Dear Friends,
 
As excitement builds about our school, Light of Christ Academy, I’d like to use the next couple bulletin columns to educate and inform our parish community on what makes our school unique and distinctive. Other schools in our Diocese have even expressed interest in following the same model! Let me first give you an explanation of what we mean by a “Classical” school. Below is the definition of Classical education which I wrote for the Diocesan Office of Schools.
 
Classical education can be understood as an approach to learning which has as its final goal the formation of the whole person in wisdom and virtue. 
 
This formation is accomplished through an integrated curriculum which offers all subjects as aspects of the one Truth which is God Himself. Furthermore, the integration of all subjects into a unified search for truth avoids the downfalls of an excessively pragmatic, work-oriented approach which characterizes many educational methods today. 
 
The method of education in the classical tradition is to immerse the student in the great ideas of the great thinkers in the history of Western civilization; to make the students themselves participants in the ongoing search for a proper understanding of man, nature, God, truth, goodness and beauty. In this way, education becomes an adventure in human formation which inspires wonder, rather than a mere preparation for the workforce. Reading and analyzing the original works of the great thinkers is one way that classical education encourages the student to become an active participant in his or her own education.
 
More specifically, classical education is characterized by a focus on the seven liberal arts: the Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music). In addition to these, modern science, higher-level math and the Latin language are studied. All of these subjects are considered as a preparation for the study of the highest things in philosophy and theology. Knowledge and love of Christ, the Word of God, is the goal which unifies all subjects. 
 
Catholic education in the classical tradition is a natural marriage - the student studies the history of thought which began with Greco-Roman culture, reached its full flowering in Western Christendom, and continues to our day. In many ways, the history of the West can be said to be the history of the Church. Seeing history in this way will give the student a strong and deeply-rooted understanding of the harmony between faith and reason, religion and science, God and the world. 
 
Please consider supporting our school!
 
In Christ, 
 
Fr Marotti