Classical Liberal Arts

A classical education embraces excellence in human achievement. Such exposure to excellence gives witness to goodness, beauty, truth, and thereby, to God, and awakens in the student the deepest sensibilities to all that is noble and good. The Catholic classical curriculum follows humanity’s search for the truth, a search that finds its complete fulfillment in the Incarnation of the Son of God. The classical liberal arts curriculum at Regina Coeli Academy incorporates the three stages of the Trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Grammar is presented first, in kindergarten through sixth grade.

The grammar stage involves imitation, memorization, and practice, for which the young student is well suited. It emphasizes factual knowledge largely acquired through sensory experience. In the grammar stage, the child learns the structure, vocabulary, and rules of language, leading to habits of clear and logical thinking.

Next is the logic stage, presented in sixth through eighth grade. In this phase, the child is taught more by principles than by memorization, although the latter is always important. The student begins to think analytically in the language studied and learns the interrelations that exist among the principles of the various disciplines, leading to a good understanding of those principles. The study of formal logic is also included.

The final stage is rhetoric, or the art of persuasive speaking and writing, presented in the seventh and eighth grades. This part of the Trivium gives the students the opportunity to develop speeches for various audiences and learn well the art of written speech. Students begin to develop a voice to convey their views of the subjects learned.

From the Founding Fathers to the co-founder of Apple, America’s brightest minds and most influential leaders have all been educated with a classical liberal arts education. Regina Coeli Academy builds on that tradition – educating America’s next generation of Leaders.

Four years later Jefferson’s father died, leaving especial instructions that his son Thomas should receive a thorough classical education. In a letter to Jefferson’s biographer, Dr. Henry S. Randall, Colonel Thomas Jefferson Randolph, his grandson, writes as follows: “I have often heard him say, that if he had to decide between the pleasure derived from the classical education which his father had given him, and the estate left him, he would decide in favor of the former.” -Letters Of Thomas Jefferson Concerning Philosophy And The Classics. Edited By Thomas Fitzhugh, Professor Of Latin In The University Of Virginia.

“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough,” said Jobs at the end of the iPad 2 event. “That it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the result that makes our hearts sing.”

Articles:

Schools across the U.S. continue to learn what Regina Coeli Academy has known all along – Classically educated children are amongst the highest achieving students anywhere.

Classical Liberal Arts Notables:

Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Christopher Columbus, William Shakespeare, Sir Isaac Newton, The Founding Fathers, Cardinal John Henry Newman, Emily Dickinson, Abert Einstein, Ford CEO (Current), Bill Ford