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Orthodox Christian Parenting, hosted by Faithtree Resources Executive Director (and mom of four!) Michelle Moujaes, is a weekly podcast for parents and grandparents navigating the holy struggle of raising kids in the Orthodox Faith. Each episode offers honesty, encouragement, and practical wisdom from the Church—creating space to exhale, freedom from the pressure to be perfect, and openness to grow as you raise children who are deepening their knowledge and love of Christ.
Welcome to Orthodox Christian Parenting, where we bring the church's timeless wisdom into the everyday chaos of raising kids. I'm Michelle Moujaes and today we're talking about education, but not the way the world usually talks about it. We're not talking about test scores, college admissions, or finding the right school. We're talking about something much deeper, something the church has always known but that our culture has largely forgotten. And that's that education is not just the transfer of information, it's the formation of a human being.
Michelle Moujaes:And that changes everything about how we think about our role as parents. Whether you homeschool, send your kids to public school or private school or something in between, this conversation is for you. Because no matter where your child sits during the school day, you will always be their primary educator. And the question isn't just what are they learning? It's really who are they becoming?
Michelle Moujaes:That's what we're exploring today with someone I'm honored to call a dear friend. Before we jump in, don't forget to download the free digital discussion guide linked in the show notes. It's designed to help you go deeper with your spouse, a friend, or other parents in your parish community. Okay. I am so thrilled about this conversation because my guest today is someone who has genuinely changed the trajectory of our family.
Michelle Moujaes:Liz Caddow is the founder and head of school at Trinity Classical Academy in Valencia, California, the school our own children have attended. And I need you to know, the level of conviction that we have about what Liz has built is real. I mean, my husband and I used to drive a 160 miles a day every day so that our kids could be part of this community. 160 miles. And eventually, we just picked up and moved to be closer to the school.
Michelle Moujaes:That's how deeply we believe in what this woman has created. Liz didn't just start a school. She built a community grounded in the conviction that children deserve an education that's rooted in beauty, truth, and goodness. One that forms them into the kind of people who love what is worth loving. She's a mom first, and everything she's built has come from that parent's heart, a deep, fierce, intentional desire to raise children who know who they are in Christ.
Michelle Moujaes:Liz, welcome, and thank you so much for being here.
Liz Caddow:Thank you.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. So I just wanna tell our audience everything and give them a sneak peek, but I think it would help us to start first and have a moment to talk about education as formation. I've heard you talk about that a lot. So what does that term mean, education as formation?
Liz Caddow:Oh, well, that is a great question, and thank you for having me.
Michelle Moujaes:No. I'm so excited you're here.
Liz Caddow:An education really is a transforming process for a child. And, honestly, what we're talking about is when we're educating a person, we're talking their heart, mind, and soul and transforming them or helping them be transformed and who they're supposed to be in Christ. And education, yes, is about knowledge and gaining knowledge, but it's knowledge that can lead towards wisdom. And does that help with one's virtue and who they're going to be as a person in what it ultimately means for them, say, at the end of their formal education. But we know as adults now that we're always learning, we're always learning and transforming, hopefully, in who we think Christ is calling us to be now at this stage.
Liz Caddow:So it's an ongoing process of transformation.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. I love it. This is one of my favorite stories is when you talk about when you actually realize like, wait, this doesn't seem right. Like, education can be more than this. This is kind of incomplete, and you decided to start a school.
Michelle Moujaes:Can you just share with us that whole backstory and kinda how you ended up to where we are today?
Liz Caddow:Oh, well, that is a a gracious question to ask. Well, where we are today is a result of, goodness, going back and pursuing my master's in credential after my undergraduate degree, knowing that I needed to what I felt was respond to a call out of obedience to the call of teaching and a heart for teaching. Plus I wanted to possibly, if we were to have children, teach maybe where they would be going to school. And through the process that I was in and the program that I was in at the University of Southern California, there was an individual, doctor Rosier, who came and spoke to a theory class I was taking about the school she had started for her son who had severe learning needs. And it was the first time it dawned on me, you can do that.
Liz Caddow:You can just start a school. And, honestly, I I think the Lord laid it upon my heart at that time as a seed, like, yes, that is something you can do. And then I started teaching or student teaching actually in our in the public schools, through the degree program I was in. And I found myself thinking, what is going on? There's so much lacking in what children needed to know, not only intellectually or academically, but spiritually, relationally.
Liz Caddow:And so I found that grievous, but we knew I wanted to be a teacher. We started teaching out in the local public schools where we were living and preparing to start a family. And as we the Lord in his graciousness, let us start a family, I thought, what will we do for our own children? And I knew I needed to do something different. And so the option for us, we felt like was to do something about it.
Liz Caddow:And so I started researching how we could possibly start a school.
Michelle Moujaes:And then now today, how many oh, first of all, how long ago was that?
Liz Caddow:Oh gosh. Well, we just celebrated our twenty fifth anniversary with serving students as a school. But Wally and I took a couple of years prior to that to research and determine what would be the best model. And then, of course, the steps, the the baby steps to go about how you actually start a school or open a school.
Michelle Moujaes:Because that's like I mean, you just started a school. That's a big thing. How how many families do you serve now? You have how many kids that attended the school?
Liz Caddow:Gosh. We have 520 students Beautiful. Pre k through twelfth grade. And then, of course, we're also grateful to serve our independent learning community through Libertas Preparatory School, the Christian homeschool community.
