Dear Parents,

Welcome to another amazing school year at Plato Academy! We’re thrilled to have you and your child as part of our community. Plato Academy is what a school should be—a place where every child’s unique way of learning is celebrated. Here, we put students first, and we believe that their individual strengths are the key to their success.

At Plato, we strive to create an environment where all students are valued and affirmed. We are proud to have assembled a dream team of teachers and staff dedicated to ensuring that your child has the best possible school experience, whether in pre-K, elementary school, or middle school.

We are happy to announce that, in addition to our already amazing staff, we are welcoming Ms. Ellen to our middle school team. Within a week, we have concluded that she is the epitome of a Plato Academy teacher! We are also excited to welcome back our amazing Coach Medina to our P.E. program. We are always so happy when our amazing teachers find their way back to Plato!

Every teacher at Plato Academy embodies the philosophy of philotimo, which means “a friend of honor.” This is what they expect and encourage in their students. As educators, we believe that the world needs empathetic and compassionate individuals who are critical thinkers and are committed to kindness and excellence. That, along with encouraging academic excellence is our mission.

Our explorations this year will not only provide opportunities for students to learn and think critically about a variety of topics, but will also serve as a framework to educate them to become future leaders of outstanding character and vision. Our schoolwide theme is Nothing but Miracles. It is based on the Walt Whitman poem of the same name. Throughout the year, we will be encouraging our students to look around and notice all that is miraculous in the world and in their lives.

Our administrative staff, led by Ms. Maria and including Ms. Kathleen, Ms. Marina, Ms. Filisa, and myself, is always here to ensure that your family and your children feel supported and heard. We are so excited to welcome back Ms. Anna W. and her children, RJ and Elena, to Plato. Ms. Anna will also assist the administrative team this year. We look forward to an amazing school year filled with joy and extraordinary learning experiences for our kiddos.

In peace and solidarity,

Marianthi

In our journey as educators, we constantly seek to refine our practices to best serve the needs of our students. One area that always receives much attention and discussion is the role of homework in the academic lives of our children. Today, I want to share with you some insights and considerations regarding our homework policy, drawing inspiration from the ideas presented in Alfie Kohn’s book, “The Homework Myth.”

Alfie Kohn’s work challenges conventional wisdom surrounding homework and prompts us to question its effectiveness, purpose, and impact on students’ learning and well-being. Here are some key points from his book that I would like to highlight!:

• Questioning the Value of Homework: Kohn argues that much of the homework assigned to students lacks meaningful purpose and doesn’t necessarily contribute to deeper understanding or mastery of concepts. Instead, it often becomes a source of stress, frustration, and disengagement for both students and families.
• Focus on Quality Over Quantity: Rather than assigning homework for the sake of it, we should prioritize quality over quantity. Meaningful learning experiences can occur both inside and outside the classroom, and homework should supplement, rather than replicate, what happens during instructional time.
• Promoting Autonomy and Responsibility: Kohn suggests that students should have more autonomy in their learning, including the decision of whether or not to engage in homework. By empowering students to take ownership of their education, we foster intrinsic motivation and a deeper sense of responsibility for their learning journey.
• Balancing Academic Demands and Well-being: It’s important to recognize the holistic needs of our students. While academic rigor is important, so too is their well-being. Our goal is to strike a balance between challenging kids academically and ensuring they have time for rest, play, and pursuing their interests outside of school.

Based on these insights, I’d like to remind you of some principles that have guided Plato Academy’s approach to homework:

• Purposeful and Meaningful: Homework assignments are thoughtfully designed to reinforce learning objectives and provide opportunities for students to apply what they’ve learned in class.
• Flexible and Individualized: We recognize that students have diverse learning styles, interests, and responsibilities outside of school. Therefore, much of the homework is flexible, allowing students to work on things weekly at their own pace, This includes Reading logs, Khan Academy for middle school math practice, MobyMax activities, etc. Teachers may also tailor a student’s homework expectations to their needs and preferences.
• Minimalistic Approach:  Assignments are focused and concise, expecting that students can complete the assignments independently while still experiencing meaningful challenges. Our goal is to eliminate busy work at home.
• Encouraging Communication: We value open communication between teachers, students, and parents. We encourage parents to extend childrens’ educational experiences by reading aloud daily to children of all ages, playing board and card games, and watching and discussing movies together as a family!

