Culver educates its students for leadership and responsible citizenship in society by developing and nurturing the whole individual – mind, spirit, and body – through integrated programs that emphasize the cultivation of character.
 

PRINCIPLES

Culver is a college preparatory institution with a diverse student population. Culver is committed to intellectual growth through a demanding curriculum that prepares students for success in higher education. Culver’s curriculum emphasizes critical thinking, problem solving, writing, research, artistic expression and foreign language proficiency through innovative teaching methods and technologically rich classrooms. Equally important is the development of those virtues which engender both a lifelong love of learning and a commitment to the responsible stewardship of knowledge.

Character development is essential to the Culver mission, and the foundation of the Culver model for over a century has been an education in the classical virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. Given that habits of mind, spirit and body develop slowly, an education in the virtues requires both self-discipline and practice. The broader Culver curriculum is designed to provide students with opportunities for individual growth within a carefully structured environment.

At Culver, leadership training is both an end in itself and the means by which students develop a sense of social responsibility. Culver Military Academy is organized around its own distinctive military system of student leadership, while Culver Girls Academy is modeled on a prefect system. With these distinctive systems of leadership, Culver’s students enjoy the benefits of coordinate education in their residential programs, while sharing in the advantages of coeducation in most other areas of school life. Through the enactment of leadership ideals made possible in and through these systems, they develop confidence in their abilities to complete difficult and challenging tasks, as well as habits of inquiry and self-discipline central to an education in the virtues.

Culver is committed to the spiritual development of its students. To encourage students to take the pursuit of spiritual truth seriously, Culver provides a variety of opportunities for the exploration and expression of religious faith. While Culver’s religious heritage is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, it recognizes and celebrates the rich diversity of faith and practice found among its students. The fruits of the cultivation of the spirit - a regard for the beauty of the world, a reverence for the gift of life, and a recognition of the limits of our understanding - are also important components of a virtuous life.

Culver’s programs in the visual and performing arts are designed to promote both aesthetic literacy and artistic practice. The arts are the common language of humanity and their study can lead to a deeper understanding of and respect for cultural diversity. Emphasizing both theory and practice and integrating mind, spirit and body, Culver’s programs contribute significantly to an education in the virtues.

Recognizing that athletic participation also affords a significant arena for the development of the virtues, Culver’s rich and varied programs are designed to present students of all skill and experience levels with opportunities to develop both a lifelong interest in sport and a lifelong regard for good sportsmanship. Culver’s health and residential life curricula emphasize wellness through programs that focus on physical fitness, sound decision-making, and respect for the body.  

ACADEMIC LIFE

Culver is committed to graduating young people of imagination, integrity, and vision. In order to achieve this goal, academic departments work in concert with other constituencies within the school community to provide students with a coherent picture of intellectual and moral excellence. 

In an age when both the growth and the fragmentation of knowledge are proceeding rapidly, educators must provide students with the tools they will need to make sense of an increasingly complex world. In the belief that this is best achieved through a curriculum that is demanding, engaging and internally coherent, Culver promotes initiatives, including interdepartmental program design and team teaching, in which coherence is a priority.

Culver supports classroom pedagogies in which the qualities of the good civic or business leader, a critical mind and a strong moral compass among them, are also those of the successful student. Culver endorses pedagogies which call upon students to exercise leadership in the classroom; student-led discussion groups, individual and group project presentations and cooperative learning opportunities are emphasized, along with traditional lecture-discussion methodologies.

Culver recognizes that a diverse student body will include students of differing intellectual abilities and academic backgrounds, and seeks to provide a curriculum that is simultaneously challenging and supportive. From a rich menu of Advanced Placement courses, to opportunities for individual tutoring and academic skills enhancement, the Culver curriculum is designed to meet a wide variety of needs and to support a broad spectrum of interests.

Culver’s academic curricula emphasize the development of skills in the following areas: critical thinking (including the assessment of arguments and the recognition of fallacies); problem solving (including the construction of original solutions); research (including print and electronic text-based bibliographic research, and laboratory experimentation); aesthetic appreciation (including the creation of art along with the study of its history and cultural significance); writing (including analytical, expository, and creative pieces); language (including minimal proficiency in at least one foreign language). 

Preparation for higher education is one of the most important considerations in a parent’s decision to send his or her child to The Culver Academies. Culver maintains close relations with outstanding post-secondary institutions, actively supporting its students as they seek admission to the colleges and universities of their choice.

