High School

The high school curriculum is based on the philosophy of classical education as it is outlined in Dorothy Sayers’ essay, “The Lost Tools of Learning”, which is referenced in Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy’s original charter. This essay lays out an argument for education based on the Trivium: the three-step method of approaching education as the natural process by which humans develop as rational beings who use language. Essentially, we embrace the idea that children learn best by knowing, thinking, and creating, and that the goal of education is not to give young people a catalog of knowledge but rather to teach them how to learn. We believe that students are best prepared for living a good life if they have the tools of learning to apply to all of life’s circumstances and struggles.

These tools of learning are the three steps of the Trivium: 

1) Grammar - the acquiring of knowledge through observation and memorization, answering the question “what?”; 

2) Logic/Dialectic - the use of reasoning to identify and understand reality, answering the question “why?”; 

3) Rhetoric - the skill of persuading others by taking knowledge and analysis and using them to make arguments about the way things are, answering the question “why does this matter to me?”

TJCA’s high school curriculum, then, is structured around the standard fields of study, with an emphasis on these subjects as opportunities to practice the skills of truth-seeking. Students are expected, of course, to demonstrate mastery of the knowledge required by each class. TJCA’s teachers support classical education and the trivium by intentionally expecting students to analyze and communicate their findings. To do this, teachers are encouraged to adopt the Socratic method, asking students to identify the reasons for their claims and to reveal assumptions and logical errors. In assessments, teachers go beyond just asking students to remember facts and instead give them opportunities to practice the tools of learning: making thesis claims, structuring arguments accurately, writing them out formally, and presenting them.

Our teachers and administrators look forward to partnering with our students and their families throughout this curriculum. Our mission statement asserts, “ Building upon the foundation of the Core Knowledge Sequence, Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy: A Challenge Foundation Academy partners with families to educate students in grades K-12 in the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, thus graduating thoughtful, articulate young adults who are prepared for college and a lifetime of citizenship and active intellectual inquiry.” At TJCA, we do not believe education happens only at school, nor that it is limited to teachers' efforts alone. We firmly believe that in order for classical education to work, our institution must be a community of students and their families working with the school towards the same goals.