y
m
e
d
a
c
“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable
explanation is that I was made for another world.” - C.S. Lewis
“W
hat’s that?” Most parents of toddlers spend a good deal of their daily conversation answering that
question. I have a niece who liked to frame it differently when she was that age. She’d ask, “What’s that
for?” As adults many of us do the same thing. In a world with excess at our fingertips, we still ask,
“What’s it for?” I caught myself complaining the other day that my second freezer wasn’t quite big enough to hold all of
the food that my sister-in-law and I recently cooked. What a problem to have! A problem of excess on two accounts:
too much food to fit in my extra freezer. What a luxury we have as Americans to complain about excess as if it is an
inconvenience and burden to our lives. We have overabundance of nearly all of life’s necessities, desires, and wants, and
yet in most cases, we still reduce something’s basic value to, “What’s it for?” If it isn’t useful, forget it.
This utilitarian way of assessing an object’s value is something we ought to guard against, and yet we usually go
down our “Is it valuable to me?” checklist when we see something new on the market. What’s it for? How do you use it?
Is it faster? Is it sleeker? Is it disposable? What can it do for me?
With the excess of “things” and resources surrounding us, why are we so concerned about utilitarianism? It
seems like those questions would make more sense if we lived in lack and had to be pragmatic with every single thing we
acquired. If our resources were so limited that we had to be that much more concerned about getting every ounce of
value out of something, we might be able to make a case for judging something’s worth by its usefulness.
I’m not advocating wastefulness or neglecting our duties of stewardship. What I do think we should pause to
consider is how we assign value to things. What makes something valuable to us? Is it simply what it can do? What it’s
for? Do we find a thing to be valuable because it’s slimmer, sleeker, and faster than it’s predecessor? (Note to all of you
new iPhone 5 owners: this isn’t intended to make you feel guilty. There’s no shame in supporting American capitalism!)
Nearly everything we purchase is consumable, disposable, or obsolete by time it hits the shelf. The lifespan of our
“things” is getting shorter and shorter.
In our daily confrontation with the ephemeral, we often fail to recognize inherent value in things that are made to
last much longer and point us to the eternal. Do we even talk about these things anymore? When’s the last time you had
A
(Continued on page 3)
Volume 2, Issue 3
e
Mrs. Greb’s $0.02
1
What’s going on at Oakdale?
1
 OA Parent Association Meeting—Sept. 20th, 7
p.m.
Calendar & Events
2
 OA Golf Outing—Sept 24th
Mores—Veritas—Sapientia
2
Thank You, OPA!
2
Quote of the Month
2
 Picture Day—Oct TBD
This Week In History
3
 Autumn Harvest Festival—Oct 27
Recommended Reading
3
 Walk-a-Thon—Oct 5th
 Tours and info 248-333-4309
a
l
September 14, 2012
Reminders:
In this issue:
a
k
d
W H AT ’ S G O I N G O N AT O A KDA L E ?
O
The Patriot post
Mrs. Greb’s $0.02: The Value of Beauty
One Walk-a-Thon information packets per
family will be sent home on Wednesday,
September 19th. A brief explanation of the
materials will be given to the students that
morning, and again to the parents at the
Association meeting on September 20th.
In our first year, our little school raised
$15,000! This year we have increased our
goal to $30,000 in donations and to pack
100 care packages for our troops serving in
Afghanistan and the military working dogs.
If you are interested in being an
event sponsor, please contact the
school at 248-333-4309.
Above: Walk-a-thon 2011—what a
beautiful day!
September/October 2012
OAKDALE ACADEMY
3200 Beacham Drive
Waterford, MI 48329
Tel: 248-333-4309
admin@oakdaleacademy.com
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Oakdale Association
Meeting 7 p.m.
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
2
3
4
5
6
THANK YOU, OPA!
The faculty is so grateful for
all of the “little things” that
30
the Oakdale Parent
Walk-a-Thon!
Association has done to make
us feel appreciated. We are
blessed beyond measure by
7
8
9
10
11
appreciate your support.
14
15
16
17
Upcoming Events:
LIBERTY CAMPAIGN
UPDATE
2nd Annual Walk
-a-Thon
Information
Packets coming
soon!
LIBERTY CAMPAIGN UPDATE
12
Half day; Conferences
your children and we
Sept 3
Sept 20
Sept 24
Oct 5
Oct 11
Oct 12
Oct TBD
Oct 27
19

Oakdale Academy Teacher Profile

A sample of student work

Pictures from the recent 5th & 6th grade
field trip
V E R I T A S •
S A P I E N T I A
“We take every thought captive so that it is obedient to Christ.”
- 2 Corinthians 10:5

