Recently the Parish of St. Monica entered into a contractual agreement with The Regina Luminis Academy.
Regina Luminis is part of the Regina Academies which were founded in 2003 and are the brainchild of Barbara Henkels. For those not familiar with that name, Henkels & McCoy is a large construction engineering company local to Philadelphia. A quick Google search shows that Barbara Henkels has been a major benefactor to Catholic education in the Philadelphia area for decades, and accordingly the Regina Academies are the culmination of her vision. She, and other dedicated Catholic families, recognized the distinctive merits of Catholic classical education – favoring teachings of St. Augustine over Jack Kerouac. Their approach is principled in classic pillars of grammar, logic, and rhetoric and taught in small classes by dedicated and passionate teachers that imbue strong Catholic beliefs in the curriculum.
From a clientele perspective, Regina Academies targets a different subsection of an addressable market to comprise their student body. The people involved with this school – parents and teachers – are serious Catholics and are passionate about the classical mindset their children are being taught. The parents are described as “daily mass go-ers” and “pro-life warriors” who hold prayer services outside Planned Parenthood. They are interested in not just raising critical thinkers, but teaching their children how to be holy. This contingent of people is fervently Catholic, and they unapologetically put that first in their lives.
Defining Classical Education
Regina Luminis It is not a “Home School” but a pedagogical institution with an approach towards education is based on Trivium, which is Latin for “Three Ways.” The three ways are as follows:
A child focuses on learning “facts”—vocabulary, spelling, multiplication tables, historical dates, etc.—and exercising the memory by learning poetry by heart.
Logic stage (middle school years)
The child explores the relations between facts—for example, the causes of historical events—and masters the rules of logical reasoning.
Rhetoric stage (high school years):
The focus is on excellence in both written and spoken expression. A graduate who knows a great deal, who understands what he knows, and who can communicate persuasively with others.
Regina Luminis runs and manages a full curriculum for Pre-K-To-4 (years old), grade school and high school. Their mission: Fulfill the vocation of a Roman Catholic Education (aka, school). By September, 2017, Regina Luminis will have close to 130 students in High School, Grade School and Pre-K-4 (years old).
Fr. Charles Zlock 