Nothing worthwhile is easy. In fact, the more valuable the thing is, the more difficult it often is. Harry Potter is easier than St. Augustine, but St. Augustine is deeper. Dating is easier than marriage, but marriage is a far more valuable, far more transformative thing. For far too many years our children have been sold short—they have been told they can’t do things they can do; they have been told it is unreasonable to expect more from them. And far too many have sold themselves short, complying with the lower expectations others have with them.

We at Charis think your children can do more! They can be expected to behave in class and treat teachers and classmates respectfully. They can learn to write in cursive, read in Latin, and speak in French. They can read Dante and Homer and Jane Austen and Charles Dickens and Boethius and Plato and Plutarch and they can learn from them . . . and even enjoy them!

In a world where the average young person is spending more than fifty hours a week in front of a screen and we praise them for putting down their phone long enough to make eye contact, we expect our students to read challenging books, to write organized and compelling papers, to speak clearly and winsomely, to be curious and ask insightful questions, to work hard and overcome the soft bigotry of low expectations that have been placed on their generation.