We are proud to announce our educational partnership with Army and Navy Academy (ANA) in Carlsbad, California.  A Middle and High School for boys, Army and Navy has become a Gurian Center for Educational Excellence.  Today’s blog post is about the school and its excellent programs.

Our Summer Training Institute is around the corner, June 21 – 22, 2025 on Zoom, with recordings available for three weeks in case you can’t come to the event itself.  To learn more and to register, please visit https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-summer-institute-2025/.  Now here’s more about Army and Navy Academy.

Army and Navy Academy (ANA) was established in 1910 to combine military structure with academic and athletic rigor.   It has since expanded to serve boys in grades 7 through 12.  While boys can and do excel academically in many types of educational institutions, it’s literature reads, the Academy is a unique environment that cultivates virtue in young men while propelling them toward excellence in academics, athletics, and leadership.

Once a school to which boys were sent “to get straightened out” as one press article in the 1980s put it, now, ANA has evolved into a premier school for boys without punitive association.  Most boys at the school are boarders, making the school a landing place for students from around the U.S. and abroad, which creates powerful diversity.  The boarding component also adds to the school’s ability to mentor boys into healthy manhood via a boy-friendly and safe developmental environment.

Army and Navy Academy offers exceptional teachers, rigorous athletics, and a nationally recognized leadership program. At a time when many boys are struggling in the classroom, the Academy employs evidence-based, single-gender education techniques proven to help boys thrive. Graduates of the Academy follow life paths informed by intellectual curiosity, earned confidence, and high standards of character. The Academy isn’t just a military school for boys: it’s a transformative step for any young man seeking greatness.

Over the last three decades especially, ANA has committed to leading-edge pedagogical education of boys and young men, utilizing Gurian Institute programming since 2014.  Boys in middle school and high school have educational needs that are not being met in most public and private school settings. The current generation of boys is falling behind in school, resulting in a crisis in higher education. We use relational teaching and highly structured classes to educate boys how they learn best.  Small class sizes and highly effective teacher-student ratios allow for fidelity of pedagogy, technique, and leadership to fit boys’ learning styles.

Fundamental Virtues

 As the Academy notes, a primary focus for boys’ transformation into good men is the moral virtue-component, which makes character development an essential topic in the school.  We aim to shape our students into ethical, responsible, well-rounded members of society. Virtues-based education helps young men to develop resilience in the face of life’s many challenges. We prioritize virtue in all that we do, a fact that is reflected in the environment of dignity and respect that pervades our campus. Our core values of Honor, Integrity, Gratitude, Compassion, Respect, and Responsibility don’t just guide our cadets: they are guidelines that help us all strive to uplift, serve, and inspire others. We teach our boys to live these values every day and in every interaction.

We are a certified kindness company, and our programming utilizes the strategies and outcomes of the Anti-Defamation League No Place for Hate program. Our commitment to cadet safety extends beyond physical security; it encompasses the emotional and social well-being of every member of our global campus. We live and are educated by a governing Honor Code: Cadets respect each other, they do not lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those that do.

We invite you to join us in doing our part to shape a world where human excellence is defined not only by achievement, but by character, where every individual is valued and empowered to contribute to a brighter tomorrow. Welcome to Army and Navy Academy, where greatness begins with virtue.

We hope you’ll learn more about Army and Navy on their website, https://armyandnavyacademy.org/.  As a Gurian Model School and a Gurian Center for Educational Excellence, the school is in constant partnership with the Gurian Institute.  We are honored by that.

The Gurian Summer Training Institute

To learn more about our Summer Training Institute on Zoom this June, and to register, please visit https://gurianinstitute.com/events/gurian-summer-institute-2025/.  For groups of 5 or more, please email Dakota Hoyt at info@gurianinstitute.com.  Participants will receive a certificate for 20 PD hours after the event.

To become a Gurian Certified Trainer at the event, please visit the Trainer Certification page on www.gurianinstitute.com then contact Dakota Hoyt.  Because they will participate in four extra hours of training on Monday morning, Certified Trainers will receive a Certificate for 24 PD hours.

We hope you’ll visit Army and Navy’s website and we hope you’ll join us at our Summer Institute!