Classical Curriculum

St. Ann Classical Academy's Classical Curriculum Plan was formed using the deep intellectual heritage and insights of the last several millennia. This plan is based on the St. Jerome Classical Education Model developed in the Washington D.C. area. The following information was adapted from its guide. Below this overview is a link to download the entire St. Jerome Classical Model document.

An Overview and Reasoning of Subject Matter:

History:

• Students should understand human culture and history itself as the lived answer to fundamental human questions and the human desire for God.
• Within history, "Christ has reconciled all things to himself" (Col. 1:20, see also Col. 1:16, Rom. 11:36, Heb. 2:10, I Cor. 8:6, Rev. 4:11). Students should understand that the coming of Christ is the decisive act of God in history and that this has enormous historical and cultural ramifications.
• As the opening epigraph from Hugo Rahner states, the coming of Christ and the Church is central to history. As Christ reconciles all things to himself, his Church and the culture to which it gives rise takes up and transforms all that is beautiful, good, and true in pre-Christian culture and becomes a decisive reference point for all world cultures thereafter. Understanding the human person as a creature and seeing all of history and all cultures as expressions of the human desire for God and as lived answers to ultimate human questions, students should learn to appreciate the great cultures of history on their own terms, seeking to understand them as they understood themselves and resisting the prejudice that equates the newest with the best.
• However, they should understand history neither as a story of constant progress culminating in the present, nor as a series of disconnected events lying side by side in time, but as the story of the world‘s anticipation of and longing for the truth and happiness revealed in Christ and the events his incarnation sets in motion.
• They should therefore have a special understanding of those classical cultures—Greek, Jewish, Roman—which became ingredients of Christian culture. They should read those portions of the Bible that are contemporaneous with the historical period they are studying and appreciate the window that the Bible provides into the development of this history. And they should seek to understand the birth of modern culture as an event within Christianity, as simultaneously a development of Christian culture and a reaction against a Christian view of reality.
• Students should thus come to understand American history as a chapter in this larger story. American history should be studied in the same spirit of love for truth, goodness, and beauty that animates the rest of the curriculum, and American history and culture should therefore be viewed through the same lens as other historical cultures: as a lived answer to these fundamental human questions. American history should therefore form in students a love of their country and its ideals, but it should also encourage them to subject that love and those ideals to the still higher love for the truth of God and the human person revealed in Jesus Christ and through his Church. In this way, the study of history should prepare students to become both virtuous and responsible citizens and faithful Catholics and begin to equip them with the tools of discernment necessary to live deeply Catholic and deeply human lives amidst increasingly challenging times.
• The study of history in these terms is central to ― incorporating our students into the wisdom of two thousand years of Christian thought, history, culture, and arts.
• Students are incorporated into the received wisdom of the Christian tradition in two ways: first, by understanding themselves as products and heirs of a culture that represents the deepest of human longings, the highest of human aspirations, and the most profound of human artistic and cultural achievements; and second, by making the desires and questions that have animated and propelled that history their own — Who am I? Who is God? How am I to live? What is goodness? What is truth?
• The proper presentation of history should therefore further cultivate the art of questioning, as an expression of their innate desire for the happiness found in God.

Religion:

