April 12, 2013 - The Geneva School

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ANNUAL FUND UPDATEBy Katie Deatherage, Director of DevelopmentA drop of rain lands in a bucket … another drop falls into thebucket … fifteen more arrive in the bucket and then another nineraindrops land. At the conclusion of a storm, the bucket couldpossibly be full or quite close to it.In one sense, the annual financial need for The Geneva Schoolis like a bucket. If everyone gives, that is, adds their drop to thebucket, it will quickly fill. The school’s bucket needs $170,000by June 30, 2013, to balance the budget. The Geneva Schoolboard of governors carefully weighs setting the tuition. However,tuition does not cover all of the operating expenses of the school.And yet, the board strives to keep tuition as low as possible toafford as many families as possible a choice in education, knowingthat the remainder of the budget must be raised through taxdeductible gifts.Not only does the school need to raise the funds necessary to coverthese needs but the development office believes in 100% participationfrom among our constituencies. That is, 100% of families,100% of faculty and staff, and 100% of the board of governors.Our hope is that those who participate with The Geneva Schoolon a daily basis would do so both in time and treasure, regardlessof the amount.Why? If we could fill the bucket without 100%, why does itmatter that we reach 100% participation?It matters a lot. These statistics matter to the corporations andfoundations that we would like to approach about coming alongsideour school to help develop our mission. If we request offoundations and corporations donations from their resources toprovide for the school, they want to see evidence that those whoknow us best and are most closely connected to us are willing alsoto financially support the growth of the institution.God has clearly created each of us with different gifts and equippedus with different tool boxes (Romans 12:6). And how wonderfulthe variety is! The tapestry that these gifts create is quite a reasonfor celebration. Likewise, participation will look different for eachfamily for a variety of reasons. I do, however, ask that you considerThe Geneva School as you make your stewardship decisions,remembering the difference the school has made not only to yourown family but to other families as well. God has been faithfulbefore, and we trust he will again provide for the school’s financialneed through faithful and committed people like you.LEFT TORAISE BYJUNE 30AnnualAuctionSALTDonationsAnnualFundDonationTo make a donation tothe Annual Fund, go togenevaschool.org/giveWe have great reason to celebrate the work that God is doingthrough you, the people in the Geneva community! Thank youfor your contribution to the bucket. Every gift matters. Every giftis an expression of the gratitude for all that God has done in ourown lives, including placing Geneva in it.Page 4
An Answer to the Question—Why a Liberal Arts Education?by Kevin Clark, Academic DeanHere I offer a simple thesis, though itmay sound bold and somewhat surprising,given much of what one hearsabout education in the broader culture.The best reason for pursuing aliberal arts education is not that it produceswell-rounded persons, thoughthe breadth of human experience it affordsis expansive. Nor is it even that itfosters or engenders the kind of written,verbal, or critical thinking skillssought after by employers in industriessuch as business, finance, or softwaredevelopment, though the practice ofpersuasive writing and speaking and ofinterpretive reading and analysis lie atthe core of the liberal arts curriculum.Rather the best, and I believe the mostcompelling, answer to the question—Why a liberal arts education?—restsin the claim that it uniquely cultivatesthe qualities of common sense (sensuscommunis), taste, and moral judgment,qualities in which the Western traditionhas understood the distinctlyhuman element of civilization to consist.1 Put most simply, the best reasonfor pursuing a liberal arts educationis that it cultivates the qualities necessaryfor human flourishing. I hopeto show as well that it is perfectly attunedto our cultural moment. Beforeplacing my thesis within this context,however, I ought to define in brief detailthe qualities the liberal arts seek tocultivate.What does it mean to cultivatemoral judgement, commonsense, and taste?There is perhaps no single aspect inwhich a liberal arts education is moreobviously unique than in its purpose:the cultivation of phronesis, moral wisdomor judgment—not rational masteryof a subject, not technical proficiencyat a skill, not even the abilityto calculate, to deduce, or to processdata. We might say that phronesis is thegood sense to know what to do withtruth. Thus, earlier thinkers like Platoor Aristotle would have called it a practicalwisdom. It is skill, honed throughthe continual practice of living wisely,at living a good human life in theworld. 2 This goal of cultivating phronesisis in fact the classical ideal that liesbehind the phrase “education for life”one often hears around Geneva.How do the liberal arts cultivate thisvirtue? The honest answer is that theydo not and cannot do so on their own.Living wisely in the world takes practice.3 However, the poets and historianshave bequeathed to us the greatgift of literature—narratives historicaland fictional—where one may observethe lives of the wise and the foolish,and indeed may experience those livesvicariously by entering imaginativelyinto their stories. Through the studyof literature the student gains thekinds of experiences in life that his orher young age does not permit. Ciceroaffirms the importance of literature inhis famous oration Pro Archia Poeta.“All books are full, all words of thewise are full, and all history is full ofexamples ... I have always kept theseimages in view when serving as a magistrate,shaping my heart and mindafter them by meditating on their excellences.”For Cicero this study of historyand literature afforded by a liberalarts education not only instructed himbut compelled him boldly to act forthe common good of his community.Closely connected to moral judgmentis the quality of sensus communis. Althoughwe will render this Latin phrasewith the familiar words “commonsense,” we should recall something ofits technical meaning. 4 Of course, weuse the phrase common sense all of thetime to mean an intuitive understandingof how to get along in the world,often contrasting it with academicor specialized knowledge. (In fact,one often hears that common senseis the quality many academics generallylack.) While the ordinary meaningof the phrase is not identical to itstechnical sense, it happily flows fromit. Sensus communis actually derivesfrom classical rhetoric, where it refersto that shared, though neither provednor even often stated, understandingof the world that a rhetorician can relyon when crafting his oration. It is thatshared body of assumptions that invisiblybind together a group of peoplePage 5
Page 1 and 2: THE COURIERTHE GENEVASCHOOLNEWSLETT
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April 12, 2013 - The Geneva School

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