Mission Statement

In charting new directions for Enkindle Academy, we have begun asking ourselves a few questions. Whenever starting something new, we’ve learned to start with the end and work backwards. Thereby, the ends weave themselves into the means. We can’t imagine a more sure method to ensure success.

Who do we serve?

This is the first most important question. The primary answer is, “young people – children, youth, teens.” The secondary answer is, “Adults/Families related to them,” because education is a whole package, not an isolated thing. Young minds are my primary project for a number of reasons. First, they are still impressionable. Adults have already formed what they think, and they are harder to get through to. Children are much more open. Of course, this requires greater responsibility on the part of the teacher to make sure we are caring for their young souls, delivering age appropriate content, and leaving them free to come to their own thoughts.

Second, the children are our future, and we write the future by how we educate them. The proverb, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” was never truer than in education. This is also why we appreciate their openness. It is possible to plant living concepts in them which can grow over the decades of their lives and bear fruit in the world.

Third, children are so much more alive than adults. They play, the laugh, and that lightheartedness helps me stay youthful. They keep us on our toes and in the creative space.

Why do we serve them?

We serve children and youth so they grow up knowing the wholeness of the world and develop immunity to the deadening materialism that has become our society. In a podcast today, the commentator explained how materialism had supplanted superstitious, dogmatic, religious ways of apprehending reality. It purified many of the delusions of yester-age, and it has served its purpose well.

However, it has become the default epistemology of modern society and taken on a dogma of its own, like, “If we can’t see it and measure it materially, it doesn’t exist.” Propelled by a crisis of meaning, more and more people these days are realizing the need to discover immaterial meaning and purpose in life, youth included. Youth may, in fact, be the ones hardest hit by this meaning crisis.

However, the world IS an intrinsic whole. It’s never not been. That materialism, having gotten lost in the parts, can no longer see the forest for the trees, doesn’t mean the forest doesn’t still exist. Reality IS a forest of inextricably symbiotic reciprocal relationships, all of them unobservable to the senses. They can only be intuited when observations combine in thinking. We teach so that students develop/retain this capacity from a young age to think from the whole to the parts. Then, when they grow up they will naturally seek to reveal this wholeness to others in whatever chosen field they find themselves: science, medicine, engineering, environmentalism, business, agriculture, government, etc.

How do we do it?

• Illuminating connections – By teaching in a way that draws the subjects together into a living whole. For example, what do the stars have to do with plant growth? Or, how does art through time reflect the changing nature of consciousness? Or, why will a machine still function if you take it apart and put it back together, but a plant won’t? Teaching in this holistic way communicates both consciously and unconsciously an intrinsically healing way of thinking to students.
• Imagination – when we teach imaginatively, we draw students into a realm of thought naturally capable of drawing connections between all the “parts” of creation.
• The Arts – imagination flows naturally into and from the arts which prove not only beautiful but also practical in allowing us to grasp the higher truths of existence. Perhaps that’s why Einstein advised parents to read fairy tales to their children if they wanted them growing up smart. This is also how Goethe performed science – art was not a separate process.

What do we do?

• Academic classes, grades 5-8 – within these classes are woven all of the above principles. We also do summer classes like entrepreneurship, travel writing, and book studies, among others. We also offer tutoring for all subjects.
• Teen Empowerment Class – this one is directly focused empowering teens with knowledge and practices necessary to create a life they want. It is better to teach them this at a time when the possibility for lifelong mental health issues can set in than to wait until they are adults. This class consists of all the things we wish empowered adults told us at that age, and more. With grace from the good powers around us, these youth will enter adulthood 30 years wiser and more capable than we were at that age.
• Music and arts – here at Enkindle Academy and in the local community we teach creative writing, music, theater, and fine arts.
• Young Philosophers Course – this one is in the works. The idea arises from the growing observation we have that our youth are asking the deep questions most of our generation only begun asking in college or after. We would love to hear from families who think they might be interested in this. It is similar to the Teen Empowerment Class, but would be focused on philosophy, specifically.

How We Can Help

Enkindle Academy offers prerecorded and live lessons for students in grades 5-9. We teach all academic subjects plus fine arts, creative writing, and empowerment groups for teens. We also offer 1-on-1 tutoring on all subjects including fine arts. Visit our website for more info and for free sample lessons. Remember to subscribe for weekly updates, tips for homeschooling, and special offers.