Classical

Classical Education, Pre-Kindergarten through High School

Donahue Academy prepares students to pursue excellence in all things by instructing them using a classical model from their earliest years. Classical Education seeks to form students in and through a curriculum and culture which introduces students to transcendent realities reflecting Truth, Beauty and Goodness.

Donahue Academy’s Classical Identity

Here is Mr. Mark Jahnke, one of our Rhetoric stage teachers, quickly defining our school’s classical identity at a Community & Culture Night. Please feel free to watch the entire evening’s presentation and all other Community & Culture Night recordings.

In general, a classical school provides an educational experience that:

• Is structured and integrated, not only the transmission of knowledge but also the integration and synthesis of information.
• Focuses on the acquisition of knowledge through reading by focusing whenever possible on original texts and classics.
• Presents various academic disciplines in a sequence corresponding to a pupil’s developing ability to think abstractly, and in an age and developmentally appropriate manner.
• Studies not simply individual academic disciplines, but also specifically essential truths that transcend the disciplines, especially those truths emphasizing human dignity and worth.
• Develops a sense of Wonder and a love for learning.
• Assists the students to become self-motivated and self-correcting learners.

Students are divided into grades based on the Trivium:

• The Grammar Stage (Grades K-4) focuses on presenting information, the broad acquisition of facts and laying the foundation of knowledge.
• The Logic Stage (Grades 5-8) focuses on organizing information gathered in the Grammar Stage, making connections and learning to evaluate evidence.
• The Rhetoric Stage (Grades 9-12) focuses on synthesizing and learning to express increasingly complex insights with eloquence and precision.

Secularized classical schools may give a nod in this direction, but it is only in the context of allowing God His due place as the source and summit of all that is true, good and beautiful, that an authentic interpretation and valuing of man and of all reality is achievable. We cannot leave out Christ without consequence to our studies and our life!