Culver seeks to attract highly qualified faculty from a variety of academic, geographic and ethnic backgrounds. The recruitment, retention and professional development of faculty are on-going priorities. Faculty are expected to display a commitment both to the communal values of boarding school life and to the unique mission, principles and objectives of The Culver Academies. In addition to effective teaching and mastery of a specific subject area, faculty are expected to contribute to the broader life of the school community through participation in sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities.

The role of the private secondary school is in part to provide educational leadership, and Culver supports responsible innovation in areas such as curriculum and information technology where such leadership is clearly needed.

CHARACTER

Culver is committed to the cultivation of character through an education in the classical virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation and justice.  To understand complex and abstract moral principles, to apply them to particular circumstances, to discern sometimes subtle differences between good and evil, right and wrong, to weigh incremental gradations of moral and aesthetic value - these are some of the skills responsible citizens are called upon to exhibit in their day-to-day dealings with their fellow human beings. This capacity for sound moral judgment even under difficult and ambiguous circumstances, traditionally known as wisdom, involves an understanding of the complexity of human life and an appreciation for the diversity of human flourishing.

Sound judgment is not by itself sufficient for moral action, for persons may be prevented from doing what they know is right by their inclinations to do otherwise. For example, they may find that emotion overcomes their best efforts to chart rational courses of action. Hence, the importance of the virtue of courage, for courageous persons are able to do what they know is right even when their feelings draw them in other directions. They have, as we say, the courage of their convictions. The bodily appetites, basic to all human beings, can also deflect attention away from a rational desire to do the good. Herein lies the significance of the virtue of moderation, for moderate persons are individuals in whom the bodily passions have been educated to play an appropriate role in a balanced life.

Persons who have the virtues of wisdom, courage and moderation understand their obligations to themselves and to others and they meet these obligations free of inner conflict. With thought, feeling and desire in harmony, their actions are characterized by integrity or wholeness. This capacity for integral action is classically known as justice. The life of just persons, then, is marked by both fairness and integrity.

A due respect for rightly constituted political authority and a regard for the common good are also components of justice. A commitment to the public good need not be seen to conflict with the desire for personal freedom, however. In fact, there is a long-standing political tradition in America, tracing its roots back through the civic humanism of the Renaissance to the classical republicanism of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which argues that a strong republican government is the only guarantee of an unencumbered private life and that public virtue is the only warrant of personal liberty.

Just persons in a self-governing republic are free in two significant senses. First of all, they are free from the internal constraints which result from a lack of virtue; secondly, they are free from the external constraints which are a consequence of arbitrary government. While documents such as the Declaration of Independence claim liberty as a birthright, liberty is something which must be deliberately crafted, within and without. Liberty is an achievement, even as character is an achievement.  

LEADERSHIP

At Culver, education for justice meets several important institutional goals. It is an important expression of Culver’s commitment to the education of the whole person, for just persons are, in a fundamental sense, persons of integrity or wholeness. It contributes significantly to the realization of Culver’s leadership mission, accentuating the importance of public service and commitment to others. It teaches students to value the communal good on a small scale, i.e. at the level of the club, the team, the living unit, thereby preparing them to understand and appreciate the common weal of their respective nations once they assume the responsibilities of full citizenship.

In addition to the moral dimensions of leadership study and training, Culver’s programs emphasize particular principles of leadership. Effective leaders understand that they serve the unit for which they‘ve been given responsibility. Successful leaders take an interest in the individuals with whom they work, recognizing that loyalty and respect do not come automatically with title or rank. Good leaders are ‘change agents,’ persons who set high standards and establish challenging goals. They are also able to motivate and to inspire others by emphasizing the importance of teamwork and by establishing clear visions of the overall significance of their group’s projects.

Culver’s leadership programs are based on a psychological model of pro-social development. Qualified and committed adults - teachers, mentors and role models - emphasize consistent standards and values. Extrinsic rewards, often embedded in significant rites of passage, are used to motivate young people who inevitably take time to internalize sophisticated norms and practices. Regular chores and responsibilities, frequent opportunities for role-playing and immediate performance feedback are also emphasized in recognition of the fact that complex skills develop only through practice. Culver’s leadership programs include a structured progression of activities and roles, as well as opportunities for the transfer of training from older to younger students. Culver’s leadership curricula embody pedagogies consistent with those of its academic programs, affording frequent opportunities for cooperative learning and time for self-reflection.   

STUDENT LIFE

Culver seeks to attract highly motivated and talented young people from a variety of ethnic, geographic, cultural, and socio-economic backgrounds, believing that an education in diversity benefits students and adults alike. Culver maintains strong financial aid and scholarship programs, allowing for the admission of the strongest possible candidates irrespective of financial need.

