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The Classical Liberal Arts Academy's primary mission is the restoration of the classical liberal arts within the Catholic Christian tradition, which is a tradition that has always served a very small portion of the human population. Our secondary, and broader, mission is to introduce a new (yet ancient) model for education that will serve and benefit all men. This has led us to the simultaneous development of two separate, yet related, courses of study: a "Classical" studies program and "Common" school program.
I. Classical Liberal Arts Curriculum
There are five core streams in the curriculum taught in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy: Religion, Trivium, Quadrivium, Philosophy and Theology. Religion and Theology are not proper to the classical liberal arts curriculum and one need not be a Christian to undertake the study of them, but they provide the necessary environment and aim that energizes and directs these studies. As we are Catholic Christians, the aim of our studies is to understand the created world and what is pleasing to God from the perspective of human reason and general revelation. At times in history, like the 13th century, the religion could have been taken for granted and it's no surprise to find the greatest age of saints to coincide with the greatest age of classical liberal arts instruction. We recognize St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Dominic, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure and St. Ignatius to be among the greatest of history's wise men, and give due reverence to the "virtuous pagans" Pythagoras, Euclid, Homer, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and the rest. In our minds, there is no division between Christian and pagan when it comes to the classical liberal arts, for as Solomon said,
"The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails deeply fastened in, which by the counsel of masters are given from one shepherd."
The challenge we face is the incredibile disconnect between the modern and ancient mind. Then, faith, reason, tradition and eternity drove man's investigations and pursuits. Today, nearly all pursuits are mercenary and material with religion and reason tacked, or painted, on.
I. Religion
 Religion, in many circles, consists of the academic study of religious books, but that is not true religion. Any man can read Christian books, but that does not make him a Christian any more than our reading of Plato makes us Platonists. True religion is not the confession that Jesus Christ is the Lord of Christians, but that he is our Lord. Thus, true religion consists in prayer, worship and obedience.
When it comes to Religion, there is no need to invent anything new. Religion has been in the care of holy men from the beginning of time and we enjoy the benefit and bear the responsiblity of tending and keeping what has been handed down to us. This sacred deposit consists primarily in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. These are not two separate entities, but two parts of one history of redemption. Embedded within Sacred Tradition is sacramental life of the Church, but also the treasury of Christian devotion known today as the Liturgy of the Hours and formerly as the Divine Office. These sources provide us with an entire life of religious source materials that must be made our own through our own devout participation. That participation is the aim of the CLAA's Religion programs and resources.
II. Trivium
The Trivium consists of Grammar, Reasoning and Rhetoric, which may be more clearly understood as the arts that pertain to, first, the ordering and articulation of a man's ideas; second, to the man's discovery and demonstration of truth and order and, third, to the man's duty to persuade and inspire his fellow man.
(A) Just as man's work as the caretaker of the world began with the naming of God's creatures, so the intellectual development begins with the name of objects and ideas. A child born into the world learns to point and name and the student learns the same, only pointing to and naming more abstract things, and with increasingly significant names. This is studied in the ancient art of Grammar, called "universal" Grammar inasmuch as it is concerned with those principles of language that apply to all languages. The study of Grammar consists of three parts: Etymology which treats of the classes and forms of words or "parts of speech" which are used as verbal symbols of the ideas of the mind. Syntax, or Construction, which treats of predication or the expression of the judgments of the mind. Prosody, or Poetics, which treats of the rhythm and sounds of speech and their influence upon the mind and heart of man.
(B) Reasoning is studied according to the ancient system of "the Philosopher"--Aristotle. Here, we study the Categories into which all "predications" can be classed. We study the art of Interpretation or expression of ideas, linking the art of Grammar to the reasoning arts to follow. In Dialectic, we study the art of dialectial reasoning, which in antiquity was referred to as the "Socratic" method because of the example of it's greatest master, Socrates. Lastly in Analytics, we study the art of demonstrative reasoning which belongs more properly to the aim of the Trivium, which is the Philosophy or the pursuit of Wisdom.
