CULTURE

At Garden City Academy we care about taking time to align the values of families with the values of the school. We realize we aren’t for everyone. We want to do as much work on the front end to share expectations, vision, and values to ensure a good fit for all who apply.

9 Affirmations

These 9 affirmations give parents a high-level flyover of who we are to see if GCA is a good fit.

Garden City Academy is for those who view education as a privilege, not a right, and will treat their time here as such. We reject entitlement attitudes.

Garden City Academy is for parents who want to be engaged in the educational process and for the student who desires to become a life-long learner.

Garden City Academy is for parents who want to raise free and independent thinkers and students who are willing to put in the work to get there.

Garden City Academy is for families who believe there are absolute truths in the world that work themselves out in math, gender, and laws of physics.

Garden City Academy is for students who want to be challenged, pushed, and prepared for a lifetime of fruitful learning, meaningful vocation, and societal contribution.

Garden City Academy is for families who want a community that supports and affirms their moral values (not one that makes open war on them).

Garden City Academy is for families who want an education that equips students with logical reasoning skills (not one that indoctrinates them with ideas to thoughtlessly embrace).

Garden City Academy is for parents who believe the family, not the state, is the jurisdiction given primary responsibility by God to educate children. Schools can’t make up for what parents drop.

Garden City Academy is for families willing to make sacrifices in order to ensure their children are best equipped to step into their holy calling.

Lifestyle Agreement

Culture is a team sport. Everyone who participates in our school family takes ownership for making GCA a beautiful, life-giving, relationally-healthy place. This lifestyle agreement articulates the secret sauce for how we do it.

This Lifestyle Agreement articulates the expectations of the Garden City Academy community. We articulate it here in order to ensure the standard is clear, there are no surprises, and every family has the information they need to consider if GCA is a good fit.

As an essential part of the GCA family… 

We take ownership of school unity. We recognize our individual actions will positively contribute or negatively impact the health of the entire community. As a family, we embrace the responsibility of cultivating and protecting the unity of the school. GCA will be better because we are here. 

We embrace humility in our relationships. We understand GCA will only be as strong as relationships are healthy. We are grateful there are few unresolvable conflicts between the humble. We will walk in this Christ-like posture. 

We reject actions of the flesh. We will avoid profanity or coarse language. We refuse to participate in gossip & slander. We will avoid drunkenness & harmful drugs. We will abstain from viewing pornography and participating in all forms of devastating sexual immorality and other degrading ungodliness. We will make war on lesser desires with higher affections for greater things. 

We choose fruits of the Holy Spirit. We stay teachable. We serve first and go last. We jump in and help out. We build up. We prefer others. We fail trying and learn daily. We celebrate wins. We honor others. We choose joy. We value people and extend grace. We laugh loudly, hug heartily, smile quickly. We trade entitlement for thankfulness, laziness for work ethic. We pull Heaven down into our relationships. Wherever we go, we make everything better. 

We acknowledge everyone is in-process. We are not perfect nor will we ever arrive, but the above is an articulation of the trajectory we want our life to take. When we screw up, we’ll own it. When other’s mess up, we’ll extend grace. And in so doing, we’ll all help each other grow to become more like Jesus.