"A liberal arts education remains unequaled for the exercise and development of the most valuable qualities of the mind: penetration of thought, broad-mindedness, fineness of analysis, gifts of expression." ~Pius XII
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Classical Liberal ArtsA classical education embraces excellence in human achievement. Such exposure to excellence gives witness to goodness, beauty and truth, and, thereby, to God, and awakens in the student the deepest sensibilities to all that is noble and good. The Catholic classical curriculum follows humanity's search for the truth, a search that finds its complete fulfillment in the Incarnation of the Son of God.
The first three of the Seven Liberal Arts make up what is known as the Trivium. Dorothy Leigh Sayers delivered a speech at Oxford in 1947 that has been preserved in writing as an essay entitled The Lost Tools of Learning, which has spawned the Classical Christian Education movement of recent decades. The classical liberal arts curriculum at Sancta Familia Academy incorporates the three stages of the Trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric. The Trivium includes the first three of the seven liberal arts. (The rest make up the Quadrivium, which includes Music, Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astronomy) Our students are prepared for the Trivium in the primary grades, kindergarten through second. |
The first stage of the Trivium, the grammar spans grades three through six and involves imitation, memorization and practice, for which the young student is well suited. It emphasizes factual knowledge largely acquired through sensory experience. In the grammar stage, the child learns the structure, vocabulary and rules of language, leading to habits of clear and logical thinking.
Next is the logic stage, presented in seventh through ninth grade. In this phase the child is taught more by principles than by memorization, although the latter is always important. The student begins to think analytically in the language studied and learns the interrelations that exist among the principles of the various disciplines, leading to a good understanding of those principles. The study of Formal Logic prepares students for the Philosophy and Apologetics courses they will undertake in high school.
The final stage is rhetoric, or the art of persuasive speaking and writing, presented in the tenth through twelfth grades. This part of the Trivium gives the students the opportunity to develop speeches for various audiences and learn well the art of writing. Students begin to develop a voice to convey their views of the subjects learned.
Next is the logic stage, presented in seventh through ninth grade. In this phase the child is taught more by principles than by memorization, although the latter is always important. The student begins to think analytically in the language studied and learns the interrelations that exist among the principles of the various disciplines, leading to a good understanding of those principles. The study of Formal Logic prepares students for the Philosophy and Apologetics courses they will undertake in high school.
The final stage is rhetoric, or the art of persuasive speaking and writing, presented in the tenth through twelfth grades. This part of the Trivium gives the students the opportunity to develop speeches for various audiences and learn well the art of writing. Students begin to develop a voice to convey their views of the subjects learned.
For further study of the liberal arts and the schooling of the Middle Ages: www.newadvent.org/cathen/01760a.htm
