Chelsea Academy

On Wednesday, August 27, Chelsea Academy officially opened with thirty-seven students in grades six through nine. There has been much to celebrate, and it was fitting that the feast days of St. Monica, St. Augustine, and the Martyrdom of John the Baptist marked the beginning of our year.

Below this brief letter I have included my opening remarks to our students, parents, and faculty during Student Orientation on Monday, August 25.

Thank you for your prayers throughout the past year and a half. Chelsea Academy has already been blessed in many ways, and I look forward to sharing with you the exciting developments in the months ahead.

Sincerely,

Jonathan D. Brand
Headmaster

Chelsea Academy
Front Royal, Virginia

Address to Faculty, Parents, and Students
Student Orientation
August 25, 2008

“Build it and they will come.” This is the advice a friend gave me each time we talked about Chelsea Academy over the past year. “Build it and they will come,” he said. And he was right: they came. YOU came. Four full-time teachers, four part-timers. Twenty-four families. Thirty-seven students in grades six through nine. Seventeen boys, twenty girls distributed over the four grades. Six sixth-graders, twelve seventh-graders, seven in eighth grade, and twelve in what will be Chelsea’s first graduating class, the class of 2012. The future my friend spoke of – “they will come” – has become the present – you came and you are here.

And you came from near and far. Fifteen of you live in or near Front Royal. That leaves twenty-two students who came from other places: from the surrounding mountains (Linden and Chester Gap), to the rolling countryside (Huntly and Rixeyville) and on to the cities, towns, and hamlets of Virginia, including Stephen City, Boston, Jeffersonton, Madison, Woodville, and Winchester. All in all, five counties are represented: Warren, Frederick, Rappahannock, Culpeper, and Madison.

But in an important sense, my friend did not get it quite right when he said “build it and they will come.” It is true that before you came, we had to build more than a few things. A mission for the school. An academic program. The classrooms where you will study and learn this year. But the truth is that the real building is just beginning – because we have been waiting for you, the builders, to arrive.

Yes, you, the students, are the builders. And I am pleased to say that you came well-equipped. You have experience building bird feeders, making rosaries, erecting castles and towers out of Legos, building tree forts, knitting scarves and sweaters, baking cakes, making model airplanes, mastering Mozart’s piano pieces, developing your soccer skills and building successful seasons, writing stories and poetry, painting beautiful pictures. One of you, I have found this summer, is able to build bookcases and tables like a master craftsman. And all of these building skills will serve you well in the future.

Sadly, we don’t have to look very far in today’s world to see that it is much easier to destroy than it is to build. Building takes vision, creativity, persistence, and perseverance. You have to roll up your sleeves and make sacrifices today for something worthwhile in the future. You have to be willing to work together with others as a team.

Just think of one of the greatest buildings ever built – Chartres cathedral, about fifty miles outside of Paris, France. With its flying buttresses, towering spires, stained glass windows, and gothic arches, it took over sixty years to build, with everyone from patrons and architects to masons, glassblowers, sculptors, carpenters, and blacksmiths playing important roles.

Our late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, spoke of building a “civilization of love.” It is my hope that Chelsea Academy will be one small but important institution helping to do just that and that, like Chartres Cathedral, it will endure for many years to come.

What will it take? First of all, we need to have master builders who can serve as your mentors and guides. And we do. These builders are your teachers, and Chelsea Academy could not have started with a finer faculty.

But we also need to have willing and able apprentices – people who are eager to learn from the master builders. I am speaking about you, the students. And just as we have fine teachers, our student body, from grade six through grade nine, is solid and ready to begin its apprenticeship.

Now another question that you are probably asking is this: What exactly does it mean to say that we are going to build a school? What do we seek to build at Chelsea Academy in this first year?

I propose to you that there are three main things:

First, Academics. We want Chelsea Academy to be a place where we take learning, but not ourselves, seriously. We want our classes to challenge and engage our students. We want your imaginations to be sparked by the wonder of God’s creation and your memories strengthened and intellects sharpened by the best of our civilization. We have inherited a great tradition of learning and human achievement, and our goal is to pass on this tradition so that you, our students, can build on it yourselves.

Second, there is the fullness of the Catholic Faith that serves as the bedrock of the school. One of my favorite teachings of Our Lord is the one about building on a rock. The rains came, but the wise man who built his house on a rock withstood the worst storms. A rock is a clear, strong metaphor and conveys a sense of durability and permanence. At Chelsea, we want to build a vibrant Catholic culture in which we can live and grow as Christians. And we want to build something that lasts long into the future. For that to happen, we need a sure foundation, and nothing is surer than the solid rock of our Catholic Faith.

Thirdly, we want our students to build deep and enduring Friendships and to cultivate a spirit of adventure. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” True friendship involves the shared adventure of seeking the truth in the classroom and the common good in action. At Chelsea Academy, we want you to do more than just excel academically. We want you to become men and women of courage and conviction, people who work to forge strong friendships and who are able to meet the challenges they face in their lives with confidence.

In all of these things – Academics, Faith, and Friendship – our patron saint, Thomas More, excelled. Few men have equaled him in learning and wisdom. He was a man of rock solid faith, even to the point of refusing to go along with King Henry VIII’s act of destruction though it cost More his life. And, as Erasmus said, Thomas More was “a man born for friendship.” The home he made at Chelsea, England -- a place of learning, culture, and piety -- is a model for Chelsea Academy here in Front Royal.

Let me close by quoting St. Thomas More: “If any good thing shall go forward,” he wrote, “something must be adventured.” With eight teachers, thirty-seven students, and twenty-four Founding Families, I am confident that Chelsea Academy will be a very “good thing.”

So, let the real building begin. And if we build seeking to honor God in all that we do and say, I am confident that you will be glad you came.