Our Mission & Distinctives

Classical Scholarship

Classical Scholarship

What does it mean to say that Coram Deo Academy is a school that emphasizes classical scholarship? As a classical Christian school, we say that we prioritize the Great Ideas and the Great Books, but what makes CDA different from other schools?

When we say ‘scholarship,’ we are referring to passing on timeless truths to the next generation. (We are not using the term scholarship to refer to a grant of financial support for academics.) For a fuller description of what classical scholarship looks like in the day to day classroom, please visit ‘Tough minds, tender hearts, timeless truths’

What is a child and what is a child for? Are the boys just frogs and snails and puppy dog tails and the girls simply sugar and spice and everything nice? Are the kids merely bags to be filled or pencils to be sharpened? The factory model of education utilizes the cram-test-forget model and views children as parts to be assembled for a productive society. The progressive model of schooling places subjective feelings over concrete facts and views children as oppressed victims of their environment. The classical model of education has recovered the lost tools of learning and sees children as image-bearers of their Father with dignity who need to be redeemed by Christ from their human depravity. The classical model works with the virtuous grain of the child in their dignity but seeks to sand away the vicious nature of all fallen humanity in their depravity.

“Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life.”

- Charlotte Mason