Eddie & Claire Speir

From The Founders

Inspiration Academy is a transformational school.  The first of its kind.  But before I explain what that means in a general sense let me explain our history.  Our history is as dynamic and innovative as our future.  Inspiration Academy was born in faith in 2013.   Claire and I had been living in Florida after selling our software business in Colorado to Accenture and retiring.  But, God had different plans.  Without any formal background in education, we felt called to start a school.  And so the adventure in faith began.  Faith is not knowing.  We didn’t know where we were going and weren’t sure why.  But, we came to realize that the new problems facing today’s younger generation required new solutions and a fresh perspective. Previous knowledge and experience would have in fact prevented innovative solutions to new problems facing this generation.

First, we observed the problems.  Today’s student becomes more and more fractured by numerous forces.  Perhaps the foremost fracturing we observed was from technology and social media that promises to be social but in fact causes the opposite.  This addiction can’t be overstated.  Second, we observed the transactional mindset that students had developed towards school and teachers.  What had once been designed to be an inspirational relationship between a teacher and a student within the context of a subject matter seemed to be reduced to a transactional arrangement of work for grade.  We also observed how extracurricular activities fractured students as well.  What was once an enjoyable activity such as sports or the arts becomes a consuming identity. The joy of performing from a place of acceptance had been replaced with the stress of performing FOR acceptance.

Then by faith, prayer and persistence, solutions began to reveal themselves.  The right people joined the team and the right strategies floated to the top one student at a time.  For five years no one could articulate what made Inspiration Academy so special, yet everyone knew that something special was happening.  Teachers, staff, coaches and students alike had been changed forever by the experience.  Mentorship had become the best articulation of what couldn’t adequately be described.

Now after many years we are better able to describe the fruit that this adventure in faith has yielded.  It is a transformational school. A school whose goal is the transformational development of a student’s mind, body and spirit.  A transformational school uses mentorship as a means to earn the right to speak to the heart of a student in order to individualize instruction and develop an intrinsic motivation.  This intrinsic motivation or “inspiration”, works from the inside out and produces winning habits of selfless, disciplined, authentic care for others.  Inspiration Academy stands in stark contrast to a transactional school, otherwise known as the status quo.  A transactional school is trasnscript-centric environment.  Teachers, coaches and parents all rally around what can be put on the transcript to tell a story that others want to hear.  Not that transcripts are bad or grades for that matter, they are important measurements intended to help navigate a path of character development, discovery and realization.  But somehow the image has superseded the reality and taken the place of preeminence in the minds of most institutional educators, parents and students. Grades and transcripts are just part of the peaceable fruit produced by a transformed life.  They are the simple results of good habits.

IA provides new solutions to new problems, delivered through seasoned teachers, coaches and professionals.  This combination has already achieved multiple accreditations and honors.  It also marks the distinction in our community that is so difficult to articulate but so easy to feel.  Come discover the difference a loving and caring community can make for your family.  Welcome to the Inspiration Academy Community!

Eddie & Claire Speir