Annual School Motto

In keeping with school tradition, rising LCHS seniors compose an annual motto before the start of the school year.  The effort is typically led by the School Captains.  In crafting its motto, each incoming senior class aspires to foster a unifying sense of family for the whole of Liberty Common School spanning grades k-12.   The annual motto is embraced by the faculty and administration.  Copies of the motto are posted in every classroom and meeting space on all campuses.

 

By the time seniors cross their graduation stage, they have spent a full school year animating their noble theme.  Thusly, when printed on their graduation-announcement cards and commencement-ceremony programs, the motto fittingly captures the true character of the class and sums the quality of an entire school year for all Liberty scholars and the school’s greater community of parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends. 

 

Lambent mottos inspire when applied elegantly to those capable of breathing life into hopeful words.  Tightly aligned, they become fixed like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for a blessed family.  Setting common virtue to poetry, mottos define the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of the origin of these things. 

 

Please see below Headmaster Schaffer’s guidelines for composing Liberty’s annual class mottos.

The 2025-26 school-wide motto, designated by the senior class, is PRŌ PERMANENTIBUS. This Latin phrase translates to “For What Lasts.”

 

This motto encompasses what we strive for in each aspect of our lives.  Through our relationships, our hard work, our community, and our education, the class of 2026 seeks things of permanence—things that are deep and enduring.  This short yet powerful phrase embodies the true reason we are receiving an education and the meaning behind a school like Liberty:  To hone our characters and our souls.  It compels us to not merely strive to become great, but to strive towards the things that are greater than ourselves.

 

We choose these words as a reminder to all students and faculty we are here for something that lasts, the true gifts that can withstand the tests of time.  These words also serve as a message of encouragement to our class that the intention and effort we give now leads to lasting beauty, lasting joy, and lasting growth.  Through times of hardship and times of success, we endeavor to act upon this motto and found our lives upon the high call to truth, beauty, goodness, and wisdom.

 

The values and mission of Liberty aim to imbue in students permanent characteristics which will remain beyond graduation—the character virtues we are surrounded with, taught about, and learn to live by are the most clear examples of these lasting effects.   By practicing these virtues now, we will forever be empowered to act with fortitude in the face of asperity, justice in the face of iniquity, and cooperation in the face of quandary. 

 

The year our class will walk across the stage is a significant one for the nation as a whole.  2026 marks the 250th year since liberty was established as a core value of America, penned into posterity with the Declaration of Independence.  The very name of our school incarnates the hopes our Founding Fathers had for the people of this country—that through common knowledge and critical thinking, a democratic society would persevere.  The elevated education at Liberty Common School strives to promote these values in students in order to raise up successive generations of citizens well-prepared to carry forth the torch of Liberty.

 

The relationships built within our strong Liberty community are meaningful and commendable.  Mentorship thrives at Liberty.  This is, in part, thanks to our dedicated teachers, administrators, and staff, who pour their energy into both teaching and caring deeply about their students.  This environment of companionship—fostered by our Houses, our mentor groups, simple peer-to-peer interactions, and the enthusiastic engagement of our teachers—perpetuates throughout the student body.  Many are generous with their talents, empathy, and time, working to serve others within our community.  When hardship strikes, as it invariably does, we come together to provide support and comfort.  We strive after these relationships, because they, too, are what lasts. 

 

Our hope is students and faculty will carry this message with them and continue to live by it always.  As we set out into an uncertain future, it is easy to be swept away by things that appear good but hold no enduring value.  Take care to remember the virtues we are being taught and to nurture the relationships we are creating, and live “For What Lasts.”

It is important the considerations going into selecting annual mottos ensure the annual motto is meaningful, timeless, mature, and aspirational – in other words classical. The motto should resonate clearly when stated in Latin or Greek, as well as English; and, it should reflect well the character of the Senior Class.  It should attempt to inspire all others in the school.  From my standpoint, the better mottos are simple, powerful, motivating, classical, etc.  I’d like for subsequent LCHS classes to shoot for mottos of similar caliber and economy of words.  Lyrics from popular songs, for example, should be ruled out of the question.  The mottos chosen must be as meaningful and impressive at the 40-year class reunions as they are upon graduation. 

 

Selecting these mottos earlier gives us (on behalf of students) a chance to fold the motto into class recognitions – for example, yearbook pages, class t-shirts, class rings, patches for letter jackets, locker decorations, and other school artwork.   If the motto is confined to a few words, we could even consider having it printed upon graduation stoles similar to “First Graduating Class” which we had applied upon the stoles for the Class of 2013. 

 

Each year, the motto of the Senior Class will become LCS’s annual school motto.  In this way, the school will be able to utilize the motto on documents, publications, electronic displays, and other materials upon the beginning of each school year. 

 

Bob Schaffer, Headmaster