AN OVERVIEW
Our School
Augustine Classical Academy is a traditional 4-day classical, Christian school in the Denver area serving Preschool-12th Grade.
Our Mission
By partnering with families, we exist to provide an education that equips students to know, love, and practice what is true, virtuous, and beautiful; and to challenge them to strive for excellence as they live for the glory of God and the good of all people.
IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUE, VIRTUOUS & BEAUTIFUL
CLASSICAL & CHRISTIAN: The two are inextricably linked.
Classical Christian education:
teaches all subjects as components of an integrated whole, created and ordered by God.
cultivates wisdom and virtue by feeding the mind and soul works that are true, good, and beautiful.
fosters a love of learning and equips students with tools for a lifetime of discovery.
At ACA, you’ll find:
an educational approach that recognizes the centrality of Christ.
staff devoted to creating classroom environments that are orderly, stimulating, joyful, and rooted in love.
a community devoted to educating the whole child.
small class sizes.
a commitment to making this high-quality private education affordable for all families.
ABOUT CLASSICAL EDUCATION
Classical Christian education is a “new old thing.” Many of Western civilization’s most influential people over the last 1,000 years were classically educated, including Nicolaus Copernicus, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Thomas Jefferson, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther, Isaac Newton, John Adams, Johann Gutenberg, and others.
Today’s classical Christian education takes richness of content—literature, mathematics, science, grammar, art, history, music, Latin, logic, rhetoric—and combines it with what we know about a child’s natural brain development. Supporting this time-tested methodology is a posture of worship to the Living God who is the Good Author of all there is to know, all there is to teach, and all there is to learn.
In the grammar stage (grades K-5), students learn the fundamental rules and elements of each subject. Children at this age enjoy memorization, so in these early years of their education, they learn facts: poetry; Latin vocabulary; the stories of literature and history; math facts; descriptions and functions of the human body, plants, and animals; the rules of English grammar. In short, students are eagerly absorbing the grammar, or foundational knowledge, for the next stage of their education.
In the logic stage (grades 6-8), students become more analytical in their thinking, exploring cause and effect, relationships among disparate topics, and the ways facts relate in a logical framework. For example, in writing, students learn to support a thesis; in reading, they learn to analyze texts for truth and fallacy; in science, they learn to use the scientific method.
Finally in the rhetoric stage (grades 9-12), students learn to apply the rules of logic to the knowledge they’ve built during their classical education, and to express their ideas in clear and persuasive language.
These three stages—grammar, logic, and rhetoric—make up the Trivium, which is Latin for “the place where three roads meet.”
Learning in a classical setting gives context and structure to knowledge. Instead of a system of education whose organizing principle is standardized testing, classical education enables students to see the interconnectedness of all knowledge. No more “silo” subjects, taught in vacuums. Here, all there is to know relates—and points to the nature of God the Creator and Redeemer.
Note: This summary is adapted from The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer, which you can find here.
WHY "AUGUSTINE"?
Augustine (born in Algeria in 354 AD) is undoubtedly one of the most influential figures in the early western church. He was educated classically, and as a teenager, he began wrestling with philosophical questions—a penchant that would remain with him his whole life. He became a teacher and converted to Christianity as an adult, eventually becoming a bishop in the church. His most famous work, Confessions, shows a man who struggles with his own sin, asks the questions that are central to humanity about identity and relationship to God, and reflects on God’s glory.
Augustine was both a scholar and a servant, who used his learning and his gifts for the practical good of his fellow men and the glory of God. He wrestled with big questions and found solace and grace in God, even in the midst of trouble. We find this story to be a compelling example of the ways we hope our students will use their robust education and engage in the world.