Michelle Moujaes:You also serve the Imago Dei students, which is kind of a school within a school for those with special needs.
Liz Caddow:Yes. So I always include them in my larger number. In larger? Great. Yes.
Liz Caddow:Because our Imago Dei serves our students on the developmental delay spectrum. And gosh, we started that, I want to say, 11 ago now. Yes.
Michelle Moujaes:If Yeah. So you have you have a full opportunity for all different kinds of learners, homeschoolers. You have families coming from far kinda like we did. So for anyone in our audience who's listening and going, oh, that's great. So you wanted to start a school, so you just did that, but I don't really have the opportunity.
Michelle Moujaes:Or, you know, so many of our listeners have children that are in public school systems or in in school systems that may not be aligned with the Orthodox Christian perspective, what would you say to them? How would this, apply for them if they're not ready to go and start a school? Right? Is there still work that they as parents can do? And if so, what is that?
Liz Caddow:I would say, don't be discouraged. There are a multitude of things that they can do even while their child is in the system they might not be, appreciating. They can do their own research related to related to what books that they think they should be reading. If they think that they have a heart for Christian education and or classical Christian education, check out the various websites related to what are other schools doing for their students at certain ages when it comes to supplementing maybe what their student could be doing. It would require and it does require parents to be ever so vigilant related to especially if they're in the public schools to see what it is that they are reading, to engage in the conversations and help their student have conversations, making sure that they're having conversations with their student regarding what is being talked about Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:Or not talked about, and actually do the work to see, well, what should I be making sure my child needs to know that they're not getting, especially if they're maybe going to pursue Christian school or private school in the future? What do they need to be doing now to make sure that their student has an understanding for materials or a bigger picture that they might not be receiving.
Michelle Moujaes:I saw one family at Trinity, when their kids graduated and went to I think it was a Catholic college, but they were reading some things that were very much out of alignment with this family's idea of what was kosher. So
Liz Caddow:At the college?
Michelle Moujaes:At the college. Yeah. They were reading like I mean, I don't know if it was like communist manifesto or something that was a little bit like out there for this family. And what the dad did was he told his daughter, so here's the deal. You have all these dual credits.
Michelle Moujaes:You either have to opt out of this class or I'm gonna read the book with you, and we're gonna talk about it together as you go through it in your class because he recognized that there was a bit of a I wanna use the word dismantling, but there was this kind of assault on everything they had known to be true and had taught their children, and they didn't wanna just throw her into the mix without having that conversation. I thought that was a really good way to kind of balance.
Liz Caddow:Oh, very much so. And even I'm one of my great privileges in what we do as a school is I I get to teach our honors government class. And one of the things that we do and make sure is I have different speakers come in that have, say, instance, grown up under communism or experienced that. And they go through the points of what the communist manifesto and a variety of documents of that nature have to say so that then we can have the conversation about it and put some some tools around it that are helpful for them to understand as to why maybe that isn't a good idea.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah. Didn't work ever. Yes. Well,
Liz Caddow:and has. It never has.
Michelle Moujaes:The thing that I really love is it's not really prescriptive what I hear you saying. It's more about framework. So it's more about, okay, if you're a kid like, I know I went to Catholic school for a hundred years. Like, I think for the better part of fifteen years, I went to Catholic school from when I was little all the way up. And one of the things that my mom was very intentional about was sitting and making sure that we had conversations about why don't we take communion when you go into a Catholic mass during school?
Michelle Moujaes:What is it that they believe that's different? So what I hear you saying is we have to be pretty intentional about having the ongoing investment and conversation to kind of walk with our kids really intimately as they are in any learning environment. Like, we can't take that for granted. Is that right?
Liz Caddow:Correct. And even when they don't necessarily want to engage Yeah. With us, it becomes just a continued conversation. And one that as parents, we have the responsibility to have and the ongoing privilege to have, and we need to to utilize the time that we have. I I would strongly encourage parents that are in the government schools to also get a handle on what curriculum they are using, what will they be doing and utilizing in the grade ahead of them.
Liz Caddow:Get that information ahead of time. Also, again, find out what some other schools are going doing that maybe they think are excellent schools and try to get a handle on what they could utilize to help, like I said, supplement. But also if they are in the government schools to ask to sit in on the classroom, ask to be present and to make their presence known.
Michelle Moujaes:I love that. Hard to do.
Liz Caddow:Hard to do. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:And But necessary.
Liz Caddow:Necessary, and don't take no for an answer.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. So that actually brings, like, a really good question, which is if parents like, maybe they're not gonna go sit in the classroom, maybe they are, but how can they actually bring that pursuit of learning into the home? So let me get specific. So I know in classical education, which Trinity is a classical Christian school, and we talk always about this diet of truth and beauty and goodness. And, you know, the four pillars of the school are virtue, wisdom, purpose, and courage.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes. How can a parent support that kind of conversation? So, yes, being involved in what's happening, like, don't get to opt out no matter where you are. Like, even at Trinity, you know, we don't take for granted all of the reading. We wanna know and be engaged.
Michelle Moujaes:Like, you've taught us to do that. But how else can they bring it into the home? Like, what are the ways practically that parents can walk alongside their children in the learning?
