At Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy, students are challenged and supported in the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness. Arts are an important part of our students’ discovery of what is beautiful – whether they are drawing, dancing, writing, singing, acting, speaking, playing an instrument, or simply exploring and enjoying. In addition to challenging them academically, our faculty and staff challenge Maeser Prep students to pursue the Good and the Beautiful as they grow in wisdom.
The Forgotten Connection: Why Beauty Matters in Education
In our hurried, distracted culture, beauty can be treated as a break from what is “real.” But what is real? Beauty, goodness, and truth are the three transcendentals that reveal facets of what is real. Karl G. Maeser believed that education should “awaken the power within to do good.” Arts are a critical part of a Karl G. Maeser Prep education because beauty leads the mind to know the truth and love the good. As centuries of philosophical reflection from Plato to Aquinas echo, “Beauty is the splendor of truth.”
Arts as Formation: Not Performance, but Cultivation
Arts have been part of a classical education for millennia. In the quadrivium —arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy— the goal of knowledge was number in its different guises. Music was mathematics you could hear: harmony, dissonance, proportion. Students cultivated an ear for beauty. The goal of arts was not just production and performance. Arts formed the whole person and gave insight into deeper realities. The visual arts taught them to see realities of structure. Literature, speech, and drama explored the depths of the human heart. They saw conscience enacted before their eyes.
At Karl G. Maeser Prep, our goal is not just performance and portfolio. Our goal is the whole-person formation of our students and an appreciation of what is beautiful. Our goal is to develop a refined and robust taste in our students. We seek to teach our students how to think about beauty.
The Student Experience: Wonder, Work, and Discovery
At Karl G. Maeser Prep, the arts are a lens to deepen their understanding of all of reality. When students draw, they are learning to observe. When they apply those same skills to a lab or primary source document, they have an edge that other students don’t have because they learned to sit with something and see what is actually there. When they sing, they are learning rules – scale, rhythm, interval. They see that learning the rules doesn’t limit creativity – it opens it up.
Our goal is that students leave our program with an appreciation for beauty, wonder, and hard work. Our goal is that they are changed by the process. When they write, speak, sing, dance, draw, act, they are growing. Our teachers know each student, celebrate growth and perceptiveness, and are attentive to the whole-person. Our goal is that our students gain confidence that beauty exists, can be pursued, and brings them closer to Truth.
In the arts, Maeser Prep students develop a moral imagination. They explore the Good, True, and Beautiful. They can’t separate the arts from their own lives or from history. Our goal is that students see beauty everywhere – in the sciences, history, math, English, and all aspects of life. Our goal is that they learn to make connections across disciplines.
Beauty and Character: The Moral Imagination
When our students act in a play, they can’t avoid thinking about motivation and the depths of the human heart. Empathy isn’t just a buzzword – it’s hard work. Our hope is that these skills bleed into everyday life and strengthen their relationships.
The Community Impact: A Shared Culture of Beauty
At Karl G. Maeser Prep, we seek to engage the whole family. When our students pursue beauty in music, speech, drama, or the visual arts, our hope is that the family pursues it alongside them. We hope that parents will come to performances, go to a concert, visit an exhibit, read a book together, explore the great cathedrals with their geometric patterns. We seek to counteract the atomized, isolated, digital, hurried, distracted culture with a common culture of beauty. Our hope is that these shared, real-time experiences strengthen families.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What kind of classical liberal arts curriculum does Karl G. Maeser Prep offer? Karl G. Maeser Preparatory Academy is a virtue-based, classical, liberal arts charter high school. Learn more here.
- Why are the arts so important to a liberal arts education? Beauty is a facet of reality. Arts lead our students closer to pursuing and understanding what is beautiful, which draws them closer to truth. Read on to learn more.
- What are some of the ways that the arts are incorporated into the curriculum? The arts are woven throughout the curriculum. When studying history, our students also study the art, painting, music, and beauty of the era. Learn more.
- Does an emphasis on the arts interfere with strong academics? Arts lead our students closer to pursuing and understanding what is beautiful, which draws them closer to truth. At Karl G. Maeser Prep, our goal is the whole-person formation of our students and an appreciation of what is beautiful. Maeser Prep has a graduation rate of over 95%, our students’ SAT scores average a 1330, and U.S. News and World Report has ranked Maeser Prep as the #1 high school in Utah. We are a small, close-knit community that inspires excellence. Learn more.
Schedule a Campus Tour
Wonder and discovery are part of everyday life at Karl G. Maeser Prep, where students pursue Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in an academically challenging curriculum. Schedule a campus tour today.