Academy growing

To the Editor:

Genesis Classical Academy in Winnebago will open its doors Sept. 5 for its fourth year of operation. Consistent growth has become a hallmark of this Christian classical academy. With the addition of seventh grade, the Genesis family now includes 74 students in preschool through grade 7, drawing students from a 40-mile radius of Winnebago.

Additional staff members have been hired to educate the growing student body.

Alan Dicks will teach classical literature in grades 4-7, and work to develop curricula for the planned addition of grades 8-12. Mr. Dicks has been a teacher, coach, school administrator, pastor and a bus driver over the last 30 years.

Victoria Ellis is no stranger to GCA, having served as a substitute teacher in several classrooms last year. This year, she will teach first grade (half days), teach fourth- and fifth-grade science and supervise study hall.

Ali Wilkinson has been working part time at Genesis this past year, lending her graphic design talents to the school’s marketing efforts. This year, she will add “art teacher” to her list of credits. This summer, she led the art and basketball camps for Genesis students.

Back-to-school orientation night will be held Tuesday evening, Sept. 4. Students and families are invited to drop off school supplies in their classrooms and meet their teachers beginning at 5 p.m. There will be a picnic supper from 5:30-6:30 pm, followed by an orientation meeting for all families from 6:30-7:30 pm.

Genesis Classical Academy is a nondenominational Christian Classical Academy located in Winnebago on the campus of Heartland Senior Living. Enrollment for the 2018-2019 school year is still open. To learn how a GCA education can best prepare your children for the future, visit the website at www.GenesisClassical.com, or call (507) 893-3600 to schedule a tour of the school.

Renee Doyle, headmaster

Genesis Classical Academy

Winnebago

A wonderful month

To the Editor:

After Labor day, summer begins to fade away, though not all at once. In many ways, it stays on like the finish of a fine wine. Minnesota is a region of moderate people and extreme weather, particularly extreme winters. If we are to be defined meteorologically, winter surely defines us in these northern reaches. But it is the ninth month, September, that sets the calendar.

Swimming is over in September. In Minnesota, nobody swims after Labor day, which marks the closing of beaches and public pools. In the tourist industry, May and September are known as the shoulder seasons, the ones that adjoin, but are not a part of, the holy trinity of June, July and August.

September can mark beginnings as well as endings. At this time of year, many young adults experience the adventure of leaving for college. It’s a process of slowly detaching from home, but not without feelings of nostalgia. In the quiet of the fall night, perhaps walking across campus, their minds might wander to the re-echoing of the sounds of the old hometown: the train whistling through the neighborhood or the John Deere putt-putt tractor bringing in the crops.

I go to Cedar Point at least once a year, in July, to watch the sunrise at 5 a.m. It would never occur to me to go to Cedar Point in September, though the sunrise could be just as beautiful as any time in July. Maybe it’s because September is more defined by the end of the day — by the beautiful sunsets in their red, yellow and orange hues streaking across the sky. I think a September sunset in farm country has a luminous quality to it, magnified in the fall stillness. It’s a sight not to be missed.

And in September, the corn leaves show their golden color. I cannot think of corn as anything but dry. The papery leaves rustle in the fall breeze and there is always a veil of dust over a corn field. This is the month we think of harvest and the crops coming in. We end up with a final tabulation of our summer’s work. We hold the anxiety between hope for a big harvest and memories of past crop failures or a harvest not as plentiful as hoped. Even aside from the harvest, September plays out the tension between “something is about to end” and the hope and comfort of an Indian summer yet to come. It’s as if the month is trying to let us down easy.

In the end, September’s rhythms, with its beginnings and endings and hopes and fears, are standard menu. With all of its uncertainties, isn’t it a wonderful month to behold?

Mike Garry

Fairmont