Liz Caddow:Well, like you were saying, have discussions. And for our family in in all the busy busyness that we had and everyone was in sports and all the things, we still always had dinner together. Mhmm. Unless there was like a game that night, but we that was a priority for us. And we talked about what they were doing in the classroom and conversations that were occurring.
Liz Caddow:Mhmm. Sometimes sometimes my son would say something and Hannah would go, mom's right there. Know. We would laugh we would laugh hard. She's ahead of school.
Liz Caddow:Stop talking. Don't say that part, but just and engage. And also as parents, we can read what they're reading.
Michelle Moujaes:Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:We can also watch maybe a good episode of something, a movie that's related to something they're meaning and reading and have conversation. You can read articles. You there's there's so many things that you can do as a family. Also, time for that if everyone's you know, if there's certain parameters in the home around electronic devices and how much television and or not or where your children are doing their homework. Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:We did not do homework in the bedroom with a shut door. All homework was done at our dining room table for everybody as well as phones were not anywhere near. Well, we didn't really do the phone thing till our students our kids were older.
Michelle Moujaes:Older. But Let me let me press in on this because I can't be the only person feeling this. I I definitely feel this, but I think probably many in our audience do. What if you don't feel qualified? Like, there's this feeling about like, hate it when my kids ask me to help with math homework.
Michelle Moujaes:No clue? Go ask dad. 100% not my gig. But I can also feel that with some of the conversations where if I'm meant to be shepherding them and taking them in Christ likeness and leading them towards a life where they are pursuing being like him, what if I'm not the expert in that area? How can I loop in and sit at the dining room table?
Michelle Moujaes:Is it just a matter of trial and error? Are people coming to you to ask about, okay. You just taught them about this council of Nicaea, and I don't know anything the council of NYSEA. Like, what does it look like when a parent feels like they're not equipped to be driving that conversation? Which I think is why a lot of us really look to the schools as such a a leader in the formation of our kids' education.
Michelle Moujaes:Because just like math, I don't know anything about the councils. Does that make sense? Did I make
Liz Caddow:sense for that question? Well and again, I always joke. I I would I would never hire myself at our school. I'm grateful for the multitude of of excellent and qualified faculty and team members that we have. But I also think in all humility as parents, gosh, we probably never feel
Michelle Moujaes:Ready.
Liz Caddow:Qualified. Yeah. And why we need to just continue to go before Jesus, hopefully in all humility related to any given day. I know that our own for instance, for our own school that if a a parent were to call a teacher and say, can you help me decipher this a little bit so I can speak to it a little bit better around our dinner table. Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:I I my faculty would be like, no way. Yes. Would love to I would love to share with you a little more information. But as parents, it's also okay to say, I don't know. Let's find out together.
Michelle Moujaes:Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:I I had to do that a lot with our youngest. So we have three. Right? My our son and two daughters. And we are on the other side of our parenting.
Liz Caddow:I have, well, the two little grandbabies, right, with my oldest. So grateful for our community and who he chose to marry.
Michelle Moujaes:He married someone from school. Married someone from school.
Liz Caddow:And so now there's lots of relationship there. But and then our so my oldest and and middle are out and doing what they feel the Lord is calling them to, but our our youngest is a junior in college at Wheaton. And so there's still lots of conversation there. And again, just like, you know, I don't know, Lily. Let's let's find out together.
Liz Caddow:And that's okay. And that also builds relationship with our children. And then they also see that we are always like, question earlier, we're always being formed and hopefully transformed in the image of Christ. And if we as parents can show and as adults can show humility in that we still have things to learn as well, then our children can come to that table and that feast of learning with that same kind of humility and hopeful desire, like, I don't know. And I might not have it figured out or I might even fail in the process of trying to figure it out, but I'm gonna try.
Liz Caddow:So I just think it's all it's all connected. Our culture at large thinks education is about knowledge and what college and, you know, what kind of job they're going to have. And, yes, that hopefully is becomes an outcome of it, but it's not the main fruit. The main fruit needs to be who who who are they in Christ? What kind of person are they, say, when they get to college, if they choose college?
Liz Caddow:Are they seeking the good life? The light which means to live the good life, a life of virtue. Mhmm. To truly be happy, one must be virtuous. And what does that mean?
Liz Caddow:I love processing that with my honors government class when we talk about the unalienable rights. Right? Right to life, liberty, property. Jefferson changes it to the pursuit of happiness, but what the founders meant by that had to do with virtue.
Michelle Moujaes:K. Well, tell me. What is virtue? Like, process that with us.
Liz Caddow:Oh, gosh. Well, what do you think it means to be to live a life of virtue?
Michelle Moujaes:So I'm not gonna speak for all Orthodox Christians right now. So whoever's watching this and if you're a priest, be gentle with me. But I think virtue is really pursuing Christ likeness.
Liz Caddow:Yeah. You know? All of
Michelle Moujaes:all of the gifts of the spirit that you hear about in Galatians, the 70 times seven that we forgive. It's all of those things that bring us like Christ, patience, peace, kindness, gentleness, self control. Those those virtues that lead us more into thinking, doing, being more like him.
Liz Caddow:Well, yes. And it's interesting because one of the I hope it's okay that I keep talking about my class.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah. It's great.
Liz Caddow:It's great. One of the very first things we do in my honors government classes look at a painting. It's an allegory of the good good government versus bad government by Ambrosia. And it's on the it's a fresco on the walls in Siena in one of the special buildings in Siena. And the good government is has the all the virtues sitting properly in their place, faith, temperance, justice, peace, like all of it.
