Dear  Parents of New Academy Students,

          Please allow me to take this opportunity to welcome you and your student to the Academy. We hope that your experience here at RBCA will be pleasant and beneficial. Unlike the current middle school/high school model, our Academy is modeled on an older pattern that began in European universities and was adopted by many American preparatory schools during the early 19th Century, first in the Northeast, then in the South. With this vision, the 7-12 experience is to be an articulated and integrated educational unit that hopes to help form a body of learning and experience, blended with leadership training and Christian service. The goal is that this blended "whole" education will enable the student to emerge at graduation as a competent and confident Christian young person, eager to go forth and serve the Lord in all areas of life.

The Academy format stresses a foundation of learning from every academic discipline, created by requiring a rigorous core curriculum.  The mastery of this core curriculum is then blended with an emphasis on team sports, music, the fine and performing arts, leadership, and Christian service.  Through these activities, the student learns, in a practical way, the Lordship of Christ in every area of life.   Many of us are familiar with the concept of the "Renaissance Man."  This concept was actually derived from an older ideal that was the basis for the creation of the first universities in Europe in the 11th Century.  This notion stressed that mastery of the seven liberal (from the Latin for "free", thus the province of all "free men") arts and sciences, all under the umbrella of Theology, the "Queen" of the sciences, was the standard for the "properly equipped Man of God."  In this country, headmasters created Academies as preparatory schools for the American colleges and universities, modeling them on the European university. 

Interestingly, the United States Military Academy at West Point still largely maintains this pattern of education at the college level.  Thus it was, when Dr. Grete began our program in 1973, he blended the model of Fairfax Christian Academy in Virginia with the USMA at West Point.  One way to sum these concepts up is to echo our Boy's Varsity Soccer team's rally cheer, "Our best for the LORD right now!"  By training ourselves to give our best, at every moment, in every thing we do, for the Lord Jesus Christ, we can help mold young men and women into "servants of God, fit for every good work."

In Christ's service,

Dr. Michael L. Mosley

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Rocky Bayou Christian School
A Ministry of the Northwest Florida Christian Education Association
2101 North Partin Drive     Niceville, Florida  32578
(850)   678-7358       FAX:  (850)   729-2513   

    Saturday, October 06, 2007