Classical Education : Seven Hills Classical Academy : A Public Charter Elementary School that provides a classical education for modern times.

Seven Hills Classical Academy Statement on Classical Education

Seven Hills Classical Academy Mission Statement:

Seven Hills Classical Academy provides students with
a classical education in an academically rigorous environment
designed to promote strong citizenship and life-long learning.

A classical education at Seven Hills will be defined by the Seven Hills Classical Academy Statement on Classical Education which follows:

It is the desire of the Seven Hills Classical Academy Founding Board to articulate the principles of classical education that will be present at Seven Hills Classical Academy as a guide for members of the academy's community for the years ahead. Using the renowned Core Knowledge curriculum as a foundation, SHCA uses the following guiding principles in implementing a classical education:

The Seven Liberal Arts methodology of the trivium recognizing the foundational stages of grammar, logic, rhetoric, and the quadrivium of mathematics, music, astronomy, and geometry.
Intellectual rigor and mental discipline with the goal of wisdom and eloquence.
Character development through a focus on truth, goodness, core virtues, and beauty with the purpose of cultivating strong citizenship.
A focus on the origin and history of Western Civilization not, however, to the exclusion of other cultures nor to the emerging global culture.
High standards of academic excellence.
A community of learners where everyone is in the process of life-long learning.
A spirit of inquiry and intellectual curiosity.

In the classroom at SHCA, you will see the following implementations of a classical education:

The Core Knowledge curriculum providing a factual foundation for each subject in a content-rich, sequential, systematic and cumulative curriculum.
Study of classic literature and original texts leading into Socratic discussion.
Students making use of oral presentations to develop skills in rhetoric.
Focus on literacy based curriculum
An integrated curriculum across subject areas will be implemented. Writing will be featured prominently across all subject areas with utilization of technology resources.
Memorization of quality prose, literature, facts, dates, people and geographic locations from the Core Knowledge sequence.
Art and music theory as well as art and music appreciation and performance. Physical Education will be a valued part of the curriculum.
World Languages will be taught as a part of the elementary curriculum with Latin taught at appropriate grade levels.

The Seven Liberal Arts of Classical Education

The Verbal Arts (Trivium)

Grammar
Logic
Rhetoric

Math Arts (Quadrivium)

Arithmetic
Music
Geometry
Astronomy

The three levels (or developmental stages) of the Trivium are a little misleading. Grammar is not limited to “English Grammar,” but is better associated with basic facts and knowledge of any subject matter. All subject areas have basic information that must be grasped before an individual would be able to move on to the next level of competency.

The next level is Logic, or understanding. Once basic facts (or content) are mastered, one must understand how facts relate to one other and affect the whole of the subject. This is the stage where all the questions are asked: who, what, when, how, why, where, to what degree, etc.

Finally, after Grammar and Logic, the student is prepared for Rhetoric--original thought. Students at this level have mastered the basic facts, understand the relationships, and are ready to take the subject matter to the next level-forming their own personal interpretation or developing new applications. This is where problem solving and creative thinking emerge. In addition to developing these original thoughts, students are expected to be able to express them in a polished, well-conceived written or verbal format.

The Trivium roughly coincides to: Grammar grades K-6, Logic grades 7-9 and Rhetoric grades 10-12, although portions of each can be found integrated at all levels. The Quadrivium, or the study of “Math Arts,” is the study of individual subjects. This portion of study, while it may begin in the High School years, was traditionally relegated to the university.

Trivium: Grammar K-6

For centuries Classical Education was the standard. All educational institutions in the western world used this approach. About the turn of the last century, educational “fads” began to take over public education and the classical approach became passé. In 1947 a British mystery writer, Dorothy Sayers, wrote a short essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning" in which her major premise was that students/adults no longer knew how to learn. Schools taught in a disjointed, unconnected flow of facts, not giving the students a logical system by which to organize material and absorb it.

Here we will take a closer look at the Grammar stage. Dorothy Sayers refers to this stage as “Poll-Parrot,” because the students love to share what they have learned reciting back, singing little songs and jingles, rhyming words, playing on words as with Doctor Seuss and so on. They have a wonderful ear for words, which gives rise to their ability to pick up a foreign language. The Grammar student memorizes things very easily and quickly, such as math tables, the periodic table, biological classifications, and the Preamble to the Constitution. Anything presented in an interactive, fun method they will learn and love to parrot back. The excitement of learning literally oozes from these children. Our job as educators and parents is to cultivate this passion for learning and not to extinguish it by rushing the studet into the next stage.

Trivium: The Logic or Pert Stage

In about the seventh grade, the student enters into the Logic, or as Dorothy Sayers would say, the Pert Stage. The student is no longer interested in just learning facts, now he/she wants more. Students want to go deeper into the subject: what, who, where, how, why of a subject. They are no longer content to just know about the Civil War. They want to understand the issues leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter. They want to understand the economics of the war, the state rights issues, and the moral and legal factors that came into play. What was General Lee's strategy at Gettysburg? Why did General Sherman burn everything on his march to the sea? Why did some people hate President Lincoln? As you can see, they ask a lot of questions.

Often times this questioning or, as it may be interpreted, challenging, may come across as being disrespectful. In the hands of a wise teacher the pert stage is very exciting. A teacher must recognize this for what it is; the student has moved on to the next stage and is asking to go deeper. The teacher must respond and change the goals from "the student will know and be able to answer," to "the student will understand and be able to explain." This is not only challenging for the teacher but is extremely rewarding. Students are excited because this is the dawn of a new learning stage that is different, and the teacher is responding to this new demand for additional information. A rich partnership is forged between teacher and student and a new ownership of his/her education is accepted. If this fire is fed properly, students will thirst for new material.

It is during the Logic Stage that a curriculum of formal logic is introduced. This has all but disappeared from today's classrooms. We have established Logic as a formal course in our seventh and eighth grades. The desired outcome is clear: logical thinking and the ability to separate truth from fiction and fact from theory. Students will also discern what does and does not support an issue and what is relevant and is not relevant in making a correct decision.

Trivium: Rhetoric - The First Harvest

It is during the Rhetoric Stage, or as Dorothy Sayers would say, the Poetic Stage, that we get our first glimpse of the fruits of our educational efforts. In this stage, students now hopefully express themselves in polished, well thought out, grammatically correct, spoken and written verse. The Rhetoric Stage should demonstrate the subject content from the Grammar Stage and the organized thought process from the Logic Stage and introduce the first signs of mature original thought.

Of all the stages this has to be the most exciting! We are waiting expectantly for our students to bring forth new insights to ordinary subject matter we had previously overlooked. Creative thinking, new approaches to old problems that provide more effective answers, may change the way we think and do things. Remember, creative thinking, problem solving, and new applications do not spring forth from a void but come from the foundation of content and organized thought (grammar and logic).

It is here, for the first time, that students are able and allowed to begin the process of specializing in subject matter of their interests. This does not promote the total elimination of social studies from the science/math student or visa versa. Nor does it permit the students to ignore the finer points of the spoken and written word. But, if a student's interest and ability lies either in the math/science or the liberal arts areas, an emphasis in that area is encouraged. The Rhetoric Stage climaxes with graduation.

For a newspaper article on Classical Education please click here.