Frequently Asked Questions

A uniform marks each student as a member of a distinct community and signifies their commitment to the community’s cultural standards. Many scientific studies and the experience of countless educators supports the value of uniforms as a beneficial part of a school environment. St. Thomas Aquinas Academy requires students to wear uniforms and follow a set dress and grooming code. STA’s dress code is designed to help each student grow in awareness of his or her own dignity as a son or daughter of God, assist students in engaging with one another on the merits of their hearts and minds rather than outward appearance, and foster a sense of unity. 

St. Thomas Aquinas Academy intentionally minimizes the use of technology as part of the learning process. While technology will be leveraged in some select activities at the discretion of the teacher, there will be no personal screens for students. According to research and informed by our understanding of the human person as illuminated by Holy Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, STA holds that formation of the whole person will best occur in the context of human relationships and by strengthening the mind-body connection through means such as penmanship, manipulatives, and books that can be held. By creating an environment free of the distractions of technology, students will honor the dignity of the people around them as they cultivate wisdom and faith. As such, students will not be permitted to bring smartphones, ipads, smart watches, or other internet-capable devices to campus. This policy frees parents, as the primary educators of their children, to determine when and how to teach their children technological skills without pressure from their school’s implementation of digital technology as a means of instruction. 

In alignment with our mission, St. Thomas Aquinas Academy intentionally cultivates a common and civil community among its students and an educational environment that is free from distractions. This includes developing students’ abilities to use respectful manners of speech and behavior, listen attentively, reason clearly, and engage with both the curriculum and each other to the exclusion of references to current pop-culture personalities, characters, music, movies, video games, and even politics and current events. To further this educational environment, STA also requires students to use back-packs, lunch bags, and other accessories that are free from such images or references.

This paradigm helps students to push beyond the confines and limitations of the readily accessible thought-worlds of their times and that of their peers, introducing them to the broader and more permanent concerns of the human community. Students also gain a deeper freedom to develop their ability to think critically, adopt and defend a position based on evidence, and engage in robust discussion without the pressure to conform to majority opinion that often takes hold when contemporary topics are discussed. In this learning environment, students can better appreciate authors and artists of different times and cultures as well as entertain ideas such as truth, justice, and virtue from the broad perspective of history.

Avoiding “chronological snobbery”, STA further seeks to nurture in our students a posture of humility toward that which has been handed down by previous generations, including two millennia of Church teaching. Overall, STA asks and challenges students to step out of themselves – to step out of their times, their familiar idioms, even their preferred styles of art and music – in order to receive wisdom and beauty of other times and places. Developing this capacity is at the heart of classical education. Moreover, by the same paradigm, STA seeks to develop the unique character and giftedness of each student. The true self is neither discovered nor nourished through mass marketing, the most fashionable trends, or the latest ideology. By removing these influences, we seek to…

1. Give students an educational space free from:

– what is shallow or temporary in popular culture on behalf of what is meaningful and enduring from universal human experience

– popular examples that may be merely superficial and time-bound, while sharing with them more permanent and universal aspects of human nature and human community

– peer pressure to be media and celebrity “literate”

2. Broaden our students’ worlds by:

– elevating their imaginations and thoughts above the transitory, the base, and the mediocre to what is good, true, and beautiful (Philippians 4:8)

– creating points of reference and a common ground for conversation that transcends the student’s age, experience, and cultural context

– giving them the broadest range of images and ideas from which they will eventually address the concerns of their own time and place 

– helping them step outside of the secular worldview of our current society so they may be free to put on the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2), in particular with regard to the nature of a) God, b) the human person, and c) each student’s true identity as a son or daughter of the Father.

This policy helps create and preserve an educational environment of ‘good soil’ (Matthew 13:23) in which the seeds of faith and reason can be sown and bear fruit in the hearts of our students. It is also the intention of this policy to improve student learning, to reduce disciplinary referrals, and to elevate the conversations of students – in and out of the classroom.

The highest purpose of Catholic education is the formation of the soul so that students may better love, serve, and glorify God. At STA we provide a loving and intentional educational community, fostering authentic charity and shepherding relationships between teachers and students which are the context in which formation occurs.  As children learn and grow, their formation will require a variety of supports: training, guidance, direction, redirection, encouragement, and occasionally correction. Discipline should be first understood in the sense of training a child through routines and good habit formation.  That said, it is also the case that children will knowingly make poor choices, separating themselves from the fold and thus placing themselves in need of restoration. Here, discipline in the sense of correction has its beginning and its end in love. Its purpose is to restore the child to right relationship with themselves and others through acts of honesty, restoration, and forgiveness, not to shame them.  

Within STA’s academic framework, students will immerse themselves in the fine arts, performing arts, music, and physical education, which are not merely supplementary but essential facets of their educational journey. The Catholic liberal arts tradition has long esteemed these pursuits as pivotal in molding character, fostering camaraderie, and cultivating virtue. The expansion into extracurricular and athletic domains will hinge upon student enthusiasm, coupled with the readiness of our community members to take on roles as coaches, club mentors, or organizers. It is imperative to note that any program orchestrated by the school must fit our academic ethos and the deep-rooted teachings of our Catholic faith.