Creating Community in the Logic and Rhetoric Schools

Keith McCurdy, a licensed counselor who has been on the board of Faith Christian School in Roanoke, spoke last week in three different sessions, first to students, then to faculty and local and pastors, and then to parents. Mr. McCurdy said that every child needs to answer three existential questions on their way to a sturdy adulthood, "Am I valuable? Am I capable? Do I belong?" He pointed out that what would've been confident answers to these questions by a thirteen year-old living in the time of Laura Ingalls Wilder are much less confident answers to these same questions by teens today. "This generation of students is the most fragile and most depressed of any generation ever. In the last 10 years alone, the rates of anxiety and depression among teens has increased 10 times," said McCurdy.

That is why every year one of the initial goals of the Logic & Rhetoric School is to help students find belonging. From the Back to School picnic where older students are inaugurated into their houses and meet friends before school even starts to the two-night retreat at Watermarks camp during the second week of school, it it essential to strive to establish a community where students know they are valuable, capable and belong. "Healthy community comes of common virtues, shared practices, and shared experiences," said Chaplain Justin Keller. "One of the valuable aspects of a retreat is that it gives us a chance to build shared experiences that will be the foundation for eventually building the virtues that make a strong community."