Bona Verba

At Cincinnati Classical Academy, we take seriously the ancient conviction that education concerns the whole of a human being: mind, body, and soul. The classical tradition has never understood learning as merely the acquisition of information or the sharpening of technical skills. It is, rather, the cultivation of virtue and

This week, residents of southwestern Ohio had the rare privilege of seeing the northern lights. For a few fleeting hours, ribbons of color danced across our night sky, an unexpected gift from the upper atmosphere. Such a spectacle can awaken something ancient in us: wonder. It is the same wonder

If you’ve spent time in our classrooms or walked the hallways recently, you may have heard it: students chanting, almost like a secret code, “Six-seven! Six-seven!” Teachers raise their eyebrows, students laugh, and parents scratch their heads. What does it mean? The surprising answer: nothing at all. “Six-seven” is just

Bona Verba from the Headmaster As another school year comes to a close, I urge you to step into the summer not merely with excitement, but with a sense of leisure—a word too often misunderstood in our age. True leisure is not idleness or entertainment; it is, as Josef Pieper

Bona Verba from the Headmaster Somewhere in the interlude between Olympiad Day and first-day rosters, when our faculty lounges are slowly being cleared of coffee mugs, red pens, and half-used lesson planners, there is a quieter rhythm to school life—what T.S. Eliot once called “the still point of the turning

Bona Verba from the Headmaster Summer reading programs, as they are conceived these days, often come bundled with corporate slogans and anxious talk of “learning loss,” a phrase that seems to have emerged from the same think-tanks as “food insecurity” or “quantitative easing”—a way of naming a problem while quietly

Bona Verba from the Headmaster Perhaps you’ve noticed: instant messaging and social media have not been kind to grammar. Adolescents—and even many adults, yes?—mangle language with carefree abandon, reducing expression to a series of half-formed thoughts, emojis, and abbreviations. The result? A world where clarity dissolves, and the precision of

Bona Verba from the Headmaster The push for Artificial Intelligence in K–12 education has been framed as a technological inevitability driven by market forces and the allure of increased efficiency. Advocates argue that AI will streamline lesson planning, individualize learning, and enhance student engagement, making the traditional classroom obsolete. Yet,

Bona Verba from the Headmaster Classical education, with its deep roots in Western civilization, remains one of the most compelling and time-honored approaches to learning. For those seeking a roadmap into the intellectual and pedagogical traditions of Cincinnati Classical Academy, these seven books provide essential insight. Each work, in its

Bona Verba from the Headmaster The following is a brief speech I delivered at The Art of Teaching: Reading and Writing conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, sponsored by Hillsdale College’s Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence. I’d like to begin with the premise that to lead a classical school in the 21st