Liz Caddow:It shows how the city prospers when those leading are valuing those
Michelle Moujaes:Things.
Liz Caddow:Those virtues and what happens. And then on the other side, it shows what happens to the city when the leaders aren't living out of that and virtuous, and then tyranny takes over and justice is bound and all those things. So it really is about that when it comes to one's education. Will it lead towards that as it relates to being a a virtuous person? And then, of course, for us at our school, we talk about virtue, wisdom, purpose, and courage because you can't all those things are connected.
Michelle Moujaes:That actually gives me okay. I'm gonna just drill down and make sure I'm understanding this right. So we're saying that pursuing those virtues as opposed to pursuing what the Orthodox would call the passions, which are things like and for every virtue, you pretty much have a
Liz Caddow:Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Corresponding passion. So if your virtue is humility, then a corresponding passion might be pride. Right? Okay. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:So what I hear you saying is, as parents, if we're really looking for education to transform our children, the most important thing that we can do is walk with them in the pursuit of those Christ like virtues.
Liz Caddow:Mhmm.
Michelle Moujaes:So is that fair?
Liz Caddow:Well, yes. And then hopefully, their education in partnership with parents and say the school. And we always say it takes the church, the the school I'm sorry, the church, the family, and the school as it relates to the three prongs of a stool and what is needed to build a good life and to form our students. So all those being necessary for leading towards, you know, the good life and what a person needs to have to live that way. And plus, an education needs to help us know those things that are worth knowing
Michelle Moujaes:That's
Liz Caddow:right. And valuing. And in the midst of our education doing that, then we also have to be exposed to those things that aren't good, say, or aren't worth knowing so we can say, no. That's not that's not for me. That's not what I need to be pursuing.
Liz Caddow:I mean, one of the reasons why we do formal logic in eighth grade for our students so they can begin to decipher how to understand what's coming their way when it comes to fallacies and forms of distraction and, you know, understanding how one has to think to know that, oh, that argument is true and value valid and or not as opposed to our current culture that just is overwhelmed by everyone's emotions. And emotions run their decision making as opposed to, oh, hold on. Yes. I might be feeling this way about the something, but how do I need to really look at this issue and
Michelle Moujaes:put it in its place?
Liz Caddow:Yes. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. That's great. So there's actually that's a learnable skill. You can learn how to think through whatever it is is what you're saying. Right?
Liz Caddow:I yes. Well, I I we would hope that that's part of our the process in one's transforming education. Yes. And or not be afraid to learn how to think about that.
Michelle Moujaes:Mhmm. Mhmm. Mhmm. I love it. So what role would you say community plays in that?
Michelle Moujaes:And especially as we are looking at forming our children. I know I mentioned in the intro and and you know this to be true, but Walid and I felt so strongly that whoever our kids spent the majority of their day with would likely have a pretty big impact on who they became. And and also with families. It was really important to us that we were kind of walking hand in hand with like minded families because, you know, it's a whole thing like your kid's only as safe as their best friend's phone or whatever that adage is. That So was really important for us.
Michelle Moujaes:And the community that you've created, I know has been very intentional at Trinity, but can you tell me why you did that? Like, as you were creating Trinity, what part does community really have in the forming of our children?
Liz Caddow:I was saying earlier, it takes the church and that's your church community and understanding God's word, your family and a strong family system and one that's wanting to pursue what God and Christ would have for them. And then the school because so our students spend a great deal of time in their learning environment. All those have to be pointing the same direction at our school. For instance, we have 85 plus churches represented in our student body, but we're able to do that because we all affirm and agree the essentials of our faith as believers and that we account for in our statement of faith that we ask families to sign and agree to. So in that sense, they're coming in with their children and that's forming our community.
Liz Caddow:But community's very important. And also knowing that there's no perfect community Mhmm. And because there's no perfect children or grown ups.
Michelle Moujaes:Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:And so how do we navigate in an imperfect community and work through conflict biblically and graciously because there'll be conflict.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. For
Liz Caddow:sure. But that also helps our children know how to do that for when they are adults.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Liz Caddow:You know, you don't just cut people off. You Jesus doesn't do that to us. Mhmm. So, yeah, community is, yes, is very important, but that's a part of it. We ask families to and it's important then also for our families, like your families watching that might not be in a Christian community for their schooling for their children, all the more reason to be highly connected to their church community, to be finding ways for their children to engage with other believers.
Liz Caddow:And again, also making sure someone's processing what is coming their way Mhmm. In the classroom and things like that.
Michelle Moujaes:That's really good. Because what I hear you saying is there's dissonance. If if all three of those are not aligned, the church and the family and the school, there there's gonna be some friction. Mhmm. And so having an active, I don't know, what's the word, discussion on where that friction lies to keep everybody kind of pointed in the same direction, which you said, which I love that.
Liz Caddow:Well, because there can even be in that kind of environment. There can even where everyone is of of really like mind, like values and all that, there still can be friction and and challenge. But Yeah. Because we're all, you know, children of the king and we agreed to be in relationship with him and others, then that means we work it out a certain way too. Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:You know, through conversation, forgiveness, all those things.
