It Started With a Question: Academics or Character?

Why would someone start a school from scratch?

In this episode of the LadyK Podcast, Katy McKinney shares the real story behind founding Lafayette Academy: A Classical School, in Lake Saint Louis, Missouri. It wasn’t a business plan or a strategic move. It was a conviction.

After years of teaching, homeschooling, and searching for the right environment for her own children, Katy kept running into the same problem: schools that offered strong academics often lacked character formation, and schools focused on character often fell short academically.

So she asked a simple question:
Why can’t a school do both well?

This episode walks through the heart behind Lafayette Academy, the gap it was created to fill, and why classical education is resonating with so many families in St. Charles County and beyond.

If you’re a parent exploring school options or curious about classical education, this episode will give you clarity on what makes it different—and why it matters.

For more information about Lafayette Academy, A Classical School please visit https://lafayetteacademy.org/

For Referenced Resources from the LadyK Podcast Click Here for Download

Transcript

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Welcome back to the Lady K podcast. I'm Katie McKinney, the founder and head of school for Lafayette Academy, a classical school. Hope you're having a great week. We are going to chat a little bit more today about why we started Lafayette Academy. I often get this question. You know, in fact, I was, where was I recently? Oh, I was just, we were, my son and I were standing in line at a DMV, uh, eight o'clock in the morning, waiting for them to open up at nine and chatting with a gentleman. And he was chatting with my son about mechanics and cars and all this stuff. And I just was quiet and just enjoying the conversation. And about, you know, 30 minutes into the conversation, he kind of turns to me, he's like, So, you know, what are you what do you do? And so we started talking. And after I talk, after we talked for a little, you know, five minutes or something, and I'm telling about the school and everything, he goes, Who are you? And uh I I think it is obviously it's unusual for someone to say, Yeah, I'll raise my hand, I'll start a school, I'll do something crazy. Um, but we do get this question, you know, why? What what propelled you to do this? And the honest answer really is that there was no grand strategy. There was no really big business plan. Um, although, like a year or two after we started the school, they said, Well, where's your where's your business plan? I'm like, there's no plan. It's just, it's just a conviction. It's it was something that literally was placed on my heart while I was in church one day, just reaching out saying, you know, there's gotta be something better. I I knew when I homeschooled uh our kids that we we could find the excellent academics and we could find the excellent character and marry those two together. But oftentimes with schools that I had either taught at or uh we had our children at, you know, they had maybe great academics, but the character was weak, or they touted their great character, but the academics were suffering. And I was like, why can we not find a school that does both and that strives to do excellently in both? And um, and so really as I looked around for options, uh, you know, everything just felt incomplete. And it it really just wasn't meeting the vision that that I had as to what I was looking for, which was really kind of my my homeschooling world, but just souped up a bit. And so this is this is the outgrowth of that vision of what we did in homeschooling, but but now what we're doing at school. So in any case, I just wanted to share a little bit more about that. Um, you know, the kind of things that were missing was that there was uh when I taught in public school in California and in New Mexico, I was reflecting on back back on that recently. You know, there were four, I think it was, I was in teaching in first grade, and there were four first grade teachers. So we get together like on a Friday and we do, you know, team curriculum programming. And I remember we got to the point where we were talking about science because we all taught, you know, science. And I was definitely not a science teacher, but I was gonna teach it. And so, well, what do you want to teach? Well, I don't know. And so one teacher said, Oh, I'm good at rainforest and I have all these materials. Okay, great, we'll do the rainforest. Um, and then we studied all the four layers, the canopy and you know, the understory and all of this stuff, and all the animals that went with that because there was a lot of literature books. Jan Brett had a great book about the rainforest. And so it was just sort of slapped together. And I I do remember the public school, it was a good one in California and Poway School District. And they had it, they actually had a phenomenal list of expectations, standards that they wanted us to achieve, but there was no directive as to what curriculum to use to achieve those standards. And so um, you know, we would just teachers do what they do. They just grab whatever and they pull it together and hopefully it works. Well, what I didn't know was the rainforest was going to be studied again in their elementary years. And so the kids ended up getting this repeat. There was just, there was no scope and sequence, which we've talked about. And so um I just it I could not articulate it when I was 24, 25 years old heading into education. But the piece that was missing was this roadmap and one that was substantial and grounded. Um, and when I stumbled upon classical education having homeschooled, that's that's when it hit me. This is what was missing. And not only was it missing for my kids, it was missing from