Quote of the Month:
“Encourage your children
to use charitable,
respectful language in all
circumstances. But urge
them to be strong and
clear about the truth.”
- Rebecca Haeglin
20
Coming in next week’s Patriot Post:
No School—Labor Day
Oakdale Association Meeting—7 p.m.
Oakdale Golf Outing
2nd Annual Walk-a-Thon
Half day/Parent-Teacher Conferences
No school/Teacher In-Service
Picture Day
Autumn Harvest Festival
M O R E S •
18
13
No School; Teacher
in-service
This is what the LORD requires from you:
to do what is right,
to love mercy,
and to live humbly with your God.
- Micah 6:8
THE LIBERTY
C AMPAIGN :
Creating the Legacy
OAKDALE ACADEMY
3200 Beacham Drive
Waterford, MI 48329
Tel: 248-333-4309
admin@oakdaleacademy.com
www.oakdaleacademy.com
What YOU can do to support
Oakdale Academy’s mission:
 Pray for our teachers, students, and board
 Tell your friends and family
 Donate gift cards
(Amazon.com, Lowe’s, OfficeMax, etc.)
 Provide items needed:
copier paper, rolls of paper
towels, hand sanitizer, etc.
 Volunteer!
(Continued from page 1)
a conversation about beauty? The
paradox is that we allow our lives to
be consume with the “big game” this
weekend (only to repeat this same
exercise next weekend) and we
neglect the eternal things, “matters
of consequence,” as the Little Prince
calls them in Saint-Exupery’s famous
children’s story.
What we need to remember is
that beauty has its own value.
Something that is beautiful has
significance simply because it exists.
It exists for the purpose of being
beautiful. We are surrounded by
beautiful things and rarely pause to
admire them, study them,
understand them, or contemplate
them.
What’s the point? What’s it
for? Beauty– like all things created–
points us to the Creator. Beauty
reminds us of heaven. It reminds us
that we don’t belong here. It brings
relief to the soul and rest from the
ugliness of the world. It gives us
hope.
The seemingly endless
dreariness of late winter is defeated
by the first blossom of spring.
In a classical Christian school
setting, one of our aims is to teach
children about beauty. First, we
want them to be able to recognize it.
To do that, you must teach them
what beauty looks like, which is why
our students study art and music,
and why they recite poetry. When
students are acquainted with beauty,
it becomes easier for them to
recognize it in other places and in
other forms. I had mentioned in a
previous post that one of our goals is
not simply to have students reading
great books, but teaching students to
read deeply. Studying art does the
same thing for the eyes that reading
see beauty in a faithful wife of fifty
does for the mind.
It teaches
years caring for her husband who no
students to see beyond the surface of
longer knows who she is. They will
a thing and into the deep wells of
find beauty in a father kayaking with
beauty contained therein.
his physically disabled daughter and
After learning to see beauty
towing her most of the way. They
and studying about it in an academic
will see beauty in a child giving his
setting, they begin to recognize it
mother a dandelion.
apart from the classroom and begin
Seeing beauty will help them
to see it in other places. Conversely,
to see God’s hand in the small things.
they will also develop a heightened
What if Adam and Eve’s sin had
awareness when beauty is absent.
made it impossible for beauty to exist
Recognition is the first step in
in the world? What would be left for
contemplation, and contemplation of
us? No sunrises, no flowers, no
beauty brings us closer to God.
mountains or oceans. These things
The recognition and
may exist but they would exist
contemplation of beauty has several
without beauty. (Could they? Hard
benefits for children. To start, they
to imagine what that would be like.)
must learn how to be still. Being still
What a mercy for us that God
is not generally the easiest thing for
allowed beauty endure in the midst
young students
o f
s i n .
to do naturally.
Contemplation
“Quiet observation
Q u i e t
of
beautiful
demands discipline of
observation
things in this
d e m a n d s
world reminds
both the body and the
discipline
of
us that we were
mind. In observing
both the body
created
for
and the mind.
another.
It
beauty, children are
In observing
feeds our soul.
required
to
practice
and
b e a u t y ,
It helps us hold
children
are
on
to
the
develop habits of good
required
to
eternal in an
self-discipline.”
practice
and
increasingly
develop habits
ephemeral
of good self-discipline.
world. We were created to long for
As they learn how to observe
our home in heaven. As the writer of
something carefully, they also learn
Ecclesiastes puts it, “He has made
how look at it with a fresh
everything beautiful in its time. He
perspective, and to see beyond the
has also set eternity in the human
object’s monetary or utilitarian
heart.” He has made everything—
value.
When students learn to
everything– beautiful. Only our God
contemplate beauty, we are now able
can do that. Only our God has
to teach them to value beauty for
overcome the ugliness of the world to
beauty’s sake.
make it beautiful. He has made all
Once they learn to value
things new.
beauty for beauty’s sake, they can
begin to see beauty in things
In His service and for His
overlooked by the world. They will
glory—RG
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY...WE WILL NEVER FORGET
Recommended Reading for
September:
A Man for All Seasons
By Robert Bolt
On this day in 1862, at the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia and Union General George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac fight to a standstill along a Maryland creek on
the bloodiest day in American history. Although the battle was a tactical draw, it forced Lee to end his invasion of the
North and retreat back to Virginia.
The Battle of Antietam actually consisted of three battles. Beginning at dawn on September 17, Union General
Joseph Hooker's men stormed Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's troops around the Dunker Church,
the West Woods, and David Miller's cornfield. The Federals made repeated attacks, but furious Rebel counterattacks
kept the Yankees in check. By early afternoon, the fighting moved south to the middle of the battlefield. Union troops
under General Edwin Sumner inflicted devastating casualties on the Confederates along a sunken road that became known
as "Bloody Lane," before the Southerners retreated. McClellan refused to apply reserves to exploit the opening in the
Confederate center because he believed Lee's force to be much larger than it actually was. In the late afternoon, Union
General Ambrose Burnside attacked General James Longstreet's troops across a stone bridge that came to bear Burnside's
name. The Yankees crossed the creek, but a Confederate counterattack brought any further advance to a halt.
The fighting ended by early evening, and the two armies remained in place throughout the following day. After
dark on September 18, Lee began pulling his troops out of their defenses for a retreat to Virginia. The losses for the oneday battle were staggering. Union casualties included 2,108 dead, 9,540 wounded, and 753 missing, while Confederate
casualties numbered 1,546 dead, 7,752 wounded, and 1,108 missing. (source: www.history.com)