With all of the philosophies surrounding education, it is important to know why we choose a classical education.
First, please understand, your children do not need to be in a classical school or be pursuing a classical education in order to benefit from Scio Academy's classes. Scio's mission is to come alongside and support students and educators where they are. Our worldview and beliefs often effect our teaching, and that is why we love to share our core values with you.
We choose a classical education because we feel that it is a time tested method consisting of a combination of the strength of the student's natural ability and the support of the great minds that have come before us. We are classical educators at Scio, we believe that the individuality of the student is found as part of the community of God, mentors, and the great minds shared through great literature.
To understand more fully why we teach classically, let's look at 5 common values of classical educators and how they are commonly practiced.
- We emphasize the importance of memory. Young children memorize facts in all areas of study, older students enhance exercise their memory by continuing to memorize important things, like Shakespeare and math theorems.
- We engage with the great books. We read, a lot. To study math, we use a textbook as a framework, but we also read primary resources such as Newton's Principia. We read, discuss, and write about great literature. We choose a biography over a history textbook. Whenever possible, we learn from primary sources - paintings, musical compositions, theater, autobiographies, letters, etc.
- We reason. Through discussion, questions, and logic, we learn to listen, process, and share our beliefs, convictions, and knowledge with others.
- We do hard things. Sometimes we study something just to grow the muscles necessary to do hard things. Life isn't easy. Learning to do hard things as we grow into adulthood, helps us to know how to handle hard things as adults.
- We seek mentors. We pursue knowledge by pursuing those who've gone before us. Whether it's the seat of a parent, grandparent, pastor, teacher, or friend, we respect and honor that individual as a creation of God and seek to learn more each day.
Many educational philosophies encompass some of these values - classical education isn't alone in these values.
Want to learn more about classical education? Come be a part of the conversation on November 26 @ 3 pm as we discuss classical education in our monthly Educator Sessions webinar.
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