my own education. So today, education is touting itself a lot. It's child-centered, it's it's child-directed. And while that can sound good in theory, in practice, it's not great. It's it's a form of instruction that, of course, is allowing the child to lead. Um, they they lead their own learning. Sometimes they design their own learning, they explore topics that are only interesting to them. And the flaw in that is that it leaves the student to their own devices and it invites triviality. Um, it shallows the learning, it limits the teacher's ability to really craft any meaningful, dynamic lessons because the child is the one who's saying, No, I want to go in this direction. When as a teacher or a parent, you're like, but I know I've experienced enough life to know this is the direction that is going to be, you know, extremely meaningful to that student. So, in essence, when we say child-directed learning, we're placing the child at the center of their own universe. But the truth is, the child is not the center of the universe. They they have uh enormous potential. That's obvious, right? They have unlimited potential. Um, and that's very exciting as a parent, but children don't know what they don't know. And so it's important that we make sure that we're guiding them and we're leading them towards a meaningful end. Really, our students today are plagued with a sense of entitlement and arrogance that is not helping them. And then frankly, I would say it's it's hindering them. There's there's been somewhere along the line where we feel or we have been taught that education is sort of seeking our children, you know. I I don't know. That's I don't even know if I could explain that, but but it's like it's like the child is the one who's always constantly on the receiving end, and the child should be, you know, entertained and filled and all this. When in fact, I would say the opposite is the truth, that we are born as human beings to seek truth, to um, to to serve what is already, right? To serve what is already in existence. And in fact, that's why we go back to the ancients from the people and the cultures of the past, because there was, there was and there still is wisdom that they demonstrated, that they mastered, that is there for us, for all of humanity to learn. I think of it as, and I've mentioned this before, but the best practices of humanity, the best that's been written and then said and that's been said and thought. And that is what we are studying. You know, in any business, you want to think, okay, what's best practice? In other words, what has been tried over and over again, and and it's continually elevated until we get to a point where it's like, oh, it's the pinnacle. It's it's the most efficient, it's the most productive, it's it's the most harmonious way to do something. So, in my thought, I feel it's really, it's the child for a best practice for education, it's the child that needs to give themselves, sacrifice themselves to the learning. It's it's a very selfless thing to do. And in order for a child to know, they have to come to the table with humility to obviously say, I don't know it all. And I need to surrender to the learning in order for that learning to occur. And and that ego, to me, there's such an important piece of education that is all about humility. It's on the teacher's part, it's on the student's part. And both of them need to come to the table. The teacher obviously has a specific lesson they're guiding the child towards, but there may be moments where the child will bring something to the table. And there needs to be a sense of uh, to me, a little bit of a dance wherein sometimes if the teacher doesn't know at all, um, they can be a great example to say that's that's worthy of us researching and going and finding out more. And and that can be a very magical moment when the student recognizes, oh, the teacher is still learning too. The teacher is sometimes the student as well. We don't want to get too far into that. Modern education basically says, well, the teacher is more even just a um, I don't know, just a coordinator, if you will. We're not going that far. The teacher is not the coordinator, the the teacher is the director of the ship, but there's there's something to be said that we need to surrender our ego at the door and um and enjoy the journey, both of us. So to that end, I do believe a student needs to discipline themselves to the service of surrender to the knowledge. And that discipline has to come from within. They have to be self-governing themselves enough to be able to suppress fear or ego or arrogance, whatever it is, suppressing that so that they can come to the table with the humility to be able to receive the knowledge that is there for them to receive. And of course, the thing that they are studying is not within. Everything that we are studying is out there, and we need them to understand that so that they can, they can chase that. So, you know, the ancients, our philosophical titans that we refer to, I feel have something to share with us. And in Aristotle's ethics, he makes the point that anytime art or creation is involved, there's a hierarchy to that. And it leads to what we know as these high things. Again, I think is is sort of that best practice. And there are things, for example, if there is a bottle, is an example that I've heard been used. You take a bottle and you have a bottle because it contains water, let's say. And the bottle is used for drinking. And that's a good thing because when we drink water, we have our health. And you need your health. If you don't, obviously that's a negative because you can't do things unless you have your health. And so health is one of those things that is is those that hierarchy in the in the level of hierarchy, it's one of the highest things that if you don't have your health, everything else is compromised, right? So