Michelle Moujaes:Alright. Let's get practical. How can parents actually evaluate what their children are absorbing? So not just academically, but in terms of, like, the stories that they're being told by the world or what matters or what success looks like. Like, I know what I love about Trinity.
Michelle Moujaes:It's like, great. You went to an Ivy League. Good for you. Great. You're a sports hero.
Michelle Moujaes:Good for you. But that's not the endgame. And it's so clear in the Trinity community that what we're really pursuing is relationship with God and others. And so how can parents kind of gauge? Like, are we kind of educating them in the way that is focused on the great commission, the great commandment, like who they are as human persons.
Michelle Moujaes:How would they know that?
Liz Caddow:Yes. Well, I do think in great part it has to do with one, the people around them. You were mentioning this earlier, like our community is important. Well, I know for myself and even still, like, if our mission is to pursue, right, part of our mission to raise up this generation, classical Christian education, to produce young men and women of virtue, wisdom, purpose, and courage. That means if I'm influencing young men and women, and that's our mission, I always have to be in pursuit of virtue, wisdom, purpose, and courage Yes.
Liz Caddow:Per what we're saying, which most days, I I might get a big fat f.
Michelle Moujaes:You know? Me too.
Liz Caddow:Me too. But hiring people and that want that want to pursue those things as well, that that's a value to them. Because if they're going to be teaching and serving children, then they need to, to the best of their ability, be trying to grow in those things as well. So who's around them is very important. And then also, I think for parents who might not be in a a Christian education system to, again, find out the the best schools by them, what they're doing, maybe curricularly and things like that because there is something about what we do with our students, what we're having them read and discuss and write about that's influencing their heart and mind Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:For who they're gonna be.
Michelle Moujaes:Yes. And Actually, one of the best examples that I've seen at Trinity, but I think most classical schools do this, and maybe you could just share it with our audience. You have students from the time they're very small reading through scripture in tandem with history. So, like Oh, yeah. The two go hand in hand so that you can see how God has placed himself Mhmm.
Michelle Moujaes:In history. Tell us about that process because I think that's a fascinating way. I would have missed it if it wasn't for you in the school. I would have been like, oh, that's a thing to do. I never would have thought of it.
Michelle Moujaes:But tell us about that process, how it really does shape who they become by what they're engaging with in that content.
Liz Caddow:Yes. Yes. So what happens for us in the sense of their formal scope and sequence. Second through sixth grade students are working their way through from Genesis through Revelation. Along with that then, they're studying the aspects of history that might relate to that.
Liz Caddow:So when they're covering Genesis in second grade, they are working through the Egyptians. Right? And then then they march through the gospels, and they're covering, you know, the Romans and Roman history. And then at modern times, for instance, in sixth grade American history, within sixth grade, they're finishing up through the gospels and, you know, getting to revelation. And then the whole cycle repeats itself, seventh through twelfth grade, as well as the whole historical timeline.
Liz Caddow:Mhmm. So as they are finishing up certain aspects of the gospels, they also are doing honors government, apologetics as seniors, and, of course, their senior thesis and things like that that influences all that that has influenced them is a direct result of really what they think they wanna write and speak about for their thesis.
Michelle Moujaes:I love it. I love it. It's so intentional.
Liz Caddow:I do think that. I do I in all my years of education and when we were looking at what kind of school, when I came across this classical Christian model and a couple of schools that we're doing in, I heard about it, I I like, that's it. This is it. It's for every child. It is so important, as it relates to the kind of person, they will be, what they'll be able to know, the influence and difference that they could maybe make.
Michelle Moujaes:In the world. I love that. Tell me what fruit you've seen from the kids that I mean, you've had how many graduating classes at Trinity?
Liz Caddow:Oh, yes. Right? This is our fifteenth graduating class.
Michelle Moujaes:That's awesome.
Liz Caddow:And that we have 426 alumni around the world and in our country. So that's pretty pretty great. Amazing. I I can't believe it. But the fruit that we
Michelle Moujaes:work? For parents out there who are great. It sounds awesome. But what did it work? I can tell you my experience because I have two that have gone through that.
Michelle Moujaes:But you tell us what you've seen.
Liz Caddow:Oh, well, I I I would love to hear your experience.
Michelle Moujaes:My kids okay. So my two oldest who completed the entire run at Trinity have gone out into college, and I would say they're in pursuit of the good life that you said. Not perfectly. I mean, we fall down every day, lots of conversations even with, you know, your adults in college kids, but they have a real security in knowing what are the important things. Mhmm.
Michelle Moujaes:Not that we don't get distracted by all the bells and whistles of life and not that they don't have, a million fall downs and get back up again. Not that they don't struggle, but they're not really afraid to say what they feel. They're not really unclear about what they feel or think or what they are in pursuit of. And the gratitude that that Walid and I have is that the world that they have kind of been swimming in the waters of has prepared them to know that it's something much bigger than themselves. Mhmm.
Michelle Moujaes:And I would say also that they've really tapped into what's the purpose? Like, what did God create them and put them on this earth for? Right? Because it was obviously he created them on purpose and for a purpose. Absolutely.
Michelle Moujaes:So what are they gonna do with it? And so that would be, I I would say, the fruit in our family that's most exciting. Like, again, they're still as distracted and struggle in a million different ways, but the ones that felt most important for us that formed them at their core who they were, I think, they were well served to be kind of immersed in that environment. So is there any other fruit that you've seen from your graduates that
Liz Caddow:Oh, yes.
