THE LIBERAL ARTS
Classical Curriculum
The liberal arts ordered to truth, goodness, and beauty
AN ANCIENT MODEL
What Is Classical Education?
Classical education is the oldest and most proven method of forming young minds. For over two millennia, the liberal arts have trained students not merely in skills but in the habits of thought that produce wisdom, eloquence, and virtue.
Unlike modern education, which fragments knowledge into isolated subjects, the classical model integrates all learning into a unified whole—with theology as the “queen of the sciences” crowning every discipline.
DISCIPLINA
The Trivium
Grammar
The foundation of all learning. Students master Latin grammar, English composition, and the grammar of each discipline, learning the building blocks of knowledge through memorization, close reading, and careful observation.
Logic
The art of right reasoning. Through formal and informal logic, students learn to analyze arguments, detect fallacies, and construct clear demonstrations. Philosophy and mathematics sharpen the mind.
Rhetoric
The art of persuasive expression. Students synthesize their knowledge, articulating truth beautifully and persuasively through debate, oratory, thesis defense, and senior capstone projects.
The Quadrivium
Arithmetic
The study of number, pure quantity and its properties. Mathematics reveals the rational order of creation.
Geometry
The study of number in space, form, proportion, and the beauty of spatial reasoning.
Music
The study of number in time, harmony, rhythm, and the mathematical order of sound.
Astonomy
The study of number in space and time, the cosmos, its order, and the wonder of creation.
PRIMARY SOURCES
The Great Books
Our students read original sources, not textbooks about them. They wrestle directly with the greatest minds in history, forming their own understanding through the great conversation of Western civilization.
- Homer: The Iliad and The Odyssey
- Plato: The Republic, Meno, Phaedo
- Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, Politics
- Virgil: The Aeneid
- Augustine: Confessions, City of God
- Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (selections)
- Dante: The Divine Comedy
- Shakespeare: Selected plays and sonnets
- Chesterton: Orthodoxy, The Everlasting Man
- John Henry Newman: The Idea of a University
THE LANGUAGE OF THE CHURCH
Latin at Every Level
Latin is not a dead language at Stella Maris. It is the living language of the Church, the foundation of English vocabulary, and the key to reading the great works in their original tongue. Every student studies Latin throughout their high school career.
From the prayers of the Mass to the texts of Cicero, Virgil, and Aquinas, Latin connects our students to the patrimony of Western culture.
Experience the Difference
Learn how classical education transforms young minds.