Our Classical Approach
Our Classical Approach
Historically, classical education boasts more success in producing logical thinkers and productive leaders than in any other teaching method developed in Western civilization. From Socrates’ questions with students on a Greek hillside to the great thinkers of the Renaissance to the great universities established in the Great Awakening, the sequence of the trivium has delivered influential thinkers that positively shape history and culture on a worldwide scale.
All classical programs focus on a systematic procedure for teaching facts, logic, and rhetoric; Paideia Classical School intentionally adds the weight of committed, informed parents as the primary, deliberate influencers on young scholars.
Here at Paideia Classical School, the program exists to provide structure and content in the curriculum, along with support and direction for parents; the family remains the dynamic, life-giving, perspective-creating element that sparks enthusiasm and breathes vigor into subjects. No program or staff can equal the family’s effectual influence on children; Paideia Classical School therefore purposefully weaves the family’s interaction into each objective and goal.
The trivium of classical education is a three-part process:
- Grammar – Training of the mind begins in the early years of school. Time absorbing and memorizing facts in order to lay the foundation for advanced study characterizes this phase.
- Dialectic – Taking advantage of students’ natural critical thinking during the middle school years enables students to think through arguments.
- Rhetoric – Students learn to express themselves effectively, convincing others of their point of view.
Our Four-Year Cycle
Paideia Classical School uses a chronologically united approach to study history, humanities, and literature through a four-year cycle.
- Year One—Ancient Civilizations to the Founding of Rome
- Year Two—Rome to the Protestant Reformation
- Year Three—The Founding of America to mid-1800s
- Year Four—Modern Era
Educational Emphasis – Years One and Three emphasize reading classic works at every age level. Years Two and Four demand more student research and writing.
Students study the four year sequence three times at each level of the trivium. At the Grammar Level, teachers lead students to learn a plethora of dates, names, places, events, artistic elements, and stories. Dialectic Level students learn to discover the “why” and “how” elements of culturative history relate. At the Rhetoric Level, students write and speak persuasively to modern day issues using their vast understanding of history to formulate arguments.