Michelle Moujaes:Lets you know it works?
Liz Caddow:Yes. Yes. Well, first, I just wanna say, I so remember meeting you the very first time.
Michelle Moujaes:We're like a crazy family who came in. Everyone was melting down crying. I'm like, we're never getting into
Liz Caddow:this No. You came. No. I do remember. And you driving so far.
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, yeah. So far.
Liz Caddow:I I remember that. This family's going to drive from Porter Ranch? Yeah. Yeah. So Totally worth it.
Liz Caddow:Yes. But I remember because you had spoken about the experience that you had had. Yeah. Oh, we
Michelle Moujaes:had a crazy school experience.
Liz Caddow:So Yep. That you could come and find a place that you felt would be a good a second home for your student, for your children.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Liz Caddow:That's one of my continues to be one of my greatest joys and privileges in serving children is just seeing them develop over time and and and including my own children who had to navigate through this process. Mhmm. And and the the ups and downs of it. I think sometimes parents think, well, one gets surprised by the bump in the road. And I'm like, oh, waiting on.
Liz Caddow:You haven't even started junior high. Yeah. Yeah. You know?
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Liz Caddow:And then then there's high school. So it's like the the bumps in the road relationally, in academically, all the things physically. And and and it's a process. It takes the whole time. And and the fruit of that I see is often, especially when students come back to us and visit, which is always a joy, is gratitude.
Liz Caddow:Mhmm. They feel grateful for feeling prepared and able and that they will often say they felt that they had, through our process, found that they had more capacity.
Michelle Moujaes:Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:And then they go off and they to school, say, and often to university. Most of our students choose that. And they are like, I'm I'm crushing it here and I'm trying this now. Mhmm. And or I'm working and doing this because they have
Michelle Moujaes:a
Liz Caddow:they have found that they have a wide capacity. But they also, in that, seek community and that they know they they're looking for a community that will lift them up Mhmm. Because I think that's what they've experienced with us. They also then I just was at a a baseball game. One of our alumni who also married each other Okay.
Liz Caddow:Were there, and they're pregnant with their second. And I'm like, James and Beth, what are you guys doing here? And we're like they're like, well, we just love coming. Wanted to come to support.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Good.
Liz Caddow:I was like, I love that.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Caddow:Yeah. So they are doing those things that, again, relate to living the good life, and family and relationship and the things that that matter or or also like give life. And it doesn't mean we strike, what is it, A 100 every time or something?
Michelle Moujaes:I think you said it to me once. We're sliding into home on our face. Oh, usually. Yeah.
Liz Caddow:Yes. This time of year. Absolutely.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Caddow:And often, you know, but we're sliding.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah.
Liz Caddow:And we're gonna keep going in the right direction. In the right direction is all we can do and then help and also to lift up and encourage our students at any stage. Like, you know, it's okay. We'll we'll get there. Parents need encouragement.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. They sure do. Because I think so many of us feel like we're doing it wrong or it's not gonna be okay. So I love to hear you say, like, bumps in the road. Like, let's expect those and let's work through them together.
Michelle Moujaes:But I do feel and and I know our audience feels fear is a big part of it.
Liz Caddow:Well, yes. And also too for parents, I would encourage them, you know, don't don't necessarily try to smooth the bump.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay. Tell me what you mean by that.
Liz Caddow:Well, let your student experience maybe the full effect of a relational choice they made that wasn't good or or a choice that impacted how they did on a test or a bump with a teacher. Mhmm. You know? Because there's a dynamic there that isn't quite perfect or maybe the student and the teacher don't always agree or get you know? But there there's still a relationship there.
Liz Caddow:Like, I and also that for this generation of parents, don't try to make it so there's no bumps.
Michelle Moujaes:Right. Right. Right. Right.
Liz Caddow:I know. It's
Michelle Moujaes:We do do that though.
Liz Caddow:It isn't life.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. That's right.
Liz Caddow:And, you know, they need to experience that as well.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right.
Liz Caddow:And our, you know, our adult children that are in college. Right? And then they have to do their journey.
Michelle Moujaes:That's right. Do you think there's anything that you would offer to parents who might feel like it's too late? Like, they started too late. They didn't go through classical school. They kinda protected from the bumps.
Michelle Moujaes:Is there any hope that we can offer those parents?
Liz Caddow:First of all, we are hopefully living in Christ, so there's always hope. That's right. Even those moments where we're we feel a little despair, it's like, no. Jesus isn't going to keep us where we are. And, yes, that means maybe it means doing something now
Michelle Moujaes:Right.
Liz Caddow:To either build relationship or to help your your child learn something that would be helpful to them. But not yeah. It's it's never it's never too late. And for instance, we'll have students come at different times all the time in our education journey, whether it's third grade, kindergarten, third grade, maybe sixth grade, maybe seventh grade, maybe ninth grade, even tenth grade, but they're seeking more and they want more than we we help navigate that.
Michelle Moujaes:Mhmm.
Liz Caddow:Might be a little harder, but that's okay.
Michelle Moujaes:But it's not too late. Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Liz Caddow:Okay. It's never too late.
Michelle Moujaes:It really is never too late. I know sometimes we feel like it. You know?
Liz Caddow:Think that way for us.
Michelle Moujaes:For us. That's right. Sometimes we do get fearful thinking that the race is over, but the race is never over till it's over. So I love that. Alright.
