CA on Display
by Mike Davis, Ph.D.
Head of School
This week, Colorado Academy hosted its annual on-campus event for prospective parents who are exploring the school as an option for their children’s education. It involves dozens of parents volunteering as tour guides, faculty welcoming visitors to their classrooms, and students answering questions from visitors about everything from lunch to homework.
Here’s what I love: The stories to which we become so accustomed about the kind of school or place that we are never fail to elicit a whole range of complimentary interjections from visitors. There are chuckles and laughter, “ahh”s, and “aww”s, and reminders for me about what a privilege it is to teach young people, and especially to teach and lead at a place like CA.
Head of School
This week, Colorado Academy hosted its annual on-campus event for prospective parents who are exploring the school as an option for their children’s education. It involves dozens of parents volunteering as tour guides, faculty welcoming visitors to their classrooms, and students answering questions from visitors about everything from lunch to homework.
Here’s what I love: The stories to which we become so accustomed about the kind of school or place that we are never fail to elicit a whole range of complimentary interjections from visitors. There are chuckles and laughter, “ahh”s, and “aww”s, and reminders for me about what a privilege it is to teach young people, and especially to teach and lead at a place like CA.
Every year, we receive responses like this one from yesterday’s event: We “couldn't have been more impressed with CA. It is an amazing place. We found visiting the campus during a regular school day to be incredibly helpful … CA’s focus on character-building and well-roundedness are high priorities in our family.”
Our process of inviting families to get to know our school is very open; we host preview days while school is in session, and we invite guests to ask questions of our students and teachers. One tour guide told us that her “guests were enthralled” listening to a student in the Upper School Innovation Lab talk about the collaboration and teamwork involved in the class project to convert an old school bus to a “Tiny House.”
Always on display at our school are students who are engaged, faculty who are invested, and parents who are involved. This is a place where Middle School students can deliver an outstanding theatre performance on the night after our girls Varsity Field Hockey team earns its fifth consecutive trip to the State Finals; where post-season competition in volleyball, boys soccer, and cross-country are juxtaposed with rehearsals and music recitals, with a photo exhibit by students who went to Spain, and with fifth graders exploring the Colorado History Museum.
All of this leads visiting parents to say each and every year, “I want to go to school here.” Thanks to our collective CA community for helping to make the process of educating children the best it can be.
© 2023 Colorado Academy
