Welcome to The Oaks

In 2016, my husband and I prayerfully considered founding a school in Amarillo. In the fall of 2017, we hosted our first informational meetings at our dining room table before a local bank offered their building to accommodate the crowds of curious parents and teachers. In the fall of 2018, The Oaks opened its doors to 75 students in preschool through 5th grade. Today, we host more than 300 students through 12th grade in three separate buildings in southwest Amarillo.

Our family longed for a learning community that might help us keep a different pace of life. We wanted to preserve time for reading great books and pursuing learning in a joyful and integrated way. Yet we saw curiosity, deep thinking, conversation, and creativity wane when we drifted toward overcommitment and fragmentation. We wondered if we could teach our children the phonograms, math facts, and latin vocabulary while preserving a pace that allowed for depth and wonder.

Soon, we discovered that our questions echoed the questions of thousands of parents in America. In 1980, parents in three different states founded schools within one year of each other. All were dedicated to the restoration of Classical Christian education in America. Today, there are over 700 Classical Christian schools in America seeking to recover a time-tested way of educating students and nourishing souls.

Historically, this path was simply called education (educare, “to bring up, train, or nourish”). For millenia, great thinkers and leaders of the West were formed in virtue, coming to love what is lovely as they studied the liberal arts of language and mathematics, the sciences, philosophy, and theology. At the time of our nation’s founding, this was the primary form of education. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, progressive education replaced the ancient path with a new model that focused on building workers for the workforce. Classical Christian education begins with the end in mind, keeping first things first by helping students cultivate the habits that lead to virtue and ordered loves so they will be practically prepared for any vocation they might pursue.

Trusting God to provide, our visionary board members and pioneer staff and families founded The Oaks in Amarillo in 2018. We continue to trust Him as we learn and grow together in joy, wisdom, and excellence. It is my honor to have served at the helm of The Oaks since 2018. I hope to meet you at an informational meeting this year!

Heidi Hickman
Head of School