(C) Rhetoric is also studied according to the Aristotelean system, but with respect also to the doctrine of the Roman philosopher Cicero. Here we study far more than mere public speaking techniques, but the nature and affections of our human audience, the means by which that audience is enchanted, aroused, persuaded and moved to action. Here, all of the student's previous studies come together to allow the ideas to "bear fruit and multiply". Here, "verbum caro factum est"--the word is made flesh, coming to life and changing the world.
These three arts--Grammar, Reasoning and Rhetoric form the ancient Trivium and supplies students with one half of the ladder they must climb if they would ascend to Wisdom.
III. Quadrivium
 While the language arts might serve the angels well, they leave man, who must tend and care for created things, without the arts for the complicating influences and limitations of space, time and motion. As soon as God created the heavens and the earth He himself standardized the units of absolute multitude (numbers), absolute magnitude (shapes and sizes of objects at rest), relative multitude (relationships between numbers) and relative magnitudes (shapes and sizes of objects in motion).
Over time, these divine arts were mastered, arranged and taught by men with the names by which they are more commonly known: Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy. These are hardly the "amoral" or "secular" subjects known today by similar names, but deeply mysterious and satisfying investigations into the mind of God, from which the created world, with all its forms, order and purposes, sprang in the beginning.
IV. Philosophy
Most adults today think of a college Philosophy 101 course when they think of philosophy and that is terribly unfortunate. True philosophy is not a matter of debating whether a table is a table, but seeking Wisdom which can be summarized as (a) the knowledge of created things and (b) the knowledge of what is pleasing to God. That is actually what Scripture teaches us--in the book of Wisdom. The ancient philosophers identified happiness--lasting and true happiness--as the object of true philosophy. What can be more practical than the pursuit of happiness?
The subject of philosophy breaks down into three basic parts: Natural Philosophy (Physics), Moral Philosophy (Ethics) and Supernatural Philosophy (Metaphysics). One unfortunately disadvantage modern students have is that their minds and experiences are very different from that of youth in the ancient world. Because the ancients had a more direct dependence on and interaction with the natural world, they were primed for an easier entrance into Philosophy than modern students, whose experience is largely artificial and seemingly independent of the natural world. Ancient students would say that milk comes from cows, whereas modern students will say that it comes from the store. Such is the first obstacle to overcome before philosophical studies can commence.
To bridge this gap, we are happy to provide students with courses in Natural History and experiences in the natural world. We hope that immersion in Catholic community and domestic life, experiences that introduce students to the natural world and instruction in Catholic doctrine, Grammar, Reasoning, Mathematics and Natural History will prepare a student body ready for Philosophy.
V. Theology
When most think of "Theology" today, they think of the study of theologians and theology books. However, what is significant about Theology is how it differs from Philosophy. Philosophy is the work of human reason, whereby man virtuously works to ascend to the heights of his intellectual ability. Theology is the work of God's benevolence, whereby He reveals to man that which is necessary to be known but beyond the reach of Philosophy. Of course, once Theology supplies man with new and surer first principles, Philosophy can work on them and reach higher. This collaboration of Philosophy and Theology is what we call "Scholasticism", which in history was honored by the work of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure and others.
Theology is, of course focused on the two primary means of divine revelation: Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. These studies lead man back to the beginning, for the beginning of all wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the end of all learning is the same. Thus, St. Augustine's dilemma is solved :
"Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first, to call on Thee or to praise Thee? and, again, to know Thee or to call on Thee?"
The answer is very simple: We will call upon Him that we may know Him, and knowing Him call upon Him, beileving in Him, for He has revealed Himself to us.
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What you will see in the image above is what was described in the paragraphs above. In the center of the image is Wisdom, always signified by a woman in the ancient world. With her are Socrates and Plato, the two great classical philosophers. You will notice that Aristotle is not present in the picture--that proves this is a pre-Scholastic painting. It was in the late 12th and 13th centuries that the writings of Aristotle were brought to Europe by Arab philosophers. St. Thomas Aquinas was teaching Aristotle to Christians in the mid 1200s, as Scholasticism was established.
