A Day of True Leisure for Teachers: Professional Development at Archway Trivium

Many of the Archway academies at Great Hearts strategically begin each school year with a thematic goal. This encourages faculty, students, and parents to focus on one specific target together as a school community. For Archway Trivium in Goodyear, Ariz., the chosen thematic goal is “leisure.” This theme will be weaved into several aspects of academy life this year, including professional development for the staff.

“When we look at this through a philosophic lens, leisure means more than just having a good time or relaxing,” explained Headmaster Clay Scott. “It means stimulating ourselves in a way that’s refreshing and rejuvenating for the soul. So, today we’ve got exercises for our faculty.”

The staff were given a catalog of activities that were designed intentionally to put them in a space that was not just enjoyable for them, but activities where they were challenged for the better. Activities included learning a choir piece, racing robots that they built as teams, a study of The Little Prince in Spanish, an art walk through the halls, and exploding dots, a unique way of looking at mathematics. With all these activities and more to pick from, staff were given two blocks of time to fit in their top two choices, which couldn’t have been easy given all of the great options.

“Western Civilization is built on the idea of taking time for leisure,” said Assistant Headmaster Christen Arbogast in a note to staff. “[Blaise] Pascal would tell us that if we want to make space for leisure, we must habituate our hearts to it. That means do it even if you don’t want to and do it again and again and again. If we are to teach classically, we must experience what created the classical tradition ourselves.”

“Teachers often times feel overwhelmed. It’s a heavy job. What professional athletes do to care for their bodies. That’s the kind of toll that teaching takes on the soul and on the emotional self and the social self and the mental self,” shared Scott. “And we need to be sharp. We need to be fresh for those things. So, it’s not enough just to relax. We need to be doing the things that push us forward in those ways, that fortify us in those ways. The end result being that our teachers are pulling from a deeper well and they’re healthier in their inner souls, in their selves when they step before the children.”

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