• Religion is not just one subject within the curriculum, but the key to its unity and integration. The cosmos is an ordered, unified whole because it is created in Christ ― in whom all things hold together (Col. 1:17). Belief in God as our Father and the world as His beautiful and rational creation binds faith and reason, nature and culture, art and science, morality and reality into a coherent and integrated unity. This unified view reaches its summit in worship, which is the highest form of knowledge and thus the end and goal of true education. This understanding should be made explicit in religion as a subject, in the curriculum as a whole, and in the life of the school. Most of all it should be reflected in the Sacred Liturgy and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the source and summit of the school‘s life. Religious education should therefore have as its ultimate goal the life of prayer and deep, reverent participation in God‘s own life through the Sacrifice of the Mass.
• God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). This is at the heart of what it means to say that God is Trinity, a communion of persons. If God is the source of cosmic order, then that means love is at the root of this order, a key to its meaning, and essential to our meaning as persons. Students should come to a deeper understanding of the meaning of love, both divine and human. They should begin to understand that love is at the root of reality and what this implies for civilization and for the meaning of their own nature as embodied persons.
• Students should understand that God‘s love in the Incarnation gives rise to a distinctive Christian civilization which is their birthright. Students should learn Scripture and be familiar with the treasures of Christian culture, art, architecture, music, literature, and great deeds, all of which give expression to a Catholic view of reality. Students should begin to learn the symbolic language of these treasures and learn how to read religious paintings and architecture. And they should understand how a true civilization of love reaches its summit in the Mass, where our desire for God is anticipated and surpassed by God‘s love for us.
• Students should be introduced to such treasures as we have here locally. They should be made to understand and appreciate that St. Ann Classical Academy is a part of this rich Christian heritage and that this heritage represents the very height of human culture and aspiration.
• Students should understand how the vocation to love informs our very meaning as persons, soul-and-body. The curriculum should reflect on how men and women live out this vocation differently in marriage, religious, and consecrated life. Upper school religion courses should therefore contemplate the theology of the body, not primarily from the point of view of sex education or even sexual morality (though both of these remain important), but from the truth about the human person as a sexually differentiated unity of body and soul created in and for love. The goal here is not to moralize, but to provide students with a beautiful, more compelling vision of life and love that they can desire and appropriate as their own.
• The study of religion should fulfill the role of basic catechesis, conveying what the Church teaches. By approaching catechesis in light of a broader vision of God and the human person students are helped to understand not only what the church teaches but why this teaching is true. Students see what these teachings have to do with the basic questions of the human heart, how they matter to their lives, and how they have mattered in the lives of whole cultures.
• The study of religion is both the conveying of a definite body of knowledge and the cultivation of habits and qualities in the soul of the student. It should incorporate silence, adoration, mystery, and the experience of beauty through adoration, music, and the school‘s observation and study of the liturgy and the liturgical calendar.
• Religious instruction, above all, should seek to draw the student more deeply into the life of God. To that end, the school‘s liturgical observances should not condescend or speak down‘ to children in order to reach them "where they are". Children who are given an infantile form of the faith are not likely to grow in it. Rather these observances should stress the mystery by emphasizing ― the beauty of holiness (Ps. 29:2). They should seek to draw the child ever more deeply into this mystery by appealing to the student‘s natural wonder. They should be child-like without being childish.
• For this reason, students should come to understand the meaning of the parts of the Mass and be given the opportunity to be trained as acolytes.

Art:

• The study of art should focus on both art appreciation and rendering, preferably in different media (chalk, paint, charcoal, etc.), since art is tactile. Art study in both senses should foster an appreciation of beauty, not merely as a subjective preference, as pretty or pleasant, but as an objective feature of reality that expresses the deep truth of what things are. Students should understand this objective beauty as desirable for its own sake. They should be able to identify its features and think about its effect on the soul, for example, why it is desirable or how it can be profound. Students should be able to explain this with respect to certain works of art (e.g. by being able to say why Cezanne‘s apples are important).
• Art studied in both senses should therefore be understood not as amusement nor as individualistic creativity, but as aiming for real, objective beauty. It is, though, appropriate to study how changed understandings of what art is (away from this notion) are reflected in works of art themselves and reveal differing cultural attitudes about the nature of the human person and the objectivity of truth, goodness, and beauty.
• The study of art should therefore complement the study of history and be a part of it. It should consider how the art of a culture provides that culture‘s answers to the deep human questions and how changes in art reflect changed understandings (e.g., by appreciating the differences between Byzantine iconography and the paintings of Giotto).
• The study of art and the practice of rendering should be used to train children how to attend closely to detail, to study shape and proportion, and in short, how to see both art itself and the objects depicted by it. The study of art is also training in the art of attention and adoration.

Language Arts:

• We want students to "read well, speak well, and think well." This means that we want them to understand and internalize how language works both at the level of individual words (their roots, conjugations, and declensions) and also the parts of speech. These are the building blocks of argument.
• Reading well, therefore, means reading efficiently, but it also means reading insightfully. The study of language and stories is therefore an introduction to basic human questions. Students should learn how to question a story and be questioned by it. With the right literature, even young students can be made to consider the 'worthiness‘ of a character‘s choices, the consequences of their actions, and the importance of truth. They can be asked to consider whether a story or a character is fair or just, whether it is beautiful and why. What are the elements of this and its effect? Does it make the student happy or sad? Can a story be beautiful and sad? They can begin to recognize the significance of symbols and foreshadowing.
• The study and recitation of poetry should be used to cultivate memory and the skills that go along with recitation, but poetry should also be treated as a form of vision and a window into truth.
• The study of language and literature should complement the study of history and culture by providing a window into them, e.g., in showing how the theme of life as a dangerous journey 'home' in Homer and Virgil is decisively taken up and transformed in Christianity and expressed in a millennium of Christian literary and visual art.
• The study of Latin complements the study of history, religion, and English grammar.

