Classical Enrichment Curriculum

The classical education philosophy has taken hold in many Catholic schools across the country. Classical educators like to divide the educational process into three phases.  In the Grammar (elementary) stage, students enjoy memorizing and naturally absorb information. Through songs, rhymes and jingles, children learn the factual foundations of each subject. They learn about the Church and the spiritual, intellectual and moral development of the great saints. They learn rules of phonics, spelling and grammar; stories of history and literature; facts of math; descriptions of plants and animals; the vocabulary of foreign languages and more. They begin diagramming sentences in first grade and start Latin in third grade. The other two stages of the classical philosophy, the Logical and Rhetorical stage, don’t really take place until 6th grade and beyond. 

It should be noted that part of the problem we have been having with our current enrichment curriculum is tendency of children to gravitate toward all that is modern, easy, glib, and frankly, of the littlest value.  This is apparent when they are making reading choices in our Library or when they are asked to do enrichment.  Therefore, children who opt to try the classical enrichment program must be made to adhere to its guidelines. We can guarantee that students who read quality literature and diligently pursue other goals of the grammar stage will think, speak, write, and read at an infinitely higher level than they otherwise would have reading the Goosebumps series, being satisfied with doing the minimum in the classroom each day, etc.
Students in the classical curriculum enrichment program have been developing their memorization skills and appreciation of literature through our Poetry Club.  The Poetry Club has met about every three weeks this year.  Classical children’s poetry has been emphasized and students have been learning about poets.   About 15 students have made it into the “50  lines memorized” club and about 5 students will make it into the “200 lines memorized” club.

The students have also been reading and discussing “The Chronicle of Narnia” series and attended the new film version of “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”.  Other achievements of the classical curriculum enrichment students include a project involving rewriting fables, a unit on biographies of famous Americans, and completion of enrichment software as a part of our Spanish Language Program.   5th grade students also wrote and illustrated a book.  8th grade students had the opportunity to take a Shakespeare course.