Building a Civil Society Through Education
Since 1994, Heritage Academy has opened its doors to thousands of students in the Mesa Arizona area. The school, founded on the principles set forth by our nation’s Founding Fathers of individual liberty and civic responsibility. But what does that mean from an educational perspective? How does one center an entire school around these principles? Well that was the mission of Heritage Academy’s founder, Earl Taylor.
Mr. Taylor believed (and still does believe) that if we were to raise our children to become the future leaders of our country, they needed to be taught the basic principles of liberty and what governs a civic society. To that end, Heritage Academy was born.
Together we’ll take a deep-dive into the mission statement of Heritage Academy and what it means to the school and its students.
Heritage Academy’s mission statement can be broken down into three distinct sections.
- Heritage Academy is dedicated to youth, their growth and development. The purpose of education is to build strong character. Strong character is reflected in strong families, strong communities and a strong nation.
- While teaching the academic disciplines, Heritage Academy is dedicated to instilling into the minds and hearts of today's youth a knowledge of and respect for the ideals and values of the great men and women of history, including those who founded the American nation.
- As today's rising generation gains an appreciation of these people of accomplishment, they will be ready to provide selfless service to their fellow citizens and to their country which will be required in the coming years to assist in preserving America's greatness. Heritage Academy exists to this end.
A complete understanding of this mission statement is necessary to truly grasp the goals and values of Heritage Academy. So let’s dive in!
Section 1
Heritage Academy is dedicated to youth, their growth and development. The purpose of education is to build strong character. Strong character is reflected in strong families, strong communities and a strong nation.
When our founding fathers founded our country, they knew that in order to have a strong nation, you needed to first have strong communities and most importantly strong families. To the founding fathers, the family was the pace for kids to really learn true and honest values.
Thomas Jefferson believed there were two types of ways to lead a country. First, artificial aristocracy. He explained artificial aristocracy is when a person becomes the next ruler simply because they are the next family member in-line. This is the kind of aristocracy we see in England and other European countries. The right to rule the country isn’t based on skills or talents but rather on bloodline. According to Jefferson, this was artificial. There was no work involved for the individual.
The second way to lead a country was natural aristocracy. In a natural aristocracy, the ruler first proves him or herself in their private lives to be honorable and accomplished. They have to earn their spot. This is the type of government our founding fathers wanted. They wanted our ruler (or president) to be someone who earned their spot to be there.
George Washington for example proved himself to be a great leader through his military service. Abraham Lincoln worked hard to receive an education while also working on a farm. These great leaders went on to accomplish great things for our country because they were honorable and accomplished in their private lives prior to their presidency. They didn’t see the presidency as a career, but rather as a service to their country.
At Heritage Academy, we want the same for our students. We strive to teach them correct principles that they can use in their future lives and careers and become contributing members of society.
Section 2
While teaching the academic disciplines, Heritage Academy is dedicated to instilling into the minds and hearts of today's youth a knowledge of and respect for the ideals and values of the great men and women of history, including those who founded the American nation.
We want our students to succeed. And we believe the best way to set them up for success is to teach them the fundamental principles. As educators, we often see the students who have the most difficulty in math are the ones who don’t know the basic principles like the multiplication facts. In order to understand the bigger, more complex ideas, students need to first understand the fundamental ideas because they build on each other.
And the same goes for building up students to become contributing members of society. If they are going to live the ideas of a civic society, they first have to understand the basic principles of liberty.
At Heritage we will go down to the Arizona state legislature and pick up a few bills being proposed by the state’s congress. We then ask our students studying government to do their best to read and understand the bills that are being proposed and then report back to the class what they found out. We teach them to pay close attention to the principles of liberty that these particular bills either support or violate.
It is amazing to see these students work hard to understand dense legislative text and then pull out the meanings behind the bills. Through this exercise, our students learn how to discern between bills that will expand freedom and individual liberty, or constrict it. Which we believe to be an extremely important skill to develop. What better for the future of our country than a group of well educated students who understand the principles our nation was founded on working together in government?
Section 3
As today's rising generation gains an appreciation of these people of accomplishment, they will be ready to provide selfless service to their fellow citizens and to their country which will be required in the coming years to assist in preserving America's greatness. Heritage Academy exists to this end.
It’s no question our country is in a little bit of trouble. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed and there are times where it is easy to feel like America has in some part, lost its way. But what’s good is being an educator you come to learn that the rising generation that will soon be the leaders of the country are bright, determined, and will go on to do great things.
As mentioned previously, at Heritage Academy we strive to center our curriculum around the basic founding principles of which our nation was founded. We believe that when, as a nation, we stick to the basic fundamentals, great things can happen.
We understand that we will perhaps never have a completely unbiased government. But we do believe that if we equip the younger generations with a strong foundation of the principles that govern liberty and civic society, we can reach as close to an unbiased government as possible. We need people who can think critically but also serve selflessly. Political positions should be a service to the country rather than a career.
And what’s beautiful about our current system of government is our ability, as citizens, to reset a large portion of our congressional body every two years. Through our electoral process, if we are unhappy with the decisions our representatives are making, we can vote to replace them. It’s a system that when orchestrated correctly, runs as it should.
Building heroes
Our school mascot is the Heritage Heroes. We chose that mascot because we are in the business of building our students to become the next heroes of our country. And because we have had the amazing opportunity since 1994, we have already seen so many of our hero alumni move on to do great things! We have alumni working as lawyers, engineers, trades people, teachers, etc. We even have some of our alumni teaching at Heritage Academy which is great to see.
We love our Heritage alumni and we find great joy in watching them succeed in their chosen fields. We have high hopes for them and the future of our country.
If you are interested in learning more about Heritage Academy please visit us at heritageacademyaz.com. We also invite you to subscribe to the American Classroom podcast to learn more about our amazing school and our amazing faculty and staff. Thank you, and we look forward to sharing more of our story with you.
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