One City - Mandan
One day after our official launch, we consider one place - the city our school will call home, Mandan.
Famous American author John Steinbeck wrote that Mandan is “where the west begins”. He wrote this when traveling out of Bismarck to Mandan and the west beyond. There must have been a spirit of adventure that Steinbeck sensed in Mandan because the west, at that time, was the place of adventure and opportunity. The legacy of those who traveled west has been well documented. Mandan is one place that still holds the memory of those who worked and prayed to establish what we enjoy now.
Before the forts and before Steinbeck, the Mandan people lived in between the Heart and Missouri rivers for centuries. While most Plains Indian tribes would travel with the seasons and animal herds, the Mandan made their village a permanent home. Their “Encounters at the Heart of the World”, as Pulitzer Prize winning author Elizabeth Fenn penned in the title of her book on the Mandan people, can still be an example to us. Their home on the banks, in between two life-giving rivers, calls to mind the first Psalm speaking of the “tree planted beside streams of water”. This imagery is reflected in the logo of Mandan Classical Academy.
Mandan has a rich history of education in both the private and public sectors. We set forth in the spirit of the pioneers that Steinbeck sensed to make Mandan our home like the first people who did so - in between the Heart and Missouri rivers. The Mandan Classical Schools are joyful places of education, what G.K. Chesterton calls “the soul of society passing from one generation to another”. We set about to do this worthy work where so many have worked, taught, and prayed before us: at the “heart of the world”.
If you are interested in joining our school community, inquire to join our waitlist or apply today.
If you would like to support our work, join the Memorare army or give to our Founder’s Fundraising Campaign. From April 7 to May 29, the first $20,000 will be matched dollar for dollar.