this came to light in a beautiful way when my daughter was reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and she came into class, and it wasn't necessarily health, in that case, it was justice that we were talking about, and justice and victory and health. These are all those high best practices of humanity that that allows humanity to come forth and um flourish and be its best self for the benefit of all. So she was reading this book. She was in eighth grade, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. And she was sitting on our bed and she was reading away, and all of a sudden she blurts out, I just I love this book so much. It's so meaningful, and I just want to keep reading, and it's really hard to stop. And I asked her, Well, why do you have to stop? She said, Well, my teacher wants us to stop so we can not ruin the end for anyone, but to stop. And I said, Well, why do you love it so much? And she said, Because first the the quality of writing, it's so beautiful. I said, Well, like in what way? She said, Well, in the way that the writer has has created the questions that Atticus Finch is asking in the court case, he asks really beautiful, thoughtful questions. And and those questions are really getting to the truth of the matter. And she says that I find it interesting that Atticus is so calm in every circumstance. He can reason from another person's point of view, and then from his point of view, and then the argument comes from a point that's that's a much stronger position. And then she pauses and she says, I want to be like Atticus Finch. And then she said, it makes me think that someday perhaps I could be as persuasive and have as deep an understanding because of how I see him reasoning through his own arguments. Anyway, this was turning into a beautiful conversation. So then I, of course, I followed up and I said, So how do you think this is going to help you as you internalize this beautiful book and these beautiful virtuous characters? How is this going to help you? And she says, Well, this is helping me, helping me as I'm listening to the news about the presidency. I think it this was like in 2019. So we were just on the cusp of the 2020 election. She said, It's helping me think about the presidency and Congress and understanding different people and why they do the things that they do. And then she pauses and she goes, I think I'm gonna name my son Atticus. So then she runs, she zips through the paper, through the book really quick. She gets to page 33 and she shares with me her teachers and now her favorite quote. And at this point, her face is beaming. And she says, Quote, you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around it. Sorry, walk around in it. And that's Atticus Finch speaking. And she goes, That's what I'm talking about. This book is changing me as a person. So going back to, you know, why we started this school, um, that that conversation happened after we had started this school, but it's a great illustration that this school is about, and and classically educating your child is about character formation at the heart of it. It's also about academic excellence. But the academic excellence to me is really getting at the formation of this individual. And as a parent, you know, for those of you who have had children, and and when you when you have your first child and you hold them and you're like, oh my gosh, like I'm in charge. I'm in charge of this this little being. And you you get to pave the pathway as to what's what influences are going to be in their life, what experiences they get to have. It's it's really a profound responsibility, right? And so having her be exposed, our daughter be exposed now, our two sons, to these beautiful books, to the highest things that humanity, again, has thought or done or said is really the reason why I wanted to start this school. We were doing it in our homeschool, but my heart was thinking of all those students who didn't necessarily have the opportunity to homeschool. And what a great opportunity to share this avenue with them and to have them experience these most beautiful, highest things. And so, whether it's your home or hopefully whether it's your school, uh education is never neutral. It's always going to be going in one direction or the other. And as a parent, of course, you want a school that's gonna complement what you're doing. And school is there to form habits, it's there to form the affections, it's there to help form identity. And the question for me isn't are they being formed? That is a no-brainer, that's that's that is the case. They are being formed. The question is, into what? And reading books like to kill a mockingbird, our daughter was being formed by the words on those pages. And I I was I was gratified, I was inspired by what she was being formed into. That's that's why this school came to be. And uh it continues to impress me, it continues to inspire me, and my husband for that matter. We we wanted a formation that was intentional. We wanted a formation that was going to influence, not be influenced. And um it's a it's an ordered way of prescribing an education. It's time-tested. This is not experimental, which unfortunately I feel modern education is. But uh in the end, uh we didn't start a school to compete. We started it to anchor our children in what is good and what is true and what is beautiful, and where uh expectations are clear and authority is respected and excellence is normal. And I feel that if we're doing this right, which she's already now graduated, she is a sophomore in college, and more kids are graduating, more kids are coming up. I feel if we do this right, our our graduates won't be just impressive, but they will be steady, they will be hard to manipulate, they will be capable of leading. And that is why we started a classical school. Thank you for joining us.