Michelle Moujaes:So I'm just gonna ask you. If you could tell us what are you most excited about right now, like in work or in your family, or what are you seeing God do that does give you that hope? Oh. Because I think we all spend so much time saying, oh, the world is upside down, which okay, the world is upside down. It's always been upside down for two thousand years.
Michelle Moujaes:But what what gives you a lot of hope that doesn't feel so doom and gloom?
Liz Caddow:Well, the world has always been upside down, and every generation thinks it's the worst for them.
Michelle Moujaes:Right. Right. Right.
Liz Caddow:Right. And but God through all of time is still who he says he is. He's not changing. Jesus Christ was born and raised and died for us so that we could have hope in salvation. So there's always hope.
Liz Caddow:And for the things that I'm most excited about, even in all the challenges in crazy California and everything is that there are families that want to pursue, say for instance, what we're doing as a school with their children. I feel grateful for what the Lord's doing in my family. In light of the last couple of years, I feel just extremely hopeful for our family and what's next. And just, you know, to continue doing what the Lord calls us to, hopefully being faithful and useful till he takes us home. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:I love it. I love it. Do you have time for just a few listener questions? We get Sure. Viewers send in questions.
Michelle Moujaes:So let me just read them to you. James in Chattanooga, Tennessee has two sons, 12 and 15, and he asked us, my boys are smart and they do well in school, but I've noticed that their idea of success is almost entirely about grades and getting into a good college. My wife and I want more for them than that, but we don't even know where to start that conversation. How do you begin to shift a child's understanding of what education is actually for when the whole system is telling them something else.
Liz Caddow:Our culture at large says it is about those things. And I even know, like, grades, success, college, work after college. And I know culturally, even as Christian parents and all of that, that's a that is a thing. Mhmm. Right?
Liz Caddow:Because we do want that for our children. But what what are we really supposed to be about? What are the things that matter? Mhmm. So there are things they can read, conversations they can have.
Liz Caddow:My goodness. There's service opportunities. There's other things they can do to help. They're not gonna shift if they're at a a certain school where that's what they talk about or that's the competitive edge, say, in a public environment or something like that. But they can they can shift the conversation in their home, Cause that's ultimately what matters.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I think I think also being mindful how we as parents get sucked up into that. Yeah.
Michelle Moujaes:I remember when my boys were applying for colleges. I'm not doing all that nonsense. I'm not hiring people to tell us how to write essays and all that stuff. They're gonna apply to college. And when they get in, then they get in.
Michelle Moujaes:And God willing, it will be a great match. And then it came, and I was like, oh my gosh. How's your resume? What are you gonna do? Like, where are we gonna apply?
Michelle Moujaes:Let's go on a tour. Let's do and you get sucked in.
Liz Caddow:And Yes.
Michelle Moujaes:Not that there aren't good parts about going through that process and walking with your children to find a good place for them, but just keeping everything in its place, think, is something that we as parents have to pursue first and foremost if we want our kids to.
Liz Caddow:Yeah. And I think it's just hard as humans
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah.
Liz Caddow:Yeah. For us because we do that with other things as well. Yeah. And it's just constantly either being reminded or bringing it back to Jesus related to that. And ultimately, which is hard for us to do is just, you know, our labors rest in him and he has a plan not only for us, but for our children.
Liz Caddow:My our verse in our catechism for my class, the last thing we say is and I always say best verse ever in Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope. That is for them. That is for us. That's for my five year olds and my seniors.
Liz Caddow:It's for he he has that for everyone. Mhmm. So how do we rest in that as we try to figure things out for our kids?
Michelle Moujaes:I love it. K. Three fill in the blanks, and then we'll let you go. The biggest mistakes parents make about education is oh, I know. That's a trick question.
Michelle Moujaes:I didn't give you any prep time.
Liz Caddow:No. The three the biggest mistake, I think it's letting when when you have options that you can choose as parents and you let them choose.
Michelle Moujaes:Meaning the kids? Mhmm. Or the schools really.
Liz Caddow:That's what I mean. You let them choose, like, the school environment they're going to go to. Okay. Meaning as in their formal education. I'm not talking university level
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Liz Caddow:Because that's a conversation, obviously. But I think that sometimes
Michelle Moujaes:Taking the lead on it is really important. Mhmm. Okay. I love that. And thinking through intentionally, what are we going for?
Michelle Moujaes:And what's gonna get us there? I like And that
Liz Caddow:your kid have the bumps.
Michelle Moujaes:And there's bumps. Yes. Okay. The thing that changed everything for you as a parent was?
Liz Caddow:Couple of things. One, becoming a parent and being a teacher in the local government schools going, k. We're we're we really need to do something different. So I'm grateful the fact that I got to be a parent and then the Lord has allowed this. And the other thing that I would do differently as a parent a second time around is especially for and it's the advice I give now to my mothers at school that have rising logic schools and high school students is that moms need to decrease and dads need to increase when it comes to their sons.
Michelle Moujaes:That's so good. Wait. Let me say it back. Let me say back.
Liz Caddow:I don't know about that.
Michelle Moujaes:Going into high school
Liz Caddow:Going into junior high.
Michelle Moujaes:Into junior high and high school, moms need to decrease and dads need to increase for
Liz Caddow:their sons. Dads need to take the lead on everything for their sons. That's so good. And moms need to back off and and be quiet. Oh,
Michelle Moujaes:wow. Sorry. Wait. No. That's so good.
