What is Classical Education?
A Classical Educational Model is grounded in Liberal Arts curriculum, focused on interwoven studies, with successive progression of the grammar, logic, and rhetoric learning design known as the trivium. Bishop Robert Barron in “Why the Liberal Arts Matter” defines Liberal Arts by the Latin word “liber”, meaning “free; free from utility.” In essence, courses in a Liberal Arts curriculum are free in and of themselves, designed to build upon one another, integrating concepts and knowledge from one course into others, one driving deeper learning into another through compounding thought, questioning, and understanding. When courses are taught independent of one another, not interwoven in content and deep understanding, while good, this model of coursework is used to achieve a narrow end, a utilitarian, niche objective. The Liberal Arts curriculum paints a broad brush stroke, using deep understanding across multiple subjects to achieve greater understanding and formation of the whole soul, not simply the logical mind. In utilizing the trivium phases of education, students are able to obtain, consider, contemplate, conclude, debate, and resolve information learned in a progressive and comprehensive method of understanding.
What is the Socratic Seminar?
The Socratic Seminar is a historical style for which smaller class sizes foster a collaborative learning environment, where students are consistently learning through conversation and enhancing communication and public speaking skills. Logical thinking and rhetorical practice is embedded in the humanities and science courses. Students are taught how to think, not what to think. The focus in forming the whole student -mind, body, and soul- lends deeply to small class sizes hosting intimate conversations between educators and student peers. Education is communication. Information is not simply consumed, but through conversation material is thoroughly considered and deeply understood rather than narrowly observed.