Formation

Education shapes more than the mind.

Every school, whether intentionally or not, forms habits, desires, character, and ways of seeing the world. At Mother of Good Counsel School, we believe that formation should be intentional. For that reason, formation is woven throughout the life of the school.

Students develop practical wisdom through Learning How to Learn.

They investigate reality through history and natural science.

They interpret reality through literature and math.

They acquire practical competencies through Acquisition Classes.

They strengthen those competencies through Encounter Classes, where classroom learning is tested and refined through concrete experiences.

Formation is curriculum

Alongside the academic curriculum, students participate in Ikon Formation.

Developed by Dr. David Delio, a Newman scholar and longtime advisor to Mother of Good Counsel School, Ikon Formation provides intentional interior and spiritual formation as an integral part of Catholic education.

While many schools approach these concerns primarily through theology or moral formation classes, Ikon Formation gives particular attention to helping students become more attentive to their own interior lives.

Students grow in self-knowledge, reflective awareness, character, and virtue while learning to recognize both their strengths and the areas in which they continue to grow.

Our faculty serve as guidance counselors because formation cannot simply be delivered like information.

Young people develop sound judgment through relationships, conversation, imitation, correction, encouragement, and experience. Teachers therefore do more than explain ideas. They accompany students as they gradually learn to recognize truth, exercise practical wisdom, and make increasingly mature decisions for themselves.

This understanding of formation reflects the school’s patroness.

Our Lady, under the title Mother of Good Counsel, reminds us that wisdom is received, practiced, and eventually shared with others.