Faculty Spotlight: Gayle Hornbacher
With over ten years of teaching experience, Gayle Hornbacher has had a first-hand view of the weaknesses of educational models in “mainline schools.” Among these weaknesses is a lack of unity and purpose. Gayle recounts how she would wonder, “why do we teach chemistry [in high school] after all?” When told the reason was to prepare the students for college, Gayle would dig deeper, wondering about those students who weren’t going to college, or why colleges require completion of a chemistry course in the first place. Unfortunately, “no one ever seemed to be able to give me any answers that meant anything.”
It was only when she started learning about classical education that Gayle felt she found “what I [had] been looking for all along.” For Gayle, classical education “truly is an education that speaks to the heart and forms the whole person. It is an education that knows what it is about.” A desire to be a part of such a holistic educational approach led Gayle to accept a position teaching Algebra 2 and Trigonometry at Chesterton Academy this coming fall. Like many incoming families and faculty members, Gayle first heard about the Chesterton Academy at her parish, Ss. Cyril and Methodius, where she was volunteering as an RCIA instructor with Alejandra Correa-Miller, Chesterton’s Executive Director and teacher of Humanities.
Gayle looks forward to asking her students “why and how.”
As she considers the upcoming school year, Gayle looks forward to asking her students the questions “why and how,” the same questions she couldn’t find answers to in mainstream educational settings. She hopes to show students “the wonder of how all types of knowledge are connected to each other, the excitement of discovering how the world works, and the beauty of the whole picture.” Getting to do so with teachers who, like Gayle, “love their faith, truly care about their students, and see the world deeply,” is an added bonus.
As a new mother, Gayle also considers why families should seek a classical education for their children: “Families should consider a classical education because it is an education that is in keeping with our dignity as human persons.” While mainstream education is often viewed as “merely a tool for material gain and personal comfort,” a classical education aims at “the cultivation of the Mind in community.” This “nobler goal” is also eminently practical, according to Gayle: “Another thing families should consider is that it is now common for people to switch careers two or three times in their lifetime. A mainstream education may prepare them for just one career, but a classical education will prepare them for life.” More importantly, a classical education is one that “will make [a student] a better human being even in his or her personal life.”
The importance of cultivating both the virtuous life and the intellectual life is something Gayle believes that G.K. Chesterton understood well, as exemplified by her favorite Chesterton quote: “‘Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.’ Chesterton seemed to be a man of great intellect, who also never lost perspective of what is really important in life.”
We are blessed to have Gayle as part of our faculty this coming school year!