Part 5: The Future of Education, March 2023 Edition

In Part 4, we explored the ecosystem of supports for innovative action and some of the many courageous organizations leading the way. But unfortunately, most of the education sector is resisting the call.

For our final segment, we bring it home to Great Hearts Nova. What have we done? What are we doing? Where will we go? How will we ensure all families have access to a world-class, flexible, and classical education in this rapidly changing education world?

Welcome to Part 5: The Future of Education, March 2023 Edition.

What Will Great Hearts Nova Do?

Over 1,600 years ago, Saint Augustine wrote the phrase “ever ancient, ever new.” While he wasn’t speaking of education in 2023, I think often of his words. We named our division “Great Hearts Nova” based on the Latin word novus meaning new things. Literally, we are Great Hearts New Things: an educational manifestation of Saint Augustine’s words: “ever ancient, ever new.”

From the start, we have been committed to action – to bridge the gap between demand and supply, to narrow the gap between the current state of education and what is necessary for a thriving future American society, to provide access to a classical education in new, innovative methods. Amidst these trends – and within the conversations I’ve had with parents – is a throughline. I believe that all families are striving to live their best life with and for their children. At Great Hearts Nova, we can meet that need. We can provide families with the flexibility they need to live their best lives without sacrificing educational quality or educational purpose.

We acted. Great Hearts Online scaled as public charter schools across Texas and Arizona. And Great Hearts Microschools across those two states as well. People took notice. Robert Pondiscio anticipated a national Great Hearts Online academy in Spring 2022. Beth Hawkins explored our bet on Great Hearts Microschools in Spring 2022.

We continued to act. We launched a major internal focus on developing asynchronous courses in Fall 2022 which is currently underway across our organization. We launched Great Hearts Online – National Academy. Michael B. Horn, Mike McShane, Jamie Buckland and many others helped us announce our new school launch. We acted boldly, strategically – by establishing a vision of the type of organization we were going to become.

We will act to build the future. We will listen closely to families to partner with them. We will grapple with the ideas, thinkers, concepts, and philosophies of the past 3,000 years that shaped American democracy. We will thoughtfully engage with tools, technologies, and mechanisms of the present and future and use them to increase engagement, to increase our ability to meet families where they are at, and democratize access to a world-class, technology-enabled classical education. We will build, and build, and build. We will teach, and love, and learn, and grow – ourselves, our students, our families, and our communities. We will listen carefully to parents, scholars, teachers – to things said and unsaid, to actions taken and not-taken – so that we can grow. Every day we will do these things. Every day will we strive to be a bit wiser, a bit kinder, a bit better, a bit smarter than the day before.

To my amazing team at Great Hearts Nova and the hundreds of families we partner with everyday - in the arena, shoulder-to-shoulder - I am grateful we are on this educational journey together to ensure high-quality, classical education offerings step boldly into the future.

Together, we can realize this dream.

Onward –

Kurtis