Around Wisdom, serving her and being served by her, are the seven liberal arts. They are set in an order that differs from that which we described above because of their pre-Scholastic state. We see here Grammar (top) then, clockwise: Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Arithmetic, Geometry and Astronomy. Here, reasoning is replaced by Dialectic because the Demonstrative reasoning of Aristotle's "Analytics" were not yet included in the Christian liberal arts curriculum. At this time, Logic meant Dialectical reasoning, or the Socratic Method. This is taught in Aristotle's "Topics", which was available to Christians before the Analytics. The University of Paris referred to Dialectic as the "Old Logic" and Analytics as the "New Logic" in the 14th century.
Outside of the circle are Poets and Magi, who wever believed to be inspired men, which is why they have little black birds (spirits) whispering in their ears.
WHAT THE CLAA DOes
 The Classical Liberal Arts Academy IS NOT inventing a new curriculum or writing a curriculum. It IS NOT creating lists of books that are jumbled together into a box and falsely called a "curriculum". We are teaching an ancient curriculum as teachers have done throughout history. The curriculum is ancient and unchanged--it is simply the seven liberal arts. However, we are working to provide modern students with the help necessary to progress through the arts. That includes:
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teaching the classical languages
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guiding students through the ancient sources (Aristotle, Cicero, etc.)
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presenting the arts to students in an orderly and efficient manner
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providing effective assessments to ensure student mastery
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maintaining records of student progress in the curriculum
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assisting parents in managing their children's studies
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providing live assistance to students and parents during the school week
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explaining the curriculum and its details to parents through articles, newsletters, etc.
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introducing families to the culture associated with the classical liberal arts
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laying the foundation for future CLAA schools to relieve the homeschool burden
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hosting camps to introduce students to the natural world and provide intense academic instruction
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teaching the Liturgy of the Hours as the religious context for classical studies
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developing supplementary resources for students
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developing cognate/enrichment courses to support the curriculum
FLEXIBILITY & AFFORDABILITY
We often look back at the lives of ancient men and admire the methods and instruments of their generation while despising those of our own. We often imagine that they had access to similar tools but chose a different way--the abacus instead of the calculator, the messenger instead of e-mail, the ship instead of the airplane. This, however, is not the truth. Often, the men we admire in history made use of every bit of technological progress available to them in their day--it's just older and different than what's available to us.
We are not the kind of people who must have the latest and greatest gizmo that comes off the assembly line, yet we are also not the kind of people who think that imitating Little House on the Prairie is what Christians ought to be doing. We seek a balance of stable traditional life and efficient modern technology that allows us to do good in our generation.
Technology gives students from all over the world immediate, affordable access to the classical liberal arts curriculum. Database technology gives us the ability to allow thousands of students to work independently through a curriculum--at their own pace and starting whenever they wish. By the intelligent use of technology, students can receive a customized education that allows them to progress at the pace best suited to them with no compromise in the classical curriculum. Students can receive the help of audio and video resources that allow them to pass over the limitations of language and experience. The CLAA is working to bring available technology into the service of the classical liberal arts curriculum so that every family that enrolls with us has the opportunity to succeed.
Moreover, by the efficiency of our organization, we provide elite classical education at a very affordable price. We waste no money on administrative tasks but invest the money we do receive in (a) expert instructors to ensure the quality of our program and (b) in resources that allow us to continue to serve our existing families better.
QUESTIONS?
You should have questions about the classical liberal arts because it is very unlikely that you have studied them. You may not understand how they translate into happy living in the modern world--college, vocation, career, etc... Ask us. Send us every question you have and we will provide you with prompt and thorough responses. Our support is praised and almost every family who works through their questions with the CLAA staff elects to enroll in the end. Once enrolled, our families have expressed relief, confidence and great satisfaction. Ask us.
Send questions to: mail@classicalliberalarts.com
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