Traditional Learning Academy now officially a Catholic school

Traditional Learning Academy has finally been recognized as the Catholic school it was created to be.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, and TLA founder Allan Garneau signed a declaration Oct. 22, officially identifying the school as Catholic after 28 years of faith-based teaching.

“Religion isn’t something we tack on to the end of the day. It’s something that guides all that we do,” Garneau told The B.C. Catholic.

Before he founded TLA in 1991, Garneau spent 25 years working as a principal and a teacher in the Vancouver school district. He left the public system over concerns about curriculum changes and how the system was treating families.

Once outside the system, Garneau said some Catholic families approached him and asked if he could start his own, faith-based school.

Garneau considered the idea. “I knew that not everything old was bad, so we started a traditional school both in the way we taught curriculum and in the way we taught the faith.”

TLA also began offering online support and resources for homeschooling families. But without official canonical approval, TLA couldn’t call itself a Catholic school.

That is, until now.

“[Archbishop Miller] has given us, now, that right to be called Catholic. He is quite confident that we meet the requirements and I’m just so grateful that he’s become a great friend of the school.”

Garneau said Archbishop Miller has visited the school several times to celebrate Mass with staff and to speak at graduation ceremonies.

There is irony in the fact that TLA has become Catholic late in life, said Garneau. So did he.

“When we started, I wasn’t Catholic. I married a Catholic. I have Catholic tradition in my family, but my dad left the Church” and didn’t raise him in faith, Garneau said.

While Garneau got the ball rolling on a traditional learning school, his wife Moira helped him build and run it on values he didn’t yet fully believe in.

Garneau would receive his first Communion and confirmation four years later, in 1995. It was the feast of the Immaculate Conception and came as a surprise to Moira. He hadn’t told her exactly why they were going to Holy Spirit Church in New Westminster that day until they arrived.

Moira died of lung cancer in 2004, and Garneau said, “She’s got a good seat to watch what we’re doing now and is very happy, I’m sure, that it’s happened this way.”

TLA has 200 students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. It also hosts an online school of 1,200 students (created in 2002), but that portion of its operations won’t fall under the Catholic label.

As a Catholic school, TLA is now free to associate with Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese and rely on their support and resources.

“We’re here to celebrate with them,” said Deacon Henk Luyten, superintendent. He said CISVA has always had a relationship with TLA, but official status opens up more possibilities.

Garneau noted the possibility that TLA will consider a name change now that the school can identify itself as officially Catholic.

There are now 52 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.