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As a classical school, we believe deeply in studying and understanding that which is good, true, and beautiful. These things have been wrestled with for thousands of years through history in philosophy, theology, mathematics, literature, composition, science, and many other fields of study. In addition, humans have discovered through many years of trial and error, what the best method of memorizing these beautiful and good truths.
Throughout the ages, many religious communities have clung to their timeless beliefs through communal repetition, known in some circles as a "catechism." Together, in unison, the community shares their beliefs out-loud in-order to remind them of these beliefs while also providing a framework to show them that they are not alone in their context.
However, Ascent is not a religious organization or school. We pursue the good, true, and beautiful with your students in the context of a public education welcome to any religious beliefs, while placing the truly religious education in the hands of the parents who are their children's primary educators. So, why then would we turn to a tool used by religious organizations to instruct your child. Primarily because it works.
Every morning, I ask your students the same six questions (this will grow as the year continues) which they answer in the same way with their classmates in unison to remind them why they are at school and that they are not alone. Hopefully, the truths contained within these responses would settle in your students minds to form the way they think about their education and most importantly the good, true, and beautiful. The first three answers were written by me. The last four answers comes from great thinkers in our curriculum. Currently, Dante, Galileo, and Thomas Jefferson are who we parrot in response to these questions.
Ladies and Gentlemen, who are you?
Ladies and Gentlemen, who are you?
I am a ruler, for I rule over my life.
What does it mean to rule over your life?
What does it mean to rule over your life?
I am free to do good or evil, my choices shape who I am.
What does it mean to be human?
What does it mean to be human?
The virtues are courage, justice, prudence, responsibility, friendship, moderation, and wonder.
What leads to decay within the human heart?
What leads to decay within the human heart?
The vices are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth.
From Dante's Inferno
What is the purpose of education?
What is the purpose of education?
"It can be urged that the wild and uncultivated tree, hitherto yielding sour and bitter fruit only can never be made to yield better; yet we know that the grafting arts implants a new tree on the savage stock, producing what is most estimable in kind and degree. Education in like manner, engrafts a new man on he native stock, and improves what in his nature was vicious and perverse into qualities of virtue and social worth." - Thomas Jefferson
Why should we struggle with Math?
Why should we struggle with Math?
"We live in a fallen world marked by discord but with hope of all things being renewed into unity with the Creator. Struggle with unanswered problems teaches us to tolerate discord with the hope of a solution. We do not give into despair but through struggle develop the virtues of humility, endurance, perseverance, and patience. The universe cannot be read until we have learnt the language and become familiar with the language with which it is written. It is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word." - Galileo
What is the course of civilization?
What is the course of civilization?
313 - Emperor Constantine converts to Christianity and grants toleration to Christians
410 - The Visigoths sack Rome; Roman soldiers withdraw from England.
455 - The Saxons, Angles, and Jutes invade Britain
527 - 562 - Justinian The Great and Theodora rule the Byzantine Empire
610 - 632 - Islam is born from the prophet Muhammad, uniting the Arabs
800 - Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
900 - The Feudal System begins to develop
1054 - The Great Schism occurs between Rome and Constantinople dividing the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Roman Catholic Church.
1095 - Pope Urban II preaches the First Crusade; the Crusades begin
1215 - King John I of England is defeated at the Battle of Runnymede and signs the Magna Charta
1337 - The Hundred Years’ War begins between England and France
1348-1350 - The peak of the Black Death pandemic
1431 - Joan of Arc is burned at the stake
1453 - Hundred Year’s War ends; Constantinople falls to the Turks
1492 - Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain finance the voyage of Christopher Columbus
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