Announcing the 2025 Great Hearts Bard

As a classical education model, Great Hearts holds high esteem for Great Books and works of poetry. This love of the language arts was celebrated at the annual Great Hearts Bard finalists competition that was held last week in the Marley Center for Performing Arts at Maryvale Prep. 12 finalists, ranging from grades 3rd through 5th, recited a piece they had been rehearsing and reciting for the last several months, in front of their families, friends, faculty, and a panel of judges. Ultimately, it was fourth grader Lia McArthur from Archway Chandler who was named the 2025 Bard. McArthur took center stage with her winning recitation of Act 4, Scene 3 from “Romeo & Juliet” by none other than the original Bard himself, William Shakespeare.

“The Great Hearts Bard competition started several years ago as a way to honor the pride of place of language arts, particularly poetry,” explained Cammie Passey, Director of Lower School Curriculum for Great Hearts America, who served as one of the judges at the final competition.

Passey explained that the students who compete as finalists at the regional competition have competed and won at their school level Bard competitions. “Students who participate in the Bard competition are judged on a set of criteria that’s taken from the Poetry Out Loud criteria. So, it includes stage presence, it includes their ability to present the poem as a as a piece of poetry rather than a speech or acting.”

“They’re also judged on their accuracy,” added Passey. “We have a judge that is separate from the rest of us who is judging accuracy to ensure that they say all of the words.” That accuracy judge was Taylor Saar from Maryvale Prep, who served as the Bard coordinator this year.

The judges panel also included Great Hearts Arizona Superintendent Brandon Crowe, Executive Director of Lower Schools Leanne Fawcett, and Vice President of Academic Achievement & Accessibility Heather Washburn. “Another criteria is just the general impact of their delivery of the poem,” added Passey. “So, they receive scores in these specific categories such as presence, and pacing, and their voice, and then we give them an overall all score that has to do with the impact of their delivery of the poem.”

Passey said the judges felt McArthur’s stage presence was particularly strong. “She had a command at the stage. She had eye contact in a way that was appropriate to the piece that she was performing,” explained Passey, who added that it wasn’t just that McArthur knew the words. “She had an understanding of the passion and the pathos of the of the piece that she was performing. She really owned it and… that really stood out in her performance, that she understood what she was saying.”

“I feel like I chose this poem because… it had a lot of emotion in it.” said McAthur, who will be going on to recite her winning piece at several Great Hearts events over the next year until the 2026 Bard takes over next spring.

River Taber from Archway Trivium earned the runner-up position for his recitation of “How the Great Guest Came” by Edwin Markham.

“This was a tough competition this year,” shared Passey when asked about the difficult task of judging these exceptionally talented finalists. “It usually is because the students are just phenomenal… it’s a feat of memory and a feat of courage for these students to show up and perform the way that they did. It was high quality, high caliber students this year.”

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