pride ourselves on a few things: wrestling with difficult scientific and mathematical concepts, delivering eloquent speeches, and–of course–reading many, many hard books. We also live in a world in which standardized exams for things like scholarships and college entrance have long been the norm (though that might be changing!). The problem with previous standardized tests, particularly for schools like The River Academy, is that they do not reflect the type of learning that we do here. So we had to look for an alternative, which we found in the CLT–the Classic Learning Test.

300 plus students arrived this morning with big smiles, and a few sleepy eyes and jitters, to catch a glimpse of all that God has planned for them as part of The River Academy (TRA) community. They met new teachers, learned new routines, visited our new lunchroom (and new locker areas for secondary!), and started their 2022-23 journey of growth here at TRA.