Nature Studies - Science:

• The study of nature must be integrated into a comprehensive vision of reality as God‘s creation. Otherwise, the human person who is at the foundation of the curriculum becomes unintelligible and the truth about him becomes a matter of private opinion.
• The study of nature, therefore, begins from the presupposition that all of reality is God‘s creation, though the implications of this are easily misunderstood. The act of creation is not an alternative to natural processes; nor is the doctrine of creation an alternative to natural explanations. The act of creation is not something done to the world, since prior to creation there is nothing to act upon. The doctrine of creation, therefore, does not explain how the world came to be, but what the world is. And to treat nature as creation is not to confuse science with theology or to divert attention from nature to prove God‘s existence, but to behold nature differently in a way that is at once deeper and more comprehensive, but no less rigorous, than modern scientific materialism.
  • It is to recognize that we do not arbitrarily impose meaning upon a meaningless material world, but that meaning is inherent in the world itself. It is reflected in a rational order that penetrates to the depths of the natural order and can be apprehended by reason.
  • It is to see the infinite generosity of God reflected in the mysterious uniqueness of every living thing.
  • It is to recognize that this mysterious uniqueness can never be exhaustively explained or understood and can only be fully appreciated through the eyes of love.
  • It is to recognize that what things are is not exhausted by how they work or how they came to be. Therefore, living things are wholes, irreducible to the interaction of their parts or the history of causes that produced them. They are wholes that transcend their parts.
  • It is to recognize that living things differ essentially from non-living machines because:
    • Unlike a machine that acquires its identity only at the end of a manufacturing process, living things have a nature, and therefore a unity, that precedes and guides their development. (This is partly what is meant by soul. It is also why a fetus is a person from the moment of conception and why it eventually matures into an adult: because it is already human.)
    • Unlike a machine, an organism is not a means to an end and its purpose is not imposed from the outside. An organism‘s end or "good" is internal to it and is that for the sake of which it develops and acts. Maturity and health are the ends for which organisms ordinarily develop and grow as they do.
    • Machines and other inanimate objects have an environment that surrounds them but is basically external to them. Living things have a world that they assimilate to themselves through metabolism and within which they move themselves and act. This world is not just the organism‘s physical surroundings, but the whole order, including past, future, and other creatures, which makes up the organism‘s 'action space'.
    • Higher organisms are characterized by having a larger world in this comprehensive sense. Man has the largest world of all, since he can deliberate about his future, since his world includes God, and since he can respond to God‘s call.
    • There is therefore an essential difference between the living and the nonliving, between procreation and mechanical reproduction, between what is born and what is made.
    • No aspect of the human body or of human biology is ever merely material or purely biological, but personal. All human biology is personal biology, the biology of persons.
  • It is to recognize that science alone, which is preoccupied with the causal history and mechanical aspects of the natural world, is not sufficient to understand what nature, living things, and human persons are. Philosophy and ultimately theology are also required.
• The study of nature should train the student above all to see nature through the eyes of love and to respect its inner integrity. This must be the foundation on which all further specialized study in the sciences is based.
• Coursework should emphasize the observation, classification, and rendering of living things (as in a nature notebook). Students should consider the unique characteristics of different kinds of plants and animals and their ways of life, be able to recognize and appreciate the unique characteristics and classify them accordingly. They should understand what distinguishes human beings from other animals and the relation between human biology or morphology (e.g., upright posture, primacy of sight, opposable thumbs, etc.) and the uniquely human way of living.
• From the study of living wholes, students should then move to the study of their parts through the study of anatomy, physiology, and related disciplines.
• From this foundation, students should proceed through the relevant sub-disciplines in science — chemistry, geology, astronomy, etc., with special attention to how these various aspects of nature combine to make Earth a home suitable for life, but also in a way that prepares the student for the study of these subjects in high school.
• Students should have experience in both inductive and deductive methods and know the difference between them.
• Students should complete their study of nature with a keen eye for nature, a deeper wonder and love for the natural world, a greater awe at the mystery of living things, and a deep appreciation of how the world, in providing a home fit for life, reflects the wisdom and generosity of its Creator.

