Foundational Principles

Three key principles— human dignity, free choice, and enduring truths— provide the important “why” to all that we do. The core of our mission is to help students flourish— now and throughout their lives. Because we are social creatures, to flourish means to be able to love, both ourselves and others. Love enables us to see people and events for what they really are—independent of how useful or pleasant they are to us. Education is, then, at its core, an introduction to love.

Human Dignity

What an introduction to love looks like can only be understood in light of who we are. We understand the human person to be a unique and unrepeatable creature who has worth independent of what he or she does. We refer to this special worth as ​human dignity​. Recognizing human dignity entails accepting all people with their limitations while also challenging them to be better.

Free Choice

Just as we reject the common belief that people’s worth is determined by what they produce, we also reject the view that human beings are determined entirely by their environment. People have free choice​. While circumstances certainly do impact and shape a person, they are not the sole determining factor of one’s life. Each person is the protagonist of his own life.

Enduring Truths

The classical tradition offers many opportunities to enkindle within students the desire to live a virtuous life. For that reason, we at Brilla rely on a classical curriculum which exposes our students to cultures and time periods very different from their own. We use these materials for instruction because we are convinced that​ there are enduring truths,​ and that there is a value in studying matters which have been reflected on for millennia. We want our students to appreciate Truth, Beauty and Goodness, in themselves and in others.