The following articles are taken from our monthly newsletter Reflections, a WCA publication highlighting the building blocks of a Classical Christian Education and its results.
It was August of 2009. The king of pop, Michael Jackson, had passed away earlier that summer. The cost of a gallon of gas was $2.73. People were ditching their Blackberries for an iPhone 3, and in case you were wondering, the Browns were on their way to another losing...
This is the second half of a commencement address given by Headmaster Jim Whiteman to the class of 2022 on May 20. And now for a word of exhortation. It begins with a true story with no guarantee of the exact details. Pittsburgh was our destination for a daylong...
Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 127:1a A few weeks ago, I tearfully said goodbye (as a teacher) to a school that has been a part of my life for the past 22 years. In August of 1999, my family moved from sunny...
Last year, we sat down and reflected on the past twenty-five years of the Lord’s work in and through Westside Christian Academy. We, as collective members of His Body, wanted to honor Christ in our celebration. We looked to scripture to see how the Lord rejoices and...
Memories cascade like a waterfall when I think of my time at WCA. This flood of memories is the strong current of the Lord’s goodness manifested to the faithful community of Westside Christian Academy. Upon reflection, I can say that there is one affection that...
It is my honor today to deliver the graduation address to Westside Christian Academy’s Class of 2021. As the entire class has written its senior thesis on imagination, I am going to ask you to use yours as I retell a story. A young Swiss boy is fascinated by alchemy....
Scottish fantasy writer George MacDonald tells the coming of age story of the character, Anodos, who, on the eve of his 21st birthday is given a key. With this key, he unlocks a compartment of a long-forgotten desk, from which emerges a fairy. The next morning, he...
“Why does a Christian school spend so much time on mythology and ancient pagan cultures?” I have heard this question many times in various forms and each time I answer it, I myself grow more deeply convicted that we must teach these myths purposefully, not squandering...
As I continue to grow older, I’m not sure if the “bad things” happening in the world are increasing, or if I’m simply becoming more aware of them. With the news and media at ever increasing rates of alerts, dings, and notifications, it’s near impossible to avoid all...
After a whirlwind few weeks we have found ourselves living in a world where terms like “social distancing” and “shelter in place” are common parlance. We live in a world so different from the way it was just a few short weeks ago that we question whether anything is...
The text of Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem depicts Equality 7-2521, an attractive, well-built, astute man whose ultimate goal is to rise to the vocation of “thinker” in the House of Scholars, but his aspirations are not possible in the dystopian society of a Dark...
Verses 10-12 of Ephesians 6 say, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,...