Dan Teller is no stranger to education. He knows and embodies learning born of joy and aimed at the discovery of the hidden riches of God and every human person. His married life with beloved wife Maureen and his extensive background in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, which is a Montessori-based, Catholic religious formation program, make him a perfect match with the mission and vision of Fiat Classical Academy.

Early in his career, Dan taught at North Avondale Montessori for nearly a decade. As he was a recent convert to the Catholic faith, he nurtured a desire to serve in a faith-based setting. After a brief tenure at a traditional parish school, by God’s providence, he was able to open Queen of Angels Montessori to answer his desire to integrate the Catholic faith with the Montessori method. Today that school is called The Good Shepherd Catholic Montessori (GSCM). Key to the school’s unique mission is that the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) is fully integrated into the Montessori school. Dan has been involved with GSCM as founder, principal, catechist, facilities manager, and middle school woodworking teacher. Now retired from GSCM, he continues to be a formation leader for CGS around the country and abroad and to volunteer as a catechist in homeschool cooperative and school settings. 

One does not have to scratch very deeply below the surface to discover the abiding similarities between Fiat Classical Academy’s classical Catholic approach to education and the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. 

In classical education, we strive to read directly from primary sources–the authors of the ages–and to draw out student questions and ponderings in Socratic discussion. In CGS, catechists break open Scripture quotes and the words and gestures taken directly from the Liturgy in order to ponder their depths and to call forth the response of the child. 

A watchword of CGS is “Relationships bloom in peaceful spaces” (www.cgsusa.org). At FCA, intentional relationships are a hallmark of the commitment expressed in one of our vision pillars: Encouraging Encounter.

The aim of the prepared environments of CGS is contemplation and enjoyment of God. One of FCA’s four vision pillars is Cultivating Wonder, in which we acknowledge that “Education is a contemplative endeavor… When our students more deeply receive the gift of the world, they delight in it and are led to offer their gratitude to the Creator.”

Given all these similarities, it is no surprise that a man whose decades of dedication to Catechesis of the Good Shepherd would not hesitate to join the Fiat Classical Academy Advisory Team. 

It was years ago that the dynamic creativity of Maureen, professional dancer and art educator, met Dan’s intense and purposeful commitments… but the fruits of that meeting for the Greater Cincinnati Region continue in abundance. Not only did they marry, then raise and educate seven driven children (among them two Dominican priest sons), the couple also helped found a regional Catholic arts endeavor called The Angelico Project… but that is a story for another day. 

It may all seem like silver linings, but Dan has known disenchantment, and he has been a seeker. In fact, his search is not over. He hopes to find answers to his current concerns such as how “high school education in our culture is fairly anemic.” He remarked that “Every year it gets more and more urgent… there is no sense of objective truth, no sense of earnest dialogue… our society is losing the ability to engage in reasonable debate.” Things like great literature can answer those concerns because, he believes, the characters therein give the archetypes for living a great life. 

So we are grateful that he was willing to join Fiat’s Advisory Team because we have begun to answer some of those questions with the lived experience of our Fiat Classical community. We are a school that believes in the great words of theology, literature, history, science, and mathematics, but above all in the Great Word Himself who equips us to dialogue in a meaningful way. 

“I was excited about the mission (of Fiat Classical Academy) and the people carrying out the mission,” Dan observed. “I feel like our culture is losing the Western tradition and it needs to be instilled in people that this is good, and true, and beautiful.” He sounds like a man that could have written our mission and vision statements… and we consider ourselves blessed to have him on board.

– Kate Iadipaolo