Michelle Moujaes:But can you just say why? I mean, I have three boys and I moms know
Liz Caddow:can do the things that, you know, help us, help them. I knew for my son, I needed he always needed three lunches, basically.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah. There's have an
Liz Caddow:extra one that all the things he needed for his sports and and things of that nature. But I would have mister Caddow do all the conversations with the teachers. He would do the bring down the consequences and the discipline, and I would do that better next time around. I that's what he did, but I still would try to interject.
Michelle Moujaes:That place. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Caddow:And say, woah. What about this? What about that? And and sometime and it wasn't helpful, and it and ultimately, it wasn't helpful for my son.
Michelle Moujaes:Interesting. I love that. That's not the one I would have expected, but I I mean, I think it's true for so many of us because
Liz Caddow:Well, and moms need to let their boys fail and not try to baby them. Mhmm.
Michelle Moujaes:So true.
Liz Caddow:Am I gonna get in trouble?
Michelle Moujaes:No. I'm sitting here judging myself because it's really hard. It's really hard.
Liz Caddow:It's very hard. It's hard for us as women.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. And it's really hard. We've talked about it on the show a million times. When our children are in pain, it's almost more than we can bear. Mhmm.
Michelle Moujaes:I hate it when my kids hurt. Mhmm. And I almost would do a lot of things to stop it.
Liz Caddow:Especially moms with their sons.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Mhmm. Yikes. Okay. But I like it.
Michelle Moujaes:Let's just say it right. Alright. Here we go. Last one. If listeners could do one thing after this episode that would really help use education to form the hearts and minds of their children, what would you say it is?
Liz Caddow:Well, gosh. It depends on where they're at.
Michelle Moujaes:Okay.
Liz Caddow:But, you know, I would I would just say continue as parents to grow and learn in those things that you think your child needs to grow and learn in Mhmm. Especially in the younger years as they move through high school. And I know that's where I spend most of my time is, right, pre k to twelfth grade. So just continue to to do that and educate themselves and be willing to learn with your your child, your student. And, yeah, I think that is part of it.
Liz Caddow:It's such a
Michelle Moujaes:stay engaged. Don't advocate your role.
Liz Caddow:Yes. Yes. Well and I'm not sure totally where your community is on this, and I and I I see it more and more, which I feel encouraged about keeping their teenagers off social media. Mhmm. And when they say everyone has has it or has a phone, not true.
Liz Caddow:Mhmm. There's more and more parents waiting till that. I always laugh about my son. It was his junior year. He did get a phone.
Liz Caddow:And I I will say this publicly because we say it out loud and we laugh about it now, so I feel okay saying it.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Caddow:But after a couple of times of it accidentally going off or going off in his backpack, because our phones phones cannot be on in school, backpack, and it ended up in missus Massetto's desk.
Michelle Moujaes:The principal. Okay.
Liz Caddow:Yes. She called dad because that's who she needed to call, and he just said, keep it.
Michelle Moujaes:Yeah. Good. I love it. That's it.
Liz Caddow:Good. She kept it the whole year. That oh, really?
Michelle Moujaes:Oh, That's good. That's good. I love it. We we talk a lot about technology and what we call the digital tsunami here at Faith Tree. We do a lot of work around that because we know what impact it has on our children.
Michelle Moujaes:But listen to this cool story from Trinity. So last year, my daughter was in seventh grade and I was actually invited to run one of Faith Tree's small group curriculum on teen mental health for all of the moms and the girls. So we were meeting with them all the time. And the reason that they had asked to do that was because there had been so much success with the boys. Oh, how it started.
Michelle Moujaes:The boys, the dads got them together. And one of the dads who's a pastor led them through this, like Right. This group, and they collectively, all of the men made an agreement with the other dads and their sons that they would all hold off on phones together until high school, which, I mean, that makes it so much easier on
Liz Caddow:kids
Michelle Moujaes:when you have a community of people who are kind of working through it together. So that was a really big one. Yeah. That was great.
Liz Caddow:That was good.
Michelle Moujaes:Where can people find you and learn more about the great work being done at Trinity Classical Academy?
Liz Caddow:That is gracious of you to ask. Yes. Well, we are at trinityclassicalacademy.com, and we're located in Santa Clarita, California.
Michelle Moujaes:Lots of good things happening.
Liz Caddow:Good thing. I'm grateful. I feel very grateful.
Michelle Moujaes:I'm grateful, my friend, and I'm grateful Thank you. For you being here with us and taking your time. And thank you for being here with us as well. Here's what I want you to take away from today. Whether you homeschool or your kids are in public school or private school or anything in between, you are your child's primary educator.
Michelle Moujaes:That title doesn't belong to any school. It belongs to you. And the question we're being invited to ask isn't just what are my children learning? It's who are they becoming? And are the environments that I'm placing them in helping them become the kind of people who love Christ and love his holy church?
Michelle Moujaes:You do not have to have it all figured out. You don't have to be doing any of it perfectly. But as we heard from Liz today, you just have to be awake and intentional, and that is enough to start. Don't forget to download the free digital discussion guide in the show notes so that you can keep this conversation going at home with your spouse or a friend or others in your parish community. Until next time.
Michelle Moujaes:Hi.