Updated thoughts: With five years under the belt of planning opening and leading Ozark Catholic Academy these texts still hold to what I see as primers for building a school as a community of faculty that can form a school community not only with students under its roof, but probably more important with parents.

In assisting in the founding of Western Academy, there is much in the experience of starting a school. Here are texts as I see that one may say are helpful, if not foundational to beginning a school: Building a Culture (a faculty of friendship, classroom of learning, a school of formation, and a community of faith)

Educational Vision

1. Norms and Nobility, David V. Hicks
2. Poetic Knowledge, James S. Taylor
3. Beauty for Truth’s Sake: On the Re-Enchantment of Education , Stratford Caldecott
4. Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education, Stratford Caldecott

Faculty

1. Creativity, Inc., Ed Catmull (a good primer and supporting text is “How Pixar Fosters Creativity,” Ed Catmull as written in the Harvard Business Review
2. Culture Code, Daniel Coyle

Classroom

1. Restoration of Innocence (Unpublished), John Senior in lieu of having a copy to read, then I recommend Chapter 12, “The Restoration of Innocence” in John Senior and the Restoration of Realism, Fr. Francis Bethel
2. The Habit of Thought, Michael Strong
3. Bootstrapping Educators, Jerry Shepherd

Formation

1. Restoration of Innocence (Unpublished), John Senior in lieu of having a copy to read, then I recommend Chapter 12, “The Restoration of Innocence” in John Senior and the Restoration of Realism, Fr. Francis Bethel

Community/Leisure

1. Leisure: the Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper

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