Classic Learning Test

Ok, this is incredible.

A new classical Catholic high school just opened in Fairfax County (St. Jerome Institute) — this is what a serious education looks like:

– Phones collected at the door
– Every class is a seminar discussion
– 15-20 students seated facing one another
– Art and music are required, NOT elective
– Math class teaches "the intrinsic beauty of math"
– Entire curriculum is integrated: philosophical and theological questioning in every class

And here's the literature section of the reading list:

9th grade (Exodus & Odyssey):
– Homer, Odyssey
– Genesis
– Plato, Euthyphro and Apology
– Virgil, Aeneid
– Exodus
– Beowulf
– Song of Roland
– Gospel of Luke
– Plato, Phaedo and Crito
– Acts of the Apostles
– Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
– Wilder, Our Town

10th grade (God & Nature):
– Creation myths
– Plato, Timaeus and Symposium
– Aristotle, De Anima
– Plotinus
– Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, Bonaventure, Aquinas
– Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
– Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
– Descartes, Meditations
– Bacon, Newton, Darwin
– Berry, Wilder, Tolkien
– Tocqueville
– Benedict XVI
– Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
– Faulkner, The Bear

11th grade (God & the Human Person):
– Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
– Plato, Symposium
– Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
– Augustine, Confessions
– Shakespeare, Twelfth Night and King Lear
– Hobbes, Leviathan
– Swift, A Modest Proposal
– Austen, Pride and Prejudice
– Shelley, Frankenstein
– Hopkins
– O’Connor
– Martin Luther King Jr.
– Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
– John Paul II

12th grade (God & Society):
– Plato, Republic
– Dante, The Divine Comedy
– Aristotle, Politics
– Augustine, City of God
– Aquinas, De Regno
– Natural and human law
– Machiavelli, Hobbes
– Locke, Rousseau
– Marx and Engels
– Dignitatis Humanae, Evangelium Vitae, Centesimus Annus
– John Courtney Murray
– Leviticus
– Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
– The Declaration of Independence
– The Constitution
– The Federalist Papers

"They gain an in-depth knowledge of Western civilization from Athens, Rome, and Jerusalem through England and the founding of our own country."

One of the simplest ways to encourage children to read is to make books a normal part of their lives.

— Keep books in the house
— Read stories aloud
— Visit libraries regularly
— Give books as presents
— Talk about what you're reading
— Let children see you reading
— Encourage curiosity about history

Children should grow up seeing books as something familiar and enjoyable, not simply as school assignments.

Want to understand how some of history's greatest thinkers educated themselves?

Look at what they read:

— Thomas Jefferson studied Cicero and classical history.
— John Adams read Plato, Aristotle, and Roman historians.
— Thomas Aquinas studied Aristotle.
— Dante drew heavily on Virgil.
— C. S. Lewis read Greek, Latin, and medieval literature.
— Renaissance humanists searched monasteries for forgotten classical manuscripts.

These men lived in very different centuries, but they shared one important habit: they learned from the people who came before them.

You don't have to reinvent your education. Much of the reading list has already been written.

Thank you to the veterans who have bravely served our country. Before we can educate students to live freely, you made that freedom possible.

You can give yourself a better education by spending one hour every day doing something worthwhile.

— 20 minutes reading history
— 20 minutes reading philosophy or literature
— 10 minutes writing about what you read
— 10 minutes memorizing or reviewing something important

That's it.

You don't need to enroll in another course, collect more certificates, or wait for someone to give you permission to learn.

A good education is not something that ends when you graduate.

It's something you build over a lifetime.