Ninth through twelfth grade at True North Classical Academy is referred to as the rhetoric school, because during these years, the liberal art of rhetoric is the most emphasized of the verbal arts. As the fundamental skills of writing and speaking, it is taught, practiced, and refined throughout every subject and class. Relying on the skills of grammar and logic, rhetoric is the skill of finding the best means of persuasion in order to lead others toward what is true, good, and beautiful. Speech, whether written or spoken, is never neutral, but always comes from and leads to a particular, situation, or vantage point. Therefore, the speaker always has a responsibility to use his or her words to instruct, move, and delight others in ways that are truthful and ethical.
Students in rhetoric school are old enough to begin to understand that life is not simplistic. It is filled with complexity, nuance, and variation. They are ready to engage in deeper thinking and want to express their thoughts with more accurate analysis and more interesting style. They desire to participate in activities that are meaningful and productive. Due to two hallmarks of our classical, liberal arts model of education, we not only meet this capacity in our students, but we set it ablaze.
First, we take a teleological approach when thinking about our curriculum, beginning with what we have in mind for our graduating seniors (class of 2023). What skills and ideas should they have? What should they love and desire? What books should they have read? What theories should they understand? What experiences should they have? Answering these questions help give our curriculum intentionality and continuity beginning with K-5, but becoming much more detailed and specific in ninth grade. For example, in our Humane Letters sequence of classes, students will engage with some of the greatest thinkers in Western Civilization. In ninth grade, students will read literature in the American tradition; in tenth grade students will read literature in modern Europe; in eleventh grade, students will read literature in Ancient Greece; and as seniors students will survey literature from Rome to Modernity. As seniors, students will deliver a speech and write a thesis that requires them to pick a topic or theme that runs through some of the major books read.
Second, our teachers are tremendously talented and have a deep conviction about teaching as a vocation. Many of our logic and rhetoric teachers have a master’s degree in the area of study that pertain to the content of what they currently teach. A handful of our teachers also have earned doctorates. There is an atmosphere amongst our faculty of passion for their disciplines and personal care for their students. They understand that they are training their students to pursue “higher things,” and this happens through relational teaching, where highly trained educators serve as models and mentors of deep thought and ethical practice. The strength of any curriculum certainly rests on the teachers who implement it, but at True North we would say that our teachers are the curriculum.
Building on a foundation of training in the skills of grammar and logic, our students in the rhetoric school are taught according to a purposefully designed curriculum by stellar teachers and are being prepared for a lifetime of learning and service of the community.