Culver’s residential setting is central to its commitment to the education of the whole person, for it is in and through residential living that its unique coordinate systems of student leadership are enacted. With these distinctive systems of leadership, Culver’s students enjoy the benefits of coordinate education in their residential programs, while sharing in the advantages of coeducation in most other areas of school life. These systems emphasize integrity, cooperation, teamwork, and service to others. Both boys and girls receive leadership training before and during their tenures as student leaders.

Justice as integrity is the particular responsibility of Culver’s student-run honor system. The CMA Honor Council and the CGA Personnel Committee work with faculty advisors to ensure that fairness and integrity are held in the highest regard by the students of The Academies.

All students are expected to be actively involved in community life through unit duties and other forms of service to the school community. As young people learn to manage their lives and to meet their obligations, they develop the confidence they will need to assume responsibility for nurturing and supporting younger students later on. A rich and varied extracurricular program provides students with opportunities to explore interests which extend beyond the classroom and the playing field. However, these opportunities also come with special challenges, and learning to prioritize activities and to create a balanced schedule are important aspects of a student’s growth at Culver.

With a rich diversity of religious belief manifest in its student body, nurturing the spiritual life is another dimension of community at Culver. While most students attend one of Culver’s formal weekly worship services, all are required to engage in some form of spiritual reflection.

A dedicated faculty and staff support students in all facets of their lives at The Academies. While all adults offer guidance, unit counselors have primary responsibility for the oversight and support of students placed in their care. Building a safe community is a shared responsibility of all adults.  

WELLNESS AND ATHLETICS

Culver’s wellness programs, including health and physical education, are also committed to the development of the whole person through an education in the virtues.

Culver’s physical education programs provide students with opportunities to participate in competitive, cooperative and individual fitness and performance activities. They help students to understand and evaluate their physical potential, and to make wise choices about their physical well-being in order to balance the frequency, intensity, type, and duration of their fitness activities. Competitive performance activities enable young people to develop positive attitudes towards teamwork and competition by fostering the respect for self and others central to the virtue of justice.

Culver’s comprehensive health education programs encourage students to take an active role in the maintenance of the health and well-being of themselves and others. Recognizing that wisdom leads to healthy choices, courage to perseverance and moderation to patience, Culver’s health curriculum emphasizes the balanced life which results from a cultivation of the virtues.

Athletics are integral to the broader Culver curriculum, not least because of the role they play in meeting the institution’s character education objectives. As every good coach knows, the discipline and commitment required of the successful athlete are simultaneously cause and consequence of training in courage and moderation. In addition, because athletics provide many opportunities for student leadership, they help to build confidence and are a valuable tool in educating for justice. Even students who will not develop into star athletes or influential team leaders can benefit from a regime of regular practice and performance which leads to a high level of physical fitness.

With a commitment to excellence within the context of its overall institutional mission, Culver’s athletic programs share the following goals and objectives: to provide wide-ranging opportunities for athletic participation; to support programs that challenge student athletes while also affording them opportunities for individual success; to engage adults who are both knowledgeable coaches and positive role models; to teach and develop individual and team skills; to foster healthy attitudes to athletic competition.

Culver’s athletic teams are expected to be competitive, but the ultimate measure of their success is not found in their victories. Culver’s programs can be considered successful only when they have fostered admirable habits of body and spirit that remain with its student athletes long after the final buzzer has sounded on their careers at Culver. The role of adults in this process is pivotal. As role models and mentors, as well as coaches and trainers, faculty and staff have a significant influence on the lives of young athletes. Good coaches reinforce the lessons of character education by modeling consistency, empathy, patience, perseverance and self-discipline for their players.

CULVER SUMMER CAMPS

Character development is also the focus of Culver Summer Camps. With a commitment to residential coeducation within a military framework, Culver Summer Camps share in the leadership mission of The Academies. The Woodcraft, Naval, Troop, Aviation, and Upper Girls programs provide practical hands-on leadership training within a nurturing and caring environment. Supportive adults help boys and girls find success in a wide range of activities that are designed to be educationally rich, socially engaging and just plain fun. Thousands of young people have found the joys and challenges of summer uniquely concentrated in their Culver experience.

Through inspections, parades, athletic competitions and other activities, Culver’s summer campers are afforded leadership opportunities that build confidence and character. As a result, they learn that leadership involves more than merely giving orders. Living and working together, they come to realize that leadership is also about treating others with respect and knowing when to follow. 

Culver’s Summer Camps are a vital part of its institutional life, and many Academies students are first introduced to Culver through participation in these programs. The Summer Camps work in a close-knit partnership with The Academies, sharing both personnel and plant resources.