I invite you to join us in rethinking the role of homework in our children’s education. By embracing a more nuanced and thoughtful approach informed by research and reflective practice, we can create learning environments that empower our students to thrive academically, emotionally, and socially.

Thank you for your partnership in this journey. We always appreciate the trust you place in us for your child/childrens’ education!

Thank you to all the parents who attended Curriculum Chat!  I hope that the presentation of our curriculum goals gave you some insight into the dispositions that we value in our students at Plato Academy. 

Our curriculum is driven by the 21st Century Skills that students will need to fully participate in today’s global community after they leave Plato. These skills are critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Our goal for Plato graduates is to be able to solve problems, to think outside the box, to work together with others towards a common goal, and to be able to convey their ideas quickly and effectively. Integrating a Habits of Mind framework into our curriculum helps to ensure that all of our students have the dispositions needed that will lead to their success.

Every time I enter the school, I realize how blessed I am to have led such an innovative and spirited school for the last 20+ years! As I look around I see that our teachers and students approach learning with a joyful attitude!  All students are focused and driven to succeed, and supported by peers when things become challenging. Our amazing Plato teachers create personalized learning environments as they promote the Habits of Mind in their classrooms. Kids are challenged to persevere, to question and to think flexibly and creatively, to strive for accuracy, and to listen to others with empathy and understanding. Students engage in Socratic dialogue and are expected to participate in asking and answering questions, forming hypotheses, making predictions, and testing those ideas! This discourse happens with the youngest student during play and continues as our approach not only to literacy and social studies, but also to math, science and the arts!

Our goal is for our students to respond to the world with wonderment and awe, just as they did when they were babies and toddlers! And of course, along the way to find humor and delight in their learning!

I feel proud of every student’s sense of self and of the memories we are building together. We are part of a dynamic community that is caring and loving and that takes action when any member needs help! We strive to practice philotimo as part of our daily life, and support each other when needed. We stand beside the Bolos family and our warrior, Leo, as he fights a battle no child should ever have to fight! Thank you to the Plato community for all your support, positive energy, and prayers!

Beginnings are always filled with much excitement and much anticipation. “The start of something new brings the hope of something great and anything is possible”.

Plato Academy’s mission statement “Challenging students to be their best selves while finding the genius in each” is, however, not new. Our ongoing commitment to philotimo and to critical thinking has always been at the heart of our mission statement. Every day our talented teachers will always strive to make sure that each of our students feels that they are capable and competent, and that they know their worth is not measured by a test score. In return, we expect our students to work hard, learn from their mistakes, always take pride in their learning, and make philotimo a part of their everyday lives. Their success depends on them!

Each of our students follows in the footsteps of our graduates. Take a look at the alumni page on our website and read about the amazing humans that we are very proud to call alumni. Attend our graduation ceremony and listen to the words of our alumni guest speakers as they describe the role that their education at Plato Academy played in their lives. One day your students’ names and accomplishments will be posted on our site, as all of our students contribute to the legacy that is Plato Academy.

We thank you for trusting us with your children’s education and for partnering with us to send compassionate, caring, and intelligent citizens into the future.

“It takes a village to raise a child” and we are honored that you have chosen Plato Academy to be part of your village.  We look forward to a great school year!

-Marianthi Koritsaris, Director

As you all may already know, Plato Academy lost two champions earlier this month. Board of Directors member Stacey Sauvageau lost her fight with cancer… I’m pretty sure it’s the only fight she ever lost! I also lost a best friend, a partner in education, and a true intellectual who could discuss any topic for hours over a cup of coffee.

A few weeks later we lost another member of our founding Board, Dr. Catherine Antonopoulos, who was also a former Plato Academy principal in the 1980’s and also a force to be reckoned with. The three of us were an unbeatable team! We navigated the school through turbulent times, having to move into four different buildings until we finally found our amazing and forever home last year.

When Stacey, Catherine, and I incorporated Plato Academy as an independent progressive school in 1999, we had a very clear vision. We wanted to create a school that honored children and how they learn. We wanted to allow children to play, be curious, be problem solvers and ultimately become critical and analytical thinkers. We also wanted to be sure that our students maintained that love of learning that every toddler exhibits as they explore the world. We wanted to create a school where students were not defined by grades and standardized tests. In this way we would not be inclined to compare one child to the next. We wanted to create a school where students are honored for thinking “outside the box:”  We wanted to create a school where the most important lesson was that of philotimo. In our vision, there was to be no predetermined curriculum, but rather one that emerges from the interests of the learners themselves. Our hope was that the lessons our students learned during their time at Plato Academy would impact their lives in such a way that they themselves would become future champions of education and philotimo!  

