Our Beginnings
Our Story
In the Fall of 2004, a group of moms placed flyers all over South Davis County. The flyer asked if anyone was interested in starting a charter school. While it was an unusual question, it intrigued a few of us enough to respond and come together to start a charter school. The original founder, Heather Traeden, watched as many other pioneers were deciding on an educational philosophy that matched the ideals and vision of their potential school. She decided that for this school, it was Classical Education.
Classical education is a pattern of learning that is language-focused. It is accomplished through words, written and spoken, rather than through images. It teaches to three distinct developmental stages known as the grammar stage, the logic stage, and the rhetoric stage. The language-learning, vs. image-learning requires very different habits of thought. It requires the mind to work harder in reading, the brain is forced to translate a symbol into a concept.
Classical education is, above all, systematic. This systematic, rigorous study helps develop virtue in the student. When the student is asked to work against their natural inclinations (laziness, or distraction) in order to reach a goal-mastery of a subject- then virtue is developed.
It was also very important for us to help a student develop character. When we educate a child, we educate more than just the mind. Helping to develop a whole human is critical for a bright future.
These ideas spurred the group on for many weeks, months, and long nights. We researched, debated, and wrote our ideas into the school’s charter. Once it was passed by the State School Board it was then ready for implementation.
After many weeks of public information recruitment meetings, we cobbled together a group of 50 parents ready to trust the plan and make it happen. We met weekly in our designated groups for many months. With thousands of volunteer hours, personal funds expended, numerous rocky bumps, and many witnessed miracles, our dream became a reality.
We had the greatest group of volunteers who literally gave everything in order to provide an education for their children and thousands of other kids in the community. We had the most amazing teachers and staff who also gave their all to make order out of chaos. Legacy Preparatory Academy was truly a labor of love for every person involved.
Maren Hilbig
Founder