"The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian"
~ Pope Pius XI, Divini Illius Magistri
Our Mission: To Grow Lifelong Catholics
Vision
We are a traditional, faithful Catholic school community on a lovely 44-acre campus, with vigorous academics and vibrant mission-driven athletic and extracurricular pursuits. By means of the Great Books, the classical liberal arts, the sacraments, and the mentorship of caring and wise teachers who embody integrity and virtue, we welcome students into their rich heritage of the best of our Catholic Tradition.
By doing so, we help them fall in love with Truth, Goodness, and Beauty—and the One who is Truth, Goodness, and Beauty: Jesus Christ.
We aspire for our students not only to thrive academically, but to love our Lord; to be confident in their identity as beloved children of God, as Catholics, and as Americans; to desire to pursue the Good by serving God and neighbor; to discern their vocations prayerfully and well; to pursue lives of faithfulness, wisdom, virtue, responsible freedom, and true happiness; and to become Saints.
First Principles Our mission reflects a commitment to partner with parents in fostering the complete human development of every child and in forming men and women who are fully alive. We ground our efforts in the following first principles:
1. Parents are Primary Educators
Parents are entrusted by God with the primary responsibility to form and care for their children’s souls. Parents will find in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic School an indispensable and complementary partner to assist them in the critically important task of raising their children. The successful and complete education of each child necessitates this partnership.
2. A Personal Approach
Children flourish under the loving direction, mentorship, instruction, and example of caring, wise, well-educated parents and teachers. Genuine formation of the whole child requires an educational approach that is founded in relationship. To this end, we maintain moderate class sizes and offer students a haven from screens, promoting a personal, caring approach and a happy environment.
3. An Environment of Freedom
Formation in virtue requires an environment of freedom because we are forming not only the intellect but the will. Children must not only do the right thing when watched, but desire and love the Good. To this end, children must be allowed appropriate freedom to fail. Where our children fail, caring mentors provide direction; where they choose rightly, they grow in the habits and dispositions that make them fully alive.
4. Authentic Classical Liberal Arts
The Classical Liberal Arts are the foundation for the transmission of our Catholic, Western, American cultural heritage. The arts of the trivium and quadrivium, and the classical languages of Greek and Latin, cultivate the intellectual virtues of humility, attentiveness, perseverance, memory, wisdom, and prudence. Hands-on learning strengthens initial comprehension and awakens a sense of Wonder, which inspires the pursuit through Reason of objective, eternal, knowable standards of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The classic forms and works of the fine arts of the West play a central role in forming aesthetic judgment and a taste for the Beautiful. In addition to offering excellent preparation for many professions, the chief value of the liberal arts is that they prepare men and women for noble lives in service of God, country, and family.
5. Spiritual Formation and Sacramental Life
Spiritual formation requires study, the Sacraments, prayer, faithful adherence to Catholic teaching, and the mentorship and example of faculty. The Great Books are also instrumental in cultivating the moral imagination and rightly ordered affections and in ushering students into the Great Conversation about what it means to be human and what it means to be good. Our focus is on formation, not on contemporary social issues, but on these issues we unashamedly maintain faithful, traditional Catholic doctrine.