But, as always, God provides the right teachers at the right time.

91原创 is glad to welcome Mrs. Rebecca Beauregard to its faculty for the 2020-21 school year. Mrs. Beauregard will teach Prealgebra, Algebra 1, and Geometry to Logic and Rhetoric School students. While Mrs. Beauregard spent the last several years at home with her children, for a number of years she taught middle and high school math in Arizona. Now, working alongside her husband Matthew, who teaches Calculus at 91原创, Mrs. Beauregard will bring her skill and talent to the 91原创 classroom. Matthew and Rebecca are the parents of four children, two of whom are students at 91原创.

Welcome, Mrs. Beauregard!

The post Welcome, Mrs. Rebecca Beauregard appeared first on 91原创.

I’m happy to report that this year’s Senior Slideshows are now available for us to enjoy on YouTube.

( in case the YouTube player above doesn’t work.)

So let me urge you to join in on the senior celebration by doing these things:

• Go to YouTube and watch the videos! You will not be disappointed. 
• The comments are turned on in YouTube, so please leave encouraging and uplifting comments that will bless our seniors.
• Share the slideshows on social media — let’s spread the celebration far and wide.

We want to give a huge shout-out to Pastor Randy Booth who created and uploaded the slideshows — thank you, Pastor Booth!

Once again, . Please enjoy them and give thanks to God for our awesome seniors of 2020.

The post Senior Slideshows — Celebrating the Class of 2020 appeared first on 91原创.

Dr. Mark Sowell, board chairman

91原创 Dr. Atwood

Preston earned his B.A. in Humanities at L. R. Scarborough College, his M.Div. and Th.M. at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies from the University of Wisconsin (Hebrew Bible major; Greek minor). Along the way, Dr. Atwood held numerous administrative appointments at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2010-2014), The University of Wisconsin (2014-2019), and the National Association of Professors of Hebrew (2015-2017). He has also been the recipient of many grants, fellowships, awards, and scholarships, affording him opportunities to present his scholarly research in many countries and states, including a summer-long research stay in Jerusalem, Israel. He enjoys fishing, composing music, building rockets with his sons, drinking Mediterranean coffee, and taking his wife out to non-chain restaurants. Preston currently serves as the headmaster at Grace Classical Christian Academy and will transition to 91原创 this summer.

91原创 the Atwood Family

Almost 12 years ago, Preston Atwood bowed his head and whispered a prayer through Emily鈥檚 veil after they lit a unity candle. The song that played repeated the line, 鈥淕od鈥檚 glory is my reward鈥︹�� Obviously, no one praying that prayer can expect a life without valleys, but the Atwoods have experienced their fair share of mountain-top experiences. Along that journey, the best of their blessings are their children: Titus (8), Naviah (7), Xara (6), John Mark (4), Creed (2), and Soren (11 months). This big-little family often entertains itself outside with hobbies such as fishing (or ice-fishing when they lived in Wisconsin), walking (or scootering/biking/stroller-ing), and gardening (i.e., playing in the dirt). International travel is one hobby they engage in, both literally and through imagination by using pictures and Emily鈥檚 culinary skills to cultivate a global perspective. When they find themselves adventuring together within the walls of their own home, it often involves singing around Preston鈥檚 piano or guitar, reading a classic book out loud, or crafting with the most random objects imaginable.

The post Announcing Dr. Preston Atwood, New Headmaster of 91原创 appeared first on 91原创.

I know this is not what we had hoped and that many of us will be tempted to be downcast or frustrated. Certainly, it’s hard news to hear that our children and teachers won’t be able to be together before the end of the school year. But I want to encourage us all to trust the Lord and, in the words of St. Paul, “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor 15:58).

Keep an eye on your inbox in the days ahead. We will share more details about the coming weeks and the end of the school year as the time approaches. After spring break we settled in for a time of distance learning, and now that time is being extended. Let’s finish the year strong as a school family. Though we are separated by space and geography, we are not divided in purpose or resolve. We will work together to give our children a classical and Christ-centered education. And let’s reach out to one another, pray for each other, and encourage our friends.

