What is Classical Education?
What is Classical Education? Classical education is a liberal arts education rooted in ancient history. “Liberal", in this case, means “free”. Classical education prepares young people to live in freedom and independence, engaging them in the highest matters and the deepest questions of truth, justice, virtue, and beauty. Academically, a classical education encompasses:
- A content-rich, traditional curriculum, including the use of classical books and art
- Concentrated study of the core academic disciplines: history, literature, mathematics, and science
- An appreciation for--and study of--the visual and performing arts
- A strong emphasis on language, literacy, writing, and mastery of the English language
- Reading of the great books in literature and primary source documents in history
- Socratic teaching by kind-hearted teachers who are subject matter experts
The Classical Learning Model
Classical education is a conscious return to the ancient goal of education: teaching children to think and learn for themselves by imparting to them the tools of learning. The goal is to promote the type of inquiry that ultimately allows students to discover for themselves that which is true and beautiful. It is an approach to education related to the classical liberal arts and sciences tradition of the trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium was comprised of three basic tools of learning: grammar (the tool of knowledge), logic (the tool of reasoning) and rhetoric (the tool of communication and expression). The quadrivium encompassed the sciences—arithmetic, geometry, astronomy—and added music and the arts.
Classical School Teachers
Classical education requires teachers who are trained in the academic disciplines (literature, history, sciences, mathematics, etc.). Just like many teachers, our teachers love to spend time with children, they are kind-hearted, and they know how to manage a classroom. But subject matter expertise is also required. Our vision is to foster a faculty that is academically gifted and in full pursuit of intellectual interests, because these habits tend to positively influence scholars who are by nature inquisitive and look for role models to emulate.
Benefits to Students
Classical education focuses on the art of living well, where career or college preparation are by-products and not the ends of classical education. The goal is virtuous young adults who live not with historical or cultural amnesia, but rather with a sense of who they are in the context of human history. We aim for our students to know the story of our country, and to read and write with facility. We believe that young graduates who are able to use their knowledge of the past to make good decisions in the present and plan wisely for the future, will be in high demand and prepared to flourish.
Classical education is sometimes called “leadership education” because it builds skills needed for leadership, like logic, debate, public speaking, clear reasoning, researching, writing, and communicating. These skills are practiced in every subject (mathematics, science, history, geography, Latin, fine arts, and more), which prepares students to become leaders in any field they pursue. Classically trained scholars are often well qualified for future studies in law, medicine, business, engineering, technology, theology or any other professional or vocational pursuit.
Classical education is sometimes called “leadership education” because it builds skills needed for leadership, like logic, debate, public speaking, clear reasoning, researching, writing, and communicating. These skills are practiced in every subject (mathematics, science, history, geography, Latin, fine arts, and more), which prepares students to become leaders in any field they pursue. Classically trained scholars are often well qualified for future studies in law, medicine, business, engineering, technology, theology or any other professional or vocational pursuit.
What makes Classical Education so effective?
It is largely because of its approach to how and when students are taught. Regardless of their learning style, children learn in three phases or stages (grammar, logic or dialectic, and rhetoric), known as the trivium. In the grammar stage (K–6), students are naturally adept at memorizing through songs, chants, and rhymes. If you can get children in this stage to sing or chant something, they will remember it for a lifetime. In the dialectic or logic stage (grades 7–9), teenaged students are naturally more argumentative and begin to question authority and facts. They want to know the “why” of something—the logic behind it. During this stage, students learn reasoning, informal and formal logic, and how to argue with wisdom and eloquence. The rhetoric stage (grades 10–12) is naturally when students become independent thinkers and communicators. They study and practice rhetoric, which is the art of persuasive speaking and effective writing that pleases and delights the listener. Again, it is this approach to teaching students based on their developmental stage that makes this approach so very effective.
It is precisely this kind of education that has produced countless great leaders, inventors, scientists, writers, philosophers, theologians, physicians, lawyers, artists, and musicians over the centuries. Classical education never really disappeared, but it did diminish starting around 1900 with the advent of progressive education. In an effort to restore this most proven form of education, the K–12 liberal arts tradition has been renewed and expanded again over the last thirty years.
(Adapted from Classical Academic Press)
It is precisely this kind of education that has produced countless great leaders, inventors, scientists, writers, philosophers, theologians, physicians, lawyers, artists, and musicians over the centuries. Classical education never really disappeared, but it did diminish starting around 1900 with the advent of progressive education. In an effort to restore this most proven form of education, the K–12 liberal arts tradition has been renewed and expanded again over the last thirty years.
(Adapted from Classical Academic Press)
