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WHO WE ARE |
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The Michael family gets
a break from work during this year's CLAA mission in
Jamaica with a walk through the mountain streams.
You can follow their family's missionary work on the
CLAA Missions blog. |
We are
Catholic
Christians
who love the Church and are directly involved in its missionary
work in America and overseas. We are
families,
loving and serving God, while teaching our own children to
do the same. We are
individuals,
answering God's call in our own lives for the service of His
heavenly kingdom. We have, however, a unique vision, for
what the Christian family can be today and that is what we seek
to share through the Classical Liberal Arts Academy and the
projects that grow from it. |
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WILLIAM MICHAEL, DIRECTOR |
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Mr. Michael (center) with the seniors of the Missionaries of
the Poor at Prince of Peace Monastery after an evening
lecture. Mr. Michael worked for two weeks with
the MOP in July to help organize their in-house
formation program for accreditation with the University Council of
Jamaica. |
William Michael is a Christian
husband and father. Married to his high school sweetheart, Dania Strevell in 1998, he is expecting an eighth child in 2010. The
Michaels live on a family farm in North Carolina, but are preparing for
a move to head a mission educational program with the Missionaries of
the Poor overseas.
William Michael founded the CLAA after
ten years of research, development and classroom teaching. Mr.
Michael graduated with an honors degree in Classics and History from
Rutgers University in New Jersey, where he earned numerous academic
awards and was inducted Phi Alpha Theta and Phi Beta Kappa national
honor societies.
Mr. Michael spent close to ten years in a
remarkable teaching career, where he was known for the radical
intellectual and spiritual influence he had in the lives of his
students. It was the constant encouragement of his students to
write books on teaching and a particular note from a colleague that
solidified his conviction that something more widely available needed to
be developed and shared with families and schools around the country.
Mr. Michael began turning his lecture notes into online lessons and,
through a number of amazing provisions, the CLAA was born. No
money was borrowed or received from any outside sources and no marketing
schemes were employed to launch the Academy. The CLAA was founded
upon trust in God's providence and word-of-mouth advertising of
satisfied families.
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Mr. Michael serves as a visiting instructor for the Missionaries of the Poor in Kingston,
Jamaica. Above, Mr. Michael teaches a course in
Classical Rhetoric to the brothers during his recent
February mission visit. |
God, it appears, has blessed our work.
After starting the CLAA in August 2008, nearly 500 students enrolled in
the first year. In June of 2009, Mr. Michael was invited by Father
Richard Ho Lung to help with the development of a formation program for
the order's brothers around the world. That relationship then
blossomed into a still greater mission to be headed by the Michaels,
which will begin to establish free Catholic schools in the poorest areas
of the world. From this the vision for the Beatitudes School and
CLAA Missions was born.
CLAA families participate directly in our
missionary work! To learn more, visit the CLAA Missions blog and
send us any questions:
http://claamissions.wordpress.com.
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DID YOU KNOW? |
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The CLAA donated and maintains
the international website of the
Missionaries
of the Poor! Check it out at online at:
www.missionariesofthepoor.org.
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DANIA MICHAEL, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR |
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In November, Mrs. Michael and
the Michael children visiting "Jacob's Well"--a center for
retarded, crippled and abused women in Kingston, Jamaica.
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Dania Michael is a Christian wife
and mother, married to CLAA founder William Michael. Mrs.
Michael graduated with a Classics degree from Rutgers University in 1998
and worked as an elementary school teacher before becoming a full-time
mother and housewife in 2000.
Mrs. Michael was interested in missionary
work from her childhood and that interest led her to study linguistics
and the classics in college, yet always expected to be a mother with
children. How those two desires would come together was a mystery
until the CLAA developed. Now, Mrs. Michael is making preparations
for the realization of those two desires.
Mrs. Michael is responsible for the
management of CLAA communications and all phases of and home study
support. She is herself a living example of the freedom the CLAA
offers to homeschooling mothers as she not only cares for her own seven
children, but enjoys a life rich in Catholic service at home and
overseas with them. |
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FEEDBACK
(...at least a little bit of it.) |
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Mrs. Michael and the Michael
children with at Queen of Peace care center with Sr. Lubica,
MC, superior of the Jamaican mission of the Missionaries of
Charity and Father Brian, MOP. |
"Thank you for
sharing our life of offering Christ to the poor and to one
another.
You are such a wonderful couple, amazing spirit and lovely
blessed children. Give God thanks!
We appreciate your
whole-hearted and generous support for our community and the
poor. May the Lord bless your family with peace and love.
With love and prayers, M.O.P family."
Missionaries of the Poor
Kingston, Jamaica
"Mr. Michael's
courses are legendary. The magnitude of this man’s influence at
our school reaches the level of a Hollywood drama. Like the
inspirational characters from Dead Poets Society, The Emperor’s
Club, and Coach Carter, Bill Michael has revolutionized the
lives of numerous young people. In all of my years of teaching,
I have never witnessed a teacher make such an extensive impact
on students...He’s a man of outstanding moral integrity, he’s
culturally relevant and in-tuned...and he seems to know
something about everything. He may be the most brilliant man I
have ever met."
Upper School Theology Teacher
NC, USA
"Mr. Michael
changes your life. He gives you spiritual guidance, forces you
to use your mind and think, challenges you in every aspect of
your life, and by the time he is finished with you, you’re able
to think clearly and wisely. His ability to connect with you on
any subject is phenomenal. Any subject, any time, any place, he
is well prepared to teach and guide you. Most importantly he has
made me a better person. I can’t say that about any teacher I’ve
ever had in my life. He has dedicated his whole entire life to
God’s work, and is the example of what Jesus wants us to
be. I don’t think many people can say they know somebody like
that. Mr. Michael has changed my life.
Former Student
NC, USA
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The Michaels' recent
visit to the Kingston ghetto was featured on "The
Church and the Poor" on EWTN. Here, the
Michaels (with baby Joshua) spend time with Kay Ann,
an abandoned crippled girl in the MOP's Bethlehem
Center. |
"Mr.
Michael's teaching has provided me a firm base of learning in Logic
and Rhetoric...I use his
teachings everyday and the overall background that
he provided me with has helped me defend Christianity."
Former Student
NC, USA
"Mr. Michael is the kind of
teacher that we should be very thankful to have...It is so
refreshing to come across an educator who understands how
different children learn and progress... His love for God's
children and his desire to reach all students is an
incredible blessing to us all."
High School Mother
NC, USA
"I cannot tell you enough or express in the right words how much
we appreciate, and are now more at ease, this year.
Understanding what you are offering and knowing I am now giving
them just what they need, homeschooling does not feel so
overwhelming. Thank you for taking the time to bring this
treasure of the true classical curriculum back and thank you for
helping us to implement and understand it. I think I am getting
my sanity back."
Homeschool Mother
NC, USA
"I find it encouraging to know of
your work... so necessary for our times.
Many thanks for your ministry. May you be blessed!"
Seminarian
NJ, USA
My
family is thoroughly enjoying CLAA. Watching
my wife teach them and the CLAA forum has caused me
to become a Catholic revert. THANK YOU!!!"
Father
Missouri, USA
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