What is a Classical Education?
Until a century ago, “classical education” was what every school offered. A shift occurred when countries began relying on schools to program their citizens, job-train them and compete with other nations. We seek to return to the foundations laid that fostered wisdom, virtue, true creativity and the living of a full life.
Hallmarks of a Classical Education
Reading directly from primary sources and classic works instead of a reliance on textbooks.
Engaging in Socratic conversation and listening to dynamic lectures, led by a well-formed teacher.
Relying on tangible material items — paper, pencil, books — instead of a digital environment.
Delighting in education for its own sake, rather than simply for the purpose of college acceptance or a good job.
Learning Latin and thereby fostering discipline, grammatical precision and enhanced vocabulary.
Seeing and integrating the relationship of various disciplines.
Fostering a love of the transcendentals — unity, goodness, truth and beauty.
Recognizing the importance of being outdoors, both for study and for recreation.
Cultivating a sense of “restful learning” by plunging deeply into knowledge with joy and wonder.
“Seeing reality as a whole and living wholly in it.” – Frank Sheed
What is a Catholic, Classical Education?
Fiat Classical Academy rejoices in the gift of faith whose light transforms our approach to learning. Although we have designated theology classes, the study of God isn’t relegated to one period a day. Rather, we see theology, the queen of the sciences, as the study that unites all knowledge. From noticing the principle of order in mathematics to the beauty of art and music to the wonder cultivated in natural science, our origin in God our Creator is the source of everything.
We have been gifted tremendous intellectual riches in the Church that we seek to share with our students. Young men and women at Fiat Classical Academy will encounter St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Hildegard of Bingen, St. John Paul II and many others.
While some see the faith as a hindrance to freedom of study, we recognize that the faith is what allows us to see reality as it truly is and to plumb the depths of it. It gives us the right lens, the proper worldview, with which to study reality. St. John Paul II said, “Life with Christ is a wonderful adventure,” and we recognize this to be true also academically.