The mission statement “to cultivate the hearts and minds of scholars through the pursuit of the Good, True, and Beautiful” is what initially drew Jonathan Maiorano to Great Hearts. He shared, “I looked through the website for nearly three hours. It seemed too good to be true, a school dedicated to the joyful pursuit of the transcendentals I heard solely in the Greek dialogues of Plato and Socrates, and in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics in a community of learners? Then, when I interviewed with Jerilyn Olson in an Irish Pub outside of Princeton University on a cold Sunday evening, she asked to me teach her how to add fractions, despite her awareness of my major in Political Science, which both humbled and challenged me to communicate clearly and concisely!” After serving in a variety of positions at Great Hearts Northern Oaks, including 8th Grade History Teacher and Dean of Students, he is now serving as Assistant Headmaster of Student Culture. In this role, Mr. Maiorano shared that his most fulfilling moments come from curating experiences for teachers to pour into them and fill their cup -- as a kind of recompense for the countless ways they pour into their students. “It is a remarkable and humbling responsibility that one cannot take lightly.” Straddling the “two worlds” of the Assistant Headmaster role is challenging, he said, and in speaking with others about this balancing act earlier in the year, they have reflected on that many ways that the Assistant Headmaster must live in both the earthly realm of tests, deadlines, lesson planning, AM/PM duties, meetings, and STAAR testing, while also inhabiting a transcendent world of cultivating virtue and maintaining a vibrant culture of intellectually alive, morally grounded, and aesthetically attentive qualities within oneself and amongst faculty. “This is the great challenge,” he shares, “and right now, my goal is to continue to learn, craft, and hone the current work I do in the role. I am focused on better adherence to deadlines and recordkeeping. Most important though, is to continue to craft a love for an intellectual life that is morally grounded and attentive to the beauty of the world around us.”