I miss seeing you all and look forward to seeing you again! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Mr. V, or Mrs. Henry if you have questions or concerns.

Wishing you health and strength for the days ahead,

David Bryant, Headmaster

The post School Closure Extended appeared first on 91原创.

I highly recommend the article , published at the Gospel Coalition’s website. It’s good encouragement for us all.

The pandemic is not just affecting one city or one region; we are experiencing this shared trauma as the entire human race. [. . .] We must courageously resist this isolation. Not by violating the government鈥檚 sober instructions, but by learning afresh to cultivate communion with God and neighbor in this surreal season.

The post Belonging in a Time of Isolation appeared first on 91原创.

91原创 is proud to announce an exciting new re-branding program, effective today.

91原创 is in its 19th year serving the Nacogdoches community by providing a classical Christian education for scores of families. However, since its inception there has been confusion and intense debate among these families over the pronunciation of the G in the word 91原创. 
Should the letter be pronounced as a soft G, as in gym, or as a hard G, as in gum? For too long, the confusion has harmed the school’s image.
But those days are now in the past. 

Henceforth, 91原创 will be known as Reejents Academy. Never again will a student ask her teacher, “Is the G in 91原创 pronounced like GIF?” and the teacher have to turn her head away in shame and confusion. With the new name of the school clearly announcing its obvious pronunciation, Reejents Academy will project clarity, confidence, and class to the world.

“These are uncertain times, and uncertain times call for certainty in our pronounciations,” said Headmaster David Bryant. “We put together a committee called the Best Approach to Rebranding Phonetically (or BARPH for short), led by Mrs. Nicoal Alders, and it has done stellar work in rebranding the name of Reejents — that’s with two EE’s and a J, by the way,” he added with a wink. “Now the excellence of the spelling of our school’s name will match our excellence in every other area.”

The re-branding will go into effect immediately.

“Yes, we considered moving to the lesser known but more clear spelling of Academy with a CK instead of just the C, but BARPH decided that one spelling clarification at a time was the wise thing to do,” added Bryant. “Phonics can be fun!”

The post Major Re-Branding Program Announced appeared first on 91原创.

Thank you for sharing pictures of your kiddos hard at work!

The post Getting the hang of it! appeared first on 91原创.

Thank you to our teachers who helped make it happen — Mrs.Terrell, Ms. Herrington, and Dr. Hurst. And thank you to the many parents who worked so hard to prepare a lavish feast with delicious food and beautiful decorations!

The post Medieval Feast Day appeared first on 91原创.

My friend and fellow headmaster Ron Gilley from Trinitas Christian School in Pensacola, Florida, recently shared some wise words, and I鈥檓 passing them on here.

In from, Mr. Gilley offers compelling reasons to value the experience of our children attending a small classical Christian school. What do you think?

———————–

Throughout the ages Christian monks have cloistered to free themselves from the ungodly influence of the outside world. The seclusion and the freedom from the day-to-day rat race provided them increased opportunity for study and prayer that was not otherwise available. That tradition gave us some fine scholarly work in areas as diverse as Christian doctrine and agriculture. Indeed, Western Christian thought and heritage was preserved by such cloistering. In our age of mega schools and assembly line secular education, I want to suggest that Christian children can benefit from the cloister-like atmosphere at a small classical Christian school.

One of the problems with a statement like that is Christians are called to spread the Gospel in the world, and that is hard to do when cloistered. But I am not calling for all Christians to withdraw from the world. I am merely suggesting that we should provide our children with the shelter and safety necessary to grow strong in the faith before we send them to spread the Gospel and do battle in the world.

I often quote or paraphrase G.K. Chesterton who maintained that education is the 鈥渢ransfer of a way of life.鈥� God鈥檚 people are commanded by God to transfer a Christian way of life to our children, and not just for three hours on Sunday morning (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Every education, whether in the public school, the prep school, or the small but serious Christian school is transferring a way of life to the children who are imbibing it. What Chesterton seems to have seen so clearly is that children of school age are in their formative years. I would add that the God who makes children made them that way for their own good鈥攕ee again Deuteronomy 6. Children are learning and practicing now for the kinds of adults they will eventually become. They are being formed by their every encounter. And that is why cloistering is so important for Christian children.