Plato Academy has a dedicated and diligent School Board, a talented staff and an amazing director at the helm. We are all completely dedicated to the Plato Academy mission and ideals.

Stacey and Catherine, your spirit will continue to help guide the Plato Academy team as we continue our purpose of educating the citizens of tomorrow!

What a great start to our new school year! Teachers and students have been working hard engaging in a rigorous and relevant curriculum! We are soon approaching our student-led conferences, a wonderful opportunity for our students to share a portfolio of their work and reflect on their progress. Student-led conferences help our students take ownership of their own learning.

I am personally so proud of all of our Plato Academy students who come to school every day ready to learn! I am also pleased to continue to learn of the successes of all of our graduates. It’s gratifying to see how well they integrate what they learned at Plato into their high school experience, college, and ultimately into their professional and personal lives. Please take a look at our alumni page to see the diverse paths our graduates have taken. They all tell us that their Plato Academy education helped lead them to where they are today!

Constructivist education philosophy, informed by experts such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and John Dewey, has always guided our practice. However,at Plato, we try to never rest on our laurels. We are always pondering what we can do to make the educational experience even more exceptional for all of our students! We always consider all of the most current research about learning and the brain to assure that we are preparing our students for the acquisition of the 21st century skills that will lead them to success.  These skills are Collaboration, Critical thinking, Communication, and Creativity. During parent conferences, you will see how these skills are manifested through the students’ work.

Of course our guiding principle of education is rooted in our commitment to Philotimo. In addition to promoting 21st Century Skills, we try to always instill a commitment to excellence as we aspire to graduate students who are honorable human beings. You can take a look at the Philotimo video here to understand what this word truly means.  We hope your children will not only talk about it with you but practice it on a daily basis, as well.

As we continue our educational journey with your children, please know that  Ms Maria and I, along with the School Board and our entire staff, share these commitments.  We are all here diligently working to provide a school experience that will ensure that your child/children will always be honored, loved and challenged to be their best self!

During this Thanksgiving season, I would like to share my personal gratitude for your continued support and commitment to a Plato Academy education. Thank you for entrusting us with your precious children.

Marianthi

Philanthropy can be broadly defined as love for humankind. It is derived from the Greek words “philos,” which means loving and “anthropos,” which means humankind. A person who practices philanthropy is called a philanthropist . I am taking this opportunity to acknowledge the philanthropists of Plato Academy. Young children who see a need in the community and rise to the challenge of addressing that need in a very real way!

A number of years ago, I became familiar with the St. Baldrick’s organization through my daughter, who was an anesthesia resident at Rush Medical College at the time and became a chairperson of their event. I introduced the event to our middle school students and initially they held a bake sale to raise money for the cause. The following year, those same middle school students attended the St. Baldrick’s event sponsored by Notre Dame High School. They came back to school saying, “We could do that here!”  That is when The Plato St. Baldrick’s event was born! Since then, our event has raised tens of thousands of dollars for pediatric cancer research, and has also raised awareness and brought in young cancer survivors for us to meet, befriend, and honor. Each of these events starts with the passion of a single volunteer who is willing to shave their head or cut off their ponytail to provide wigs for children touched by cancer. The passion that these young Plato students have shown for compassion and caring is remarkable.

You may ask, “What does social justice have to do with education? Social justice education has the ability to help students develop their critical thinking and questioning skills while also developing soft skills such as empathy, compassion, as well as a desire to get involved in their communities. Social justice education is at the core of what we do at Plato. It is the highest level of curriculum theory…it is Praxis, which means informed, committed practice. What we learn in school, leads us to how we can use that knowledge to impact the world in some small way. It’s the Plato way!

Along with our goals promoting the  21st century skills of Collaboration, Communication, Creativity and Critical Thinking, we are guided by philotimo as we try to promote a healthy sense of self, empathy, and altruism.
There is strong scientific evidence to support this important relationship between social emotional learning and cognitive development.

Philotimo embraces all of the values that lead us to wisdom and integrity. A commitment to love and kindness, as well as a respect for family and community, is embedded into our curriculum across the disciplines. It is embedded in the novels we chose to read and explore. It is embedded in the many experiences that kids have to feel capable and competent. It is embedded in the moments kids have to be critical thinkers and see problems as opportunities to find creative solutions. This is what often sets Plato Academy apart!