The term "classical" is sometimes applied to the Latin and Greek languages and Latin is a big part of Cornerstone Christian Academy. It is also true that the great books of the Western Tradition are called classics, and our students read the great books. But in describing our philosophy of education, classical means the liberal arts and particularly the first three liberal arts known as the Trivium. Through the Trivium students are taught how to think.
The Trivium includes grammar, logic (dialectic), and rhetoric. These are applied to the study of each subject. In grammar school the emphasis falls on the grammar of a subject. That means learning the basic information of a subject. For example, the grammar of mathematics includes learning the multiplication tables. Formal logic is a new subject in the middle school, but at that level the logic of each subject is also emphasized. Rhetoric as a subject is training in public speaking but once again, each subject has its form of creative expression that is emphasized at the high school level.
Cornerstone Christian Academy utilizes the Core Knowledge Sequence which presents the things an educated person ought to know grade by grade. For example, the volume, What Your First Grader Should Know, presents the art of the sequence appropriate for first grade. The sequence is used as a supplement to our other curricula.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instructions of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4
