Why Choose a Classical Curriculum?

Jesus Christ is truth personified. Encouraging children to seek truth, goodness and beauty in all things will ultimately lead them to walk with Christ. At Saint Paul Catholic Classical School, our fundamental tenets are faith, wisdom and virtue; the development of these tenets in our students helps build a foundation in Christ while providing them an enriching education. As you walk through our halls and visit our classrooms, you will see beautiful works of art on the walls, the great books on our shelves, and thriving gardens outside our windows. The Catholic Classical student is curious, asks questions, and approaches the exciting journey of learning with a sense of wonder.

In addition to the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty, a classical curriculum includes the liberal arts: grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, and Latin. The focus is less on learning facts and memorizing information for the purpose of achieving acceptable grades on standardized tests, but more on learning how to learn, how to think deeply, and how to seek out solutions to problems. Critical thinking and curiosity is encouraged. The "great books" are celebrated and devoured. The study of Latin isn't just about learning the language, it's about learning its connection to the Church and to other languages. School subjects are integrated in a holistic way.

A true Catholic education does not present facts AT students; it encourages students' curiosity. It helps students build habits of inquiry regarding the most fundamental questions in life, therefore, the idea of Catholic classical education follows a different path.  It is not linear.

You learn because the more you know about God’s created world, the more you know who God is, and the more you know yourself as a child of God.

It takes the secular model of education and completely reorients it back to what education is really supposed to be about in the first place. Discovery. All students should spend their lives inspired to seek the good, the true, and the beautiful.

• Students are freed for the joyful pursuit of faith, wisdom, and virtue
• Students are engaged at every level of their humanity: spiritual, intellectual, moral, psychological, emotional and physical
• The result is not the goal; the journey to the result is the goal
• Students are put in touch with the whole of reality in its truth, goodness and beauty
• Classical education is integrative; it unites students and teachers in their shared humanness, enabling them to engage the wholeness of human experience and, therefore, to become more whole themselves
• Students are called to something greater than passing standardized tests
• Students are taught to fearlessly search for truth in all theories, subjects, and concepts
• Technology is a tool used for learning, not a tool that must be learned