Why Classical Education?
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Classical education trains the mind.
It uses a three-step process to give each child the tools of learning. The classical educational method gives students the tools of learning and mirrors their intellectual development in three stages known as the trivium:

• The Pre-Grammar Stage: In the earliest grades (Kindergarten through 1st grade), children are prepared for the Grammar Stage by learning how to read, use numbers, fit in at school, form written letters, sing, build, and play. This is a time of exploration and discovery, in which the student uses all of his or her senses to grasp an understanding of the world around them.
  
  
• The Grammar Stage: In these grades (2nd through 6th grade), students absorb facts and lay the foundation for further study, what classical education calls the grammar stage—learning the rules or basic facts of various academic disciplines that serve as the foundation for further study.
  
  
• The Dialectic Stage: In the middle grades (7th through 9th grade), students armed with facts and principles learn to reason and think logically through arguments, what classical education calls the logic stage.
  
  
• The Rhetoric Stage: In the high school years (10th through 12th grade), students learn to express themselves effectively using the written and spoken word, what classical education calls the rhetoric stage.

Why Classical Schools are Superior to Modern Schools.
What is different in the classical Christian classroom as compared to public or other private schools? In the grammar stage, for example, the chief difference is that the classical student absorbs a large amount of elementary knowledge (such as facts, names, dates, vocabulary, spelling, mathematical tables, etc.) and attains mastery of the fundamentals of reading and mathematics. By contrast most modern teaching methods emphasize “concepts” and avoid rigorous immersion in basic principles and facts. As you can see, classically trained students master the tools and methods of learning in an orderly way, and they are not encouraged to “express themselves” until they first master critical facts and learn how to think logically. Then and only then are they in a position to begin to express themselves in a way that is grammatically correct, cogent, and compelling.

Why Modern Schools Kill True Education.
At its root, classical education rejects modernism and post-modernism in the classroom. In particular, it rejects the pragmatism that underlies modern and post-modern educational theories—the notion that truth is what works or the idea that we somehow need to educate our children to test well. So some modern public schools spend upwards of 30-40% of their limited classroom time teaching to test—trying to inflate their test scores—all motivated by a desire to increase enrollment and get more money. If, however, they gave their students the tools of learning, they would find that the test scores take care of themselves. At classical schools across the country, student test scores often are off the charts. The goal is not higher test scores, but higher test scores do result when true education takes place in the classroom. One Christian observer concurs that the need of the hour is classical education, “When, in the 1890s, the classical curriculum tried to compete with the sciences by becoming ‘scientific’ too, it signed its own death warrant.” Modern, progressive education ends up producing the opposite of real progress—it actually kills true education. Classical education does not train students to take a particular test or to assume a particular trade after graduation. Instead, it trains students to think and communicate with a mind of wisdom so that they can specialize in their studies downstream and pursue any legitimate calling thereafter.

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Some compelling reasons to
consider Classical Education:

Classical education trains the mind.
Trivium: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric

Why Classical Schools are Superior to Modern Schools. Mastering the tools of learning first.

Why Modern Schools Kill True Education.
Teaching students to think, not to test.

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