Classical Christian education teaches the liberal arts and sciences—fully integrated with Biblical truth and wisdom—in order to cultivate discerning and eloquent men and women who know what they believe, why they believe it, and are fully prepared to be virtuous citizens in this world and the world to come.
We carefully match the student’s learning with their cognitive development, teaching from strength to strength, or “with the grain.” The trivium (Latin for the “where three paths meet”) of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric helps us to do so and provides a structure for students as they grow. The Grammar Stage teaches young students knowledge, taking advantage of their curiosity and wonder about their surroundings. The Logic Stage teaches growing students understanding and reasoning as they begin to ask important questions about the world around them. The Rhetoric Stage teaches older students discernment and wisdom alongside the art of persuasion.
We care deeply about the academic education we provide, wanting our students’ academic skills to be well-developed as they graduate and become lifelong learners. However, we are even more interested in the type of person a GCA student becomes—through a classical, Christian education—than in the academic education they receive. This shapes our academic approach.
We desire and teach beyond academic success to students who grow into wise, thinking men and women of virtue, who are curious about the world around them, who are able to discuss confidently-and kindly-the Gospel and scriptural truth. Students who have “rightly-ordered affections,” truly loving and desiring what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful.
We fully acknowledge and embrace the fact that classical, Christian education is different from mainstream education. However, while different, it is not new. It has a long, storied past that has withstood the test of time. We believe that as more Christian parents rediscover this method of education, our classical, Christian approach will deeply resonate with them: an educational partnership that enables them to shepherd their children well, fulfilling their God-given responsibilities.
