Commander Jon & Victoria
LaBruzzo
Tampa, FL
To: Aquidneck Island
Christian Academy
Subject: Our choice for
Classical Christian education and our experience at AICA
Years ago I was given a couple
of square refrigerator magnets with pictures on them. As with
many things in our home, I hadn’t thought of the magnets as anything
but that, a magnet to hold up kid’s artwork. One day, my 6-year-old,
1st grade daughter was sitting at the table and looked at
one of the magnets. She exclaimed, “Hey mom, did you know that
magnet is a picture of “The Bedroom” by Vincent van Gogh?”
Some parents may not think that is a big deal…I believe in the world
today when Barbie, Hannah Montana and so many other worldly influences
come into our homes, a comment like that is reassuring of our decision
for our child’s education.
Like many Christians parents
today we struggled with the decision regarding our children’s education
before they were old enough to attend school. We gave great thought
and evaluation to the possibility of home schooling. Our first
choice however was to find a school environment that was as close to
home schooling as possible with a distinctly Christian environment.
A few years before we had children, friends of ours sent us their yearly
Christmas letter describing this fabulous new Christian education called
Classical Christian Schools. Of course it wasn’t until we started
gathering information and reading the thoughts behind the creation of
this “new” type of school that we realized the Classical education
was being re-introduced with the central component being Christ.
“Train a child in the way
he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs
22:6 NIV. In today’s godless world society and the ardment
of mediocrity as the standard, this verse has been written on our hearts
since our children were born. One of the values that we found
written in the AICA School handbook was the position of the school in
our family’s life; that of, “In loco Parentis” – in the place
of the parent. It only stands to reason that if Proverbs is a
command from our Lord, we should use the gifts God has given our family
to train our child in an environment that is pleasing and glorifying
to Him. We found this environment for our child’s education
at AICA.
Jon’s career as a US Naval
Officer prompted our move to Newport, RI from San Diego, CA in the summer
of 2006. Our orders were to be stationed for just one school year
as Jon attended the Naval War College to receive a Master’s degree.
The Lord led us to find AICA close to the War College and we had our
first experience with the Classical Christian School . We
were blessed with a wonderful experience with our daughter’s kindergarten
year and a wonderfully equipped, Christian teacher and support staff.
The experience confirmed in our hearts and minds that the Classical
Christian School was the model we wanted for our children.
Our experience in Newport and with AICA made it very difficult to leave
the school but that is the life of the military family.
Our first experience made for
a high standard with which we would make our decision for future schools
for our son and daughter. Having a child that desires school every
day is truly a blessing. We believe that our daughter’s love
for school started with AICA and her experience there. We feel
so blessed that God provided an environment for our daughter that would
have such a crucial impact on her educational experience. We were very
pleased with the commitment of the school in partnering with us in raising
and educating our child in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ and giving
him all the glory.
Sincerely,
Jon & Victoria LaBruzzo
