St. Jerome's Gets Back to Basics

When Chris McManes sends his sixth-, third- and first-grader to St. Jerome's Classical School, he does so with the intent that they will get glimpses of truth, beauty, personal awareness and God.

And that is what the new curriculum at the elementary school will provide.

"As Catholics we believe that truth and beauty are standards that don't change based on the latest fads," McManes said.

Two of McManes' children attended St. Jerome's previously, and they would continue to attend even if no changes had been made to the Catholic school's curriculum. But the new classical approach – with its goals of helping pupils speak, write, read and think better – has him duly impressed.

"Anyone who can do those things will be able to communicate better and be more appealing to potential employers," McManes said.

The classical model was widely used in America until the 20th century. Its three academic stages largely mirror child development.

Grades one through four focus mainly on the memorization and recitation of knowledge. Grade five and above deal with logic. High school's rhetoric stage combines stages one and two.

Classical education is more language driven than image driven – meaning less technology and more primary sources, such as books and original text.

Rebecca Teti served on the curriculum committee that helped design the new curriculum.

She's also a St. Jerome's mom, with a second-, fourth-, seventh- and eighth-grader.

"St. Jerome's has always had many things my husband and I value – a Christian environment, a welcoming community and dedicated faculty," she said. "While the teachers and administration have done a fine job imparting the information in the textbooks, we've always felt that the standards could be improved."

Teti calls the classical curriculum a shift from education as simply information to education as formation.

"A good teacher can impart information effectively – download certain facts into a student's brain, and most schools do that pretty well," Teti said. "But then the kids graduate, forget it all and what was it all for?"

She said classical education does two things.

"Practically speaking, in terms of method, it addresses students in a way that corresponds better to their stages of mental development so they hopefully come to love education and become life-long learners because they enjoy the process more and because each skill builds on the next," she said.

The curriculum can be found at http://www.stjeromeclassicalschool.info.

"We're hopeful that our kids will be better prepared for high school and college, but also happier and more fulfilled as students and have a stronger basis on which to become good people, whatever they choose to do as adults," Teti said.