“...the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach men how to learn for themselves; and whatever instruction fails to do this is effort spent in vain.”

 - Dorothy Sayers

Classical education is the return to a structure and methodology of learning that                          includes academic disciplines and  a curriculum which produced the great cultural                   flowering of Western Civilization over the past one thousand years.  Classical                            learning follows a traditional educational pattern called the “Trivium.”  This                       pattern consists of three successive stages, to wit, grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric.

Grammar Stage

This stage is from kindergarten to the sixth grade.  Its focus is on the fundamentals                    of language, history, math, science and the arts.  It is upon the knowledge of these                  disciplines that later information must be anchored.  For example, the classical                              languages of Greek and Latin are included as well as the analysis of “who, what, where, and when,” at a time when memorization of facts is easy and fun.

Dialectic Stage

During this stage, which begins in the middle school years, concepts of formal and informal logic are taught in order to build upon the student’s greater reasoning ability and increased desire to ask questions about the information gathered during the Grammar Stage.  The student begins to recognize logical relationships among facts and no longer sees the latter as two separate pieces of information.  The analysis of “how” and “why” is developed here, enabling the student to differentiate between sound and fallacious thinking.

Rhetoric Stage

This stage, corresponding to the high school years, synthesizes the information acquired during the Grammar Stage and the reasoning skills developed during the Dialectic Stage.  It is here that the student progresses from merely understanding concepts and arguments to the ability to present them persuasively.  The student now learns that eloquent expression is as important as logical content.  During this period, the student may begin to concentrate on areas of personal interest in preparation for the “Quadrivium,” when natural abilities will lead to specialization in mathematics, the sciences or humanities.

Conclusion

A student who has been afforded a classical education at Geneva Academy will have acquired the formal knowledge, mental discipline and thinking skills necessary to tackle the difficulties associated with any area of specialization.  Since learning is a life-long pursuit, the true goal of the classical education at Geneva Academy is that of learning to learn for oneself.