We believe that Christian classical education is a vehicle that ushers humans toward deep healing and transformation. It is the birthright of every living soul to encounter this transformation and flourish. Sure, students who learn this way will have an impressive transcript, be college-ready, and shine in the workforce, but they will, more importantly, become more themselves, notice the humanity of others, seek understanding instead of remaining in ignorance, and rule themselves like the best of kings and queens. At the end of the day, this restructuring of priorities and a focus on the true, good, and beautiful leads to a life of wholeness and fulfillment, a life of “more than we could ask or imagine.”
Core Values
Honor & Dignity
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5
Honor over shame, every day of the week. We believe that each person has innate dignity and is filled with divine light. We seek to love our neighbors by noticing and respecting the light in them while also allowing others to see the light in us. Because we each have this light, we know truth, goodness, and beauty may be found in any book, culture, or person, whether it be an ancient liturgy, a child, a tribal story, an old poet, or a modern-day musician. Seek to understand. Invite rather than impose.
Form & Tradition
We celebrate tradition and form. At Paideia Academics, we honor this reality by aligning ourselves with forms that have stood the test of time and honor the dignity of every student, teacher, and subject/content area we teach. We acknowledge that we are all communal beings that find nourishment in coming together around the classics, the questions, and the ideas that speak deeply to what it means to be human.
Inclusive & Ecumenical
We deeply value an inclusive and ecumenical atmosphere. All are welcome. Our community comprises people from many nations, cultures, religious traditions, backgrounds, and lifestyles. We believe the classical liberating arts are a space of common ground and dignity for every human soul, and no one group or culture owns it. We enjoy learning from literature, art, and ideas across the globe and among many nations, groups, and people.
As an organization, we believe that Christ is the incarnate true, good, and beautiful One and seek to be open to Him in all we learn. We aspire to live in a community marked by charity and hospitality, as described in 1 Corinthians 13 and 2 Peter 1:5-7.
Hospitality
“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Hospitality is the act of loving and giving healing space to our neighbors, all of our neighbors, including ourselves. Hospitality is an embodiment of the belief that each person has innate dignity and is worthy of honor.
Hospitality makes a classical liberal arts education and its end goal come to pass. We make space for each person through hospitality to learn, heal, not-know, wrestle, experience victory and failure, discuss, and connect. It includes a lot of mess and mystery, beauty, form and freedom, courage, humility, and openness. Hospitality is the foundation for the trust required to experience real learning, freedom, and healing. It is woven throughout every experience at Paideia Academics.
The Paideia Fellowship Liberal Arts Program Curriculum Overview
Our liberal arts program is a partnership between students, homeschooling parents, and teachers. It is an integrative humanities experience built around the great books and art of our world and the language liberal arts. Our curriculum is a great books curriculum, which means the literature leads. In history, we give particular emphasis to encountering the spirit of a nation and the imagination of a time through living books and stories, rather than memorizing facts and using textbooks. Students will study, read, think, and write about the literature, ideas, history, and culture of that time. Specific and useful writing and language instruction complete the breadth of this class.
Community-Wide History Cycle
Year 1: Ancient World History (Ancient Civilizations)
Year 2: Medieval World History (The Silk Roads + the Renaissance)
Year 3: Early Modern World History (Exploration, Enlightenment, Revolutions)
Year 4: American History
Middle School
- For 7th – 9th graders. (9th graders can enroll in either the middle school or high school program, depending on their skill level.)
- Literature
- Year 1: The Chronicles of Narnia (Select works), The Fairie Queen Book 1, and Selected Fairy Tales
- Year 2: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Beowulf, and Selected Myths
- Composition {Formal Writing Instruction, Advanced narrations, copywork, and formal grammar}
- Logic: Informal Logic
- History {Selected living history books, speeches, written narrations, map work, and projects.}
- Picture/Artist Study & Music/Composer Study integrated with the history and literature we study.
- Oratory (Shakespeare and poetry)
- Life Skills (self-management and study skills)
High School
- For 9th – 12th graders. (9th graders can enroll in either the middle school or high school program, depending on their skill level.)
- Literature: A four-year Great Books literature cycle relating to the four-year history cycle above.
- Ancient Civilizations
- Medieval, Renaissance, & the Silk Roads
- Early Modern
- American + Moderns
- Composition {Composition and rhetoric }
- Logic/Philosophy
- History {Selected living history texts, speeches, essays, primary documents, writing assignments, projects, and field trips/experience.}
- Picture/Artist Study & Music/Composer Study integrated with the time period we study.
- Oratory (Shakespeare, poetry, speeches)
- Life Skills (self-management and study skills)