Mary Patricia Rogers
about the teacher
Born and raised in a rural farming community in Texas, Mary Pat had ample time to observe and ponder, and it was this upbringing that first taught her to ask questions, even if only silently. She took her Master of Arts in English from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas and her Bachelor of Arts in English and Writing from McMurry University in Abilene, Texas. While at the University of Dallas, she instructed college freshmen in the seven arts of language: grammar, logic, rhetoric, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Mary Pat has also taught at the mid-school and high school levels in both Texas and New Mexico. She currently has six years of teaching experience. Her favorite courses to teach are in the field of rhetoric.
In addition to classroom teaching, Mary Pat has over three years of experience training and mentoring classical teachers as the Rhetoric School Director at a classical school in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her research interests include both rhetoric and silence, as well as Early Modern British literature. She lives, along with her husband, two children, and a German Shepherd who thinks he’s a cat, in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of Northern New Mexico. She thoroughly enjoys cooking, watercolor painting, and fern spotting.
Teaching Philosophy
As a Christian classical teacher, it is my joy to help students unite Truth and truths to deep meaning. I wholeheartedly believe that affixing meaning to learning’s abstract intellectual work bridges the space between head knowledge and practical action. Yet, a classical education applied to the rhythms of daily life runs the risk, as C.S. Lewis says, of producing “clever devils.” And so I take seriously the charge that I am not simply teaching mortal minds for finite purposes, but immortal souls for eternal purposes. Conveyed truths, especially those animated by meaning, are dangerous because while every soul rejoices when confronted with the truth, each also has the ability to diminish and twist those truths. Therefore, my first aim as a teacher is to do my best to learn about my students’ souls and teach Truth and truths with the full knowledge of mankind’s capacity for good and evil. My courses are structured around truth and meaning. The content presented within is simply the vehicle, chosen for its beauty.
Statement of Faith
I boldly affirm both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds and hold to the doctrines and moral teachings of historical Christianity. As a child of God, I am deeply in awe of the simplicity and sweetness of the Gospel. I attend Christ Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America.