We all can recall instances from our childhoods that remain with us for life. The negative ones seem most powerful, whether sights we should not have seen, fights we were not prepared for, or conversations that opened our eyes to ideas we were not yet mature enough to process. Perhaps even more powerful and lasting are the instances we do not recall鈥攏ot even so much instances as the filler between the instances that was simply residue of the environment we were in. Both the instances and the residue are part of who we are now as adults, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to undo the damage. When we were children, our foundations were being formed, and a lot happened while the concrete of those foundations was still wet. Now the concrete is dry and we are stuck with the damage.

It can be different for our children. I have heard all the arguments against sending children to small Christian schools, but I have also lived the success of it with my own children. While they are not perfect and their small classical Christian school was no Utopia, the concrete in their foundations is beginning to harden with far fewer eternal imperfections and flaws than my own. The keys to this formation were community and purpose. Every school is a community, complete with its own purpose and a culture that flows from that purpose. What I am proposing, then, is that a small classical Christian school has the right community and purpose to produce a nurturing culture for Christian children, one that trains them up in the way they should go, coming alongside the church and family that are also working to do just that for their children.

Consider that your own children are being formed right this minute into what they will always be. Every encounter they have along the path of education is building their foundations, even transferring to them a way of life. Now is the time to cloister them away with their own people in a place where you can know that the foundation being laid is for the glory of God and the eternal good of your children. Do not be fooled into enrolling them in a school that has a different purpose.

The post “A Case for Cloistering” appeared first on 91原创.

In last week鈥檚 91原创 NOW I shared with you the exciting news of the major study conducted by the University of Notre Dame that looked at the life outcomes of adults aged 24-42 who were educated in one of 6 school types: public, private secular preparatory schools, Catholic schools, evangelical protestant Christian schools, religious homeschools, and classical Christian schools. The study is called I truly hope you鈥檝e already been spending time reading the results of the study.

You鈥檒l recall that the study examined 7 profiles, including college and career, life outlook, Christian commitment, Christian lifestyle, traditional and conservative, independence of mind, and influence. The study indexed these profiles in order to measure graduates of classical Christian schools against those coming from other types of schools.

Consider these summary comments from ACCS. 

This study showed that ACCS alumni were more grateful, more trusting, and lived with purpose. And, they viewed suffering in the context of God鈥檚 plan for their lives. They had more and closer friends. Spiritually, 90% were above the median on church attendance, they read their Bible more, and they talked with their friends about religion.

Are these what you want for your children?

Also:

ACCS alumni have the most conservative views about Scripture (with the possible exception of young-earth creation), more conservative views about government (with the possible exception that they trust government more than other conservative groups), and more traditional views of the church. Through cross-referencing different questions, we see they have a greater capacity for independent thinking. Their strongest difference is in their willingness and ability to engage our culture as evidenced through their leadership positions held, greater connection with influential people, and their desire and obligation to engage on social issues. Their academic preparation exceeds even private preparatory schools, and far more ACCS alumni earn high grades and a degree in college.

Again, does this describe what you want for your children?

In summary:

The most significant finding here is just how big the differences are between ACCS alumni and the next highest groups in every profile. Typically, these differences are an聽order of magnitude聽above the differences between others in the study.

What are your goals for your children? What is your vision for them as adults? Is it for them to lead lives of virtue, display mature character, love learning, and serve the Triune God? Is it for them to be salt and light in a decaying culture? Is it for them to know how to think well and to do so in accordance with God鈥檚 Word so that they live well?

This study shows that the best way to achieve this vision is by completing the course and launching into the world with the riches of a classical Christian education shaping their worldview and their character.

In conclusion, 鈥淔or parents who realize that school is about more than just college admissions, the life outcomes and spiritual outcomes combine with the best college preparation to make a compelling case for classical education.鈥�

The post “A Compelling Case for Classical Education” appeared first on 91原创.