Making Classical Education Accessible at NFO Day 3

Day three of the Great Hearts Arizona New Faculty Orientation (NFO) concludes the over-all orientation phase and transitions to New Faculty Training (NFT) where new faculty will experience in depth training directly relating their job over the next couple of weeks. The morning sessions focused on the accessibility of classical education for every student.

Heidi Vasiloff, Executive Director of Great Hearts Online, began by proclaiming that Great Hearts is where a classical education is accessible to all who seek it. “The impact is visible in the lives of our student and families,” she said. “It comes down to love… Teachers lead students through intelligence, charisma, humor, integrity, and example – in short, through love and friendship, as modeled by Socrates.”

Vasiloff concluded with a quote from Dr. Mortimer Adler, “The best education for the best is the best education for all.” A quote that is used widely throughout the Great Hearts network.

Tom Doebler, Regional Director of Exceptional Student Services, explained how Great Hearts makes this education accessible for students with disabilities. “Our goal for all students is the same,” said Doebler. “Some students need different supports to achieve it.”

Doebler then posed this question to new faculty, some who have teaching experience and some who have never taught before, “How can we change our pedagogical approach to teaching a child, the materials we put in front of a child, and even what we expect of a child, and still in good conscience believe that we are providing them a rigorous, classical, liberal arts education?”

He went on to explain our legal responsibility as a public charter school and how Great Hearts goes beyond that obligation. In a standard model, a program would be developed to accommodate special needs and students would be placed in the appropriate program, with the hope that it will be a good fit. At Great Hearts, we create plans individually based on needs, while respecting their humanity and individual differences. Doebler encouraged the new staff, “You, teacher, have a critical role and are empowered to engage with the team when planning this support for students.”

Great Hearts believes:

• Our primary aim is not utilitarian. We seek to form the soul, heart, and mind.
• Education is not an endpoint, but journey. We exist to help prepare them for that journey.
• We give all our students access to the same rich curriculum. All can pursue excellence through engagement with the best the world has to offer.

“What we provide our students with disabilities does not create an ‘unfair advantage,’” explained Doebler. Treating children equally means giving them the same support and opportunity regardless of any quantifiable differences between them. However, treating children equitably means treating them with consideration of those differences. We pursue equity. The size of the vessel may be different, but it is how we fill it that matters.

Plato once said, “The instrument with which each [person] learns… must be turned around from that which is coming into being together with the whole soul until it is able to endure looking at that which is and the brightest part of that which is.”

For more information about our Exceptional Student Services, visit https://arizona.greatheartsamerica.org/academics/special-education/

Do you have a story or know of a story that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts?  Please contact jason.moore@greathearts.org.