Our Curriculum

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Our classical, content rich curriculum emphasizes the grammar of each subject in the elementary grades such that students are prepared to engage the logic of each discipline by the middle grades before employing the rhetoric germane to every subject in the upper grades.

From Kindergarten through 12th grade, we follow the scope and sequence set out in the program guide published by Hillsdale College’s K-12 initiative. The curriculum foregrounds content that promotes what scholar and creator of the Core Knowledge curriculum E.D. Hirsch calls “cultural literacy.”

Throughout all grades, the curriculum includes great books and an emphasis on the power of good stories to shape human beings. In the lower school, teachers focus heavily on the elements of literacy and numeracy through the use of Singapore Math and our explicit phonics curriculum, Literacy Essentials. As students move into the upper school, they begin Latin and have the opportunity to take rigorous math and science classes. Literature, history, and philosophy courses include significant reading lists of complete books and other primary texts from the western canon. Students across grade-levels have substantial numbers of required fine arts classes and multiple opportunities for elective arts classes. The curriculum culminates in the senior thesis project, in which students write a 12-15 page essay on a major human question and present it during an hour-long defense in front of a panel of three faculty members.