Mathematics

• The study of mathematics should instill in students an ever-increasing sense of wonder and awe at the profound way in which the world displays order, pattern and relation. Mathematics is studied not because it is first useful and then beautiful, but because it reveals the beautiful order inherent in the cosmos.
• Mathematics stands in a unique position at the intersection of induction and deduction, and as it flowers, it enables the student not only to appreciate more deeply its own subject matter, but also every other discipline since it lends its own intelligibility to their study. This is readily apparent in logic and analytical reasoning, but is no less true for art, music, poetry, history, sports, experimental science, philosophy, and language.
• Mathematics can engage all the senses, particularly in the early years, with the direct manipulation of simple objects that illustrate number and counting, similarity and difference, belonging and exclusion, progression, proportion, and representation. Along with this direct experience, students can be coached in observation and taught not only to recognize but to question the relationship of countable to uncountable, unity to plurality, and repetition to progression. They can gradually be introduced to ways in which we quantify the world by applying dimension, magnitude, duration, measure, and rank, and also ways in which the world may be analyzed and modeled through mathematical representation, including geometric and algebraic expressions. To the extent possible, students can be encouraged to 'construct mathematics‘ (such as building Platonic solids) as well as work it out on paper, and come to understand that the symbolic writing of mathematics enables us to describe accurately and therefore to predict the outcomes of many real-world events.
• The study of mathematics should emphasize its foundational contribution to aesthetics (the study of beauty). The "mathematics of beauty" can be discerned in every subject.
  • In history, for example, students can begin to understand the meaning of the architectural design and sacred geometry of classical buildings, in which not only shape, pattern, and placement convey meaning, but number also is used to encode philosophical and theological truths.
  • The mathematical foundations of music can be introduced from the mono-chord to tone relations, and then to the understanding of harmonics and series. In the upper grades, students can be introduced to the mathematics of the fugue and the canon, and taught to hear the voices in their relationship.
  • In the study of visual art, students can be trained in the geometric and numeric relationships that are at the basis of representational drawing, particularly for creating the illusion of depth through the application of transformation and projection, and can be taught the visually pleasing and dynamic ratios that appear in great art and photography. This visual training can be extended to a broad discussion of dimensionality in the context of iconography and nonrepresentational art.
  • In the language arts, the mathematics of rhyme and meter can be discussed and practiced, at first through recitation but eventually through imitation. Also, the discovery of the numerological meanings written into great literature can begin with the Bible and advance historically through the various periods studied.
  • In nature studies, the mathematics of nature can unveil the mysterious occurrences of transcendental constants such as pi and the natural logarithm, the recurrence of biological geometry such as the spiral of Archimedes, and the myriad ways in which relation is communicated in the branches of a tree, the strands of an orb web, or the convergence of streams into a river. Individual plants and animals can be introduced as the basis for understanding growth, and direct observation and measurement can be the basis for understanding numerical and visual representation of change through time. Individuals and populations can be used to illustrate the concepts of rate of change, large numbers, and eventually infinity. Measurement and the mathematical representation of natural systems can become the entry point for a discussion of estimation and precision, order and entropy, probability, and eventually chaos. This can include a discussion of how to represent things numerically, which presupposes an understanding of Aristotle‘s four forms of causality, and and can culminate in understanding that mathematically representing and quantifying the world depends on philosophical choices.
• A love of mathematics naturally leads not only to the development of analytical and critical reasoning skills, but deep creativity. Most importantly, it fosters a sense of profound reverence for the cosmos and our place within it, and the infinite depth of intelligibility woven into creation. This love is a spontaneous response that arises when a child first discovers math in the world, and must be nourished so that the work of solving math problems does not become tedium. Puzzles, codes, riddles, games, and the direct observation and experience of mathematics in our world are important ways to keep the intrigue and enchantment of mathematics alive while building necessary skills.

Music:

• The study of music should be to the sense of hearing what the study of art is to the sense of sight. It should cultivate the power of that form of attention known as listening.
• The study of music should complement the study of history, e.g., in the movement from Gregorian chant to polyphony.
• Children should learn the 'aesthetics of number' and learn to 'hear number‘ through learning harmony and measure.
• Students should learn and experience how music expresses the mystery of God, and the spirit of adoration should be cultivated through acquaintance with the tradition of sacred music, chants, and hymnody. Students should be able to sing the Salve Regina, the Regina Caeli, and other prayers that are appropriate to different liturgical seasons.
• Students should learn the language of music, both in terms of musical notation and the ability of different instruments and notes to 'tell stories‘.
• If possible, students should participate in a schola cantorum and, if possible, learn to play an instrument in order to internalize music, appreciate its beauty, and foster creativity and discipline.

Physical Education:

• Play, like joy, is its own end. In the sheer joy of play and playing well, one becomes an  'amateur‘ in the true sense, that is, a 'lover'. Developing this sense of 'amateurism' is perhaps the most important contribution that physical education makes to classical education. This is because the amateur, though he always strives to play well, plays out of love and delight for the game itself. Genuine amateurism thus reinforces the classical conviction that there are things worth doing well simply because they are good.
• But physical education is vital to classical education in other ways as well. Physical education offers students an opportunity to train their minds, hearts, and bodies into unified expressions of gracefulness. Accordingly, the physical education program should strive to train the minds, hearts, and bodies of the students.
• Students should develop concentration, self-discipline, and mental stamina through repetition, practice, and competitive play. They should come to recognize the excellence and gracefulness of beautiful physical achievements. They should also learn the rules as well as the proper techniques and strategies for playing all major sports.
• Students should practice sportsmanship and fair play; they should learn to win and lose with grace. They should participate in games and sports in which they can both lead and be led, subordinating their own role to the good of the team. A spirit of healthy competition as well as an attitude of perseverance, commitment, and excellence should be the norm.
• Students should participate in a variety of physical activities that promote strength, agility, coordination, speed, and endurance. They should be encouraged to form healthy living habits, which include getting the appropriate exercise, diet, and rest.