St. Michael High School

MISSION & BACKGROUND

“Faith and reason are like two wings which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know Himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves.” —Saint Pope John Paul II  

St. Michael Academy (SMA) is a private, independent Catholic classical high school in Petoskey, Michigan operating under the blessing of the Diocese of Gaylord with a mission to raise up a new generation of joyful leaders and smart saints educated in the classical tradition and truths of the Catholic faith.  As both a college prep, and more importantly, “heaven prep” school, St. Michael is focused on developing the whole child—mind, body, and soul—always remembering that education and career are simply the means to the ultimate end: spreading the Gospel and achieving salvation.  With such a mission, SMA prepares students to triumph over the materialism and despair that pervade our culture and to accept the Lord’s offer to have life and have it abundantly. SMA was founded in 2013 by a regional committee of dedicated parents from several local parishes who wanted to bring back a Catholic high school to the Little Traverse Bay area for the first time since the early 1970s.  Opening its doors with online classical classes for 9^th graders, and adding another grade each subsequent year, after two years SMA developed its own integrated Catholic classical curriculum and began teaching live courses by local faculty thereafter.  SMA’s first graduating class earned their diplomas in 2017, and overall, St. Michael has graduated a total of 16 students in its brief history.  All graduates have matriculated to their preferred college of choice, and have earned grants and scholarships covering at least 50 percent of their college expenses.  In the fall of 2018, St. Michael Academy was recognized by the State of Michigan as an official non-public school, and in the fall of 2019 SMA was invited to join the Chesterton Network of Catholic Classical Schools, the largest such network in the country, with a nationally-recognized curriculum.  SMA also works closely with the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, attending their national conference for the first time in the summer of 2019. As the only Catholic high school in the tri-county region of Emmet, Charlevoix, and Cheboygan, and the only high school in Northern Michigan with a classical curriculum, St. Michael Academy is poised to play a crucial role in expanding the number of students enrolled in Catholic schools throughout the entire region.  With its authentically Catholic and rigorously classical approach, St. Michael Academy is set to become the logical landing spot for any family who is looking for a nurturing, safe, and devout learning environment for their son or daughter

EDUCATIONAL VISION

“The fact that a chaotic and ill-educated time cannot clearly grasp the truth does not alter the fact that it will always be the truth.” -G.K. Chesterton

In this complicated age, when the broader culture is severely testing our Christian beliefs, St. Michael Academy is convinced that we must be more intentional in helping high school students become more knowledgeable about the tenets of their faith, and more familiar with the wisdom of western civilization.  The vision for education that results from such a perspective is indeed counter-cultural, but it is also deeply catholic in its most universal sense, as it combines academic rigor, moral seriousness, and most importantly, the joy of the Gospel.  In keeping with the new evangelization, we encourage SMA students to be happy warriors, vigorously professing what is right and good in the public square, and doing so in a collegial and joyful manner It bears repeating that our faith is central to our educational vision and permeates all that we do during the school day and beyond.  Whether it is at church, in the classroom, during retreats and mission trips, on the athletic fields, at pro-life prayer vigils, or any other SMA activity, the principles of our faith from sacred scripture and sacred tradition form the core of all that we teach at St. Michael Academy.  The truth remains that our faith is the central reality from which all academic disciplines flow and derive their meaning, an insight that makes our approach unique and powerful at a time when most educators question the existence of transcendent truth. There is a coherence that marks our educational vision as well that is simply lacking today, even in the most well-intentioned academic settings.  Nowhere is this coherence most on display than in St. Michael Academy’s insistence on the unity of faith and reason that is so instrumental in teaching students how to think and how to learn, what contemporary educators refer to as critical thinking.  Yet instead of reflecting the latest educational fad or innovation, the lost skills of learning that lie at the heart of our educational vision rely upon the tried and true tradition of reading great works, mastering mathematical and scientific principles, and embracing the fine arts.  There are no short-cuts here, but there is also a simplicity in approach that is comforting to students who are often older than the latest and greatest educational reforms, like Common Core.  In fact, in an ironic twist, it is St. Michael Academy’s “uncommon” core curriculum, essentially unchanged from its ancient and medieval origins, that is the most cutting-edge educational reform on the nation’s agenda today.  Sometimes what is old becomes, through disuse, very new. St. Michael Academy’s abiding vision is to create a rising generation of students filled with a sense of awe and wonder about all of God’s creation, encouraging them to look beyond the temporal and mundane towards the eternal and transcendent.  In this way, students are taught to contemplate the permanent things which can be found in the master works of western culture.  It is an intellectual trip through Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem, with the ultimate destination being a greater understanding of the Author of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness: God.