Academics(in this section)

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

Mr. Mark Jahnke, Dean of Rhetoric, defines our school’s classical identity at one of our Community & Culture Nights. Please feel free to watch the entire evening’s presentation and other Community & Culture Night recordings.

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

  • Is structured and integrated and has as its goal not only the transmission of knowledge but also the integration and synthesis of complex ideas.
  • Focuses on the acquisition of knowledge through reading by using original texts and classics whenever possible.
  • Presents various academic disciplines in a sequence corresponding to a pupil’s developing ability to think abstractly, and in a developmentally and age-appropriate manner.
  • Studies not simply individual academic disciplines, but also 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 in becoming self-motivated and self-correcting learners.

Students learn through the Trivium, the foundational skills of classical education that train the mind for lifelong learning.

Grammar (Grades K-4)

Using copious memorization, students learn a deep base of knowledge.

Logic (Grades 5-8)

Students learn to ask the right questions, dispute logically, and link increasingly complex ideas.

Rhetoric (Grades 9-12)

Students explore perennial and complex human issues in a seminar format, growing in wisdom and eloquence and learning to draw others to the truth, leading to authentic freedom.

Secular classical schools may give a nod in this direction, but it is only in the context of considering God as the source and summit of all that is true, good and beautiful, that one can achieve an authentic interpretation and valuing of man and of all reality.  One cannot omit Christ without consequence to one’s studies and life.