What is Christian, Classical Education?

The Classical and Christian approach to education is about equipping children for the future with what has been successful in the past.  This country’s founding fathers received a Classical education.   This approach does not discard everything about contemporary education. 

The Classical approach to education is an alternative to other educational teaching.  It has an approach to learning, an approach to the subject, and a set of subjects that is distinctively unique. 

The approach to learning corresponds to the way children’s minds develop—their mental abilities at three basic, progressing stages.  For example, the elementary children absorb facts, facts, and more facts whereas the capacity for formal reasoning develops at junior high age.  Emphasis on rigorous mental training is an important difference between Classical and modern, progressive education.  Classical education puts young minds to work to acquire skills and gain knowledge.

The approach to each subject breaks the subject down for full comprehension.  Classical education wants those fully educated to have a mastery of more than the facts; good students know the underlying principles and concepts through which they are equipped to apply and evaluate issues that arise in all of life.

The set of subjects traditionally include Latin, logic, and rhetoric (i.e. the art of speaking and writing clearly and cogently).  Students study traditional liberal arts in an orderly, integrated approach; subjects such as language, literature, math, history, sciences, music and art.  The purpose is to introduce students to the masters of language so they will begin to emulate them.  (Or, “you are what you eat [read]” or “garbage in—garbage out”.)       

Under the Christian approach to education, the lordship of Christ over and in all of life must be evident throughout the curriculum—not a mere Bible class or indoctrination of Bible content.  Biblical truth needs to be the fixed point of reference in Christian education.  Classical education provides the methodology and core context and subject matter. 

Why is The Classical Academy of Naples distinctive and needed?  Why CAN and not others?

The Classical Academy teaches phonics reading, a time-tested method of teaching reading.  Other schools in the area teach sight word reading (a.k.a. Whole language).

The Academy is not simply a private version of public-school with a Bible class or weekly chapel tacked on. We’ll tackled the tough issues through the Christian perspective and use the Bible scriptures to illustrate godly character/virtues.  We’ll contemplate and discuss Mortimer Adler’s “Great Ideas” in our conversations. Ideas such as: wisdom, virtue, beauty, truth, justice, freedom, glory, and honor to name a few.

The Christian approach to education is not values-neutral.  Neither is the teaching in all other schools:  someone’s values get through one way or another.  Schools are places where children are inescapably trained in some view. 

The Academy leaves the religious questions entirely up to parents.  But, we believe in virtuous training.  Every young person has a conscience.  We encourage students to emulate moral virtues of those about whom we read.  We show that actions have consequences and there is a clear difference between right and wrong.   

The hybrid program guarantees that the parent is integrally involved in teaching education, as well as the world and life views of the parent.

We believe that the role of the teacher is to be a model, mentor and instructor, not facilitator, which marginalizes the role and responsibility of the teacher. Each student is unique and, therefore, our smaller learning environment will strive to meet the needs of our students so that they reach their fullest potential.  The classrooms are small, leading to an environment where a student feels safe and valued and where achievement is expected and encouraged.   

We are teaching our students how to think, and gain a deeper understanding and perspective of the world.  We develop the students’ questioning techniques through Socratic discussion and effective communications training.  The training leads to independent and sophisticated thinking. We shape and cultivate the mind to reason and think, leading to a wise and virtuous student.  We believe that only upon knowledge can creative potential best be realized and self-expression most fully developed. 

Our classroom environment:

• Develops the fullest potential of each student
• Moves learners on a continuum from dependent to independent learners
• Empowers students to be more effective at the higher levels of performance
• Instills the love of learning
• Values scholarship