A WELCOME FROM OUR HEAD OF SCHOOL

Wade Ortego
M. Wade Ortego, Head of Schools

Grace and peace to you!

It is such a joy to sit down with new prospective families and hear about the desires they have for their children as they consider where to send them to school. There is hardly a more important question for us as parents to answer than this: How should we educate our children? And there are so many choices and flavors of education in the Treasure Valley.

The thing that makes The Ambrose School so unique is that the sum total of the student’s experience is designed to answer questions like: Who is God? What is He like? How can I know Him? How should I live?

In the Grammar School we answer these questions through catechism questions and answers and scripture memory centered around grade level themes (K: Obedience, 1: God’s Perfect Plan, 2: The Fruit of the Spirit, 3: The Seven Virtues, 4: The Four Loves, 5: The Great Ideas, and 6: The Good Life/The Public Square).

In the Logic and Rhetoric Schools we answer these questions by deeply engaging with the Great Ideas and The Great Books, examining them through the lens of scripture.

Across the whole school we strive to integrate all subjects so that students see that God is present in all things. Chemistry, calculus, spelling, phonics, history – all are under the authority of Christ our King. As Dorothy Sayers said in her famous essay, The Lost Tools of Learning, subjects “are all to be regarded as mere grist for the mental mill to work upon.” Are SAT scores and college scholarships important? Of course! But only inasmuch as they are rightly ordered within the context of the formation of the eternal soul. I often remind myself and the teachers of this sobering passage from James: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” It is a weighty matter for all of us – as parents and teachers.

All of that to say this: We are committed to this philosophy of education and take very seriously our charge to support you and your children as we all strive to answer these most important questions.

In Christ,
Wade Ortego