If I had to isolate what makes St. Luke’s such a distinct school in San Antonio, I would turn to our annual Parent Survey for the answer. These surveys tell us that parents send their children to St. Luke’s for 3 main reasons. As an Episcopal school, we reinforce the spiritual and ethical values, and the virtues of character, that our parents teach their children at home. Our learning culture is deeply nurturing and loving. That same learning culture is rigorous and challenging.

In most schools these traits would be antithetical. Nurturing suggests an intellectual softness that lacks discipline and focus.  Rigor often leads to a curricular approach that lacks compassion and sensitivity for the multiple learning needs of children. The wonder of St. Luke’s is that these 3 reasons-to-attend are mutually reinforcing. This is in fact the wonder of the finest Episcopal educational communities.

St. Luke’s teachers inspire their students to take a risk on the tough, initially discouraging project. Our students are willing to dive into murky and mysterious pools of learning, because, as a father told me recently, they trust their teachers to let them struggle, even to fail. They know they will not drop like stones for evermore.

At St. Luke’s, nurture and love are not antithetical to rigor, but are the foundation upon which the academic curriculum is built. Help children feel safe, and they will astound and delight with their questions, their persistence and their discoveries.

Sincerely,

Dr. Q. Mark Reford

Dr. Reford grew up in Ireland and was educated at Oxford University, where he earned a double First Class degree in English Literature and Language and wrote his doctorate on the poetry of W. B. Yeats.  Dr. Reford has been an educator for over 15 years and has taught at the primary, secondary, undergraduate and graduate level in several countries. He began his teaching career at Oxford and then moved with his wife, Lisa, a broadcast journalist, to the Soviet Union, where he taught at Moscow State University. He began teaching high school English at Georgetown Day School in Washington DC, and then worked at Sidwell Friends School, also in Washington, DC, for 12 years as a teacher, Dean of Students and Academic Dean. Before coming to St. Luke’s he ran a public charter school in Washington.

He and his wife of 22 years, Lisa Koenig, have two daughters, Emma and Saskia, aged 13 and 10.