THE
ANGELICUM ACADEMY
 The
Angelicum Academy ("TA") is a Catholic homeschool
and liberal education program based on the liberal
arts and the classical great books of Western
civilization (with optional, Socratic discussion
seminars). It is no coincidence that TA appears
very similar to the Great Books Academy. This
is because TA is a spin-off of the Great Books
Academy (GBA). And just as the GBA looked to St.
John's College as a model, TA looks to Thomas
Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA, as well as
to the former Pearson Integrated Humanities Program
at Kansas University.
 The
Great Books Academy has no religious affiliation.
Indeed, the GBA is structured such that the
religious educational component need not subscribe
to any particular creed (it being provided by
the parents, not by GBA). Yet, a conversation,
a dialectic, is generally more productive to
the degree that the participants share common,
defined starting points. Therefore, the
more shared starting points, the more productive
the conversation tends to be.
Upon
reflection, those of the Directors of the GBA
who are Catholic came to realize that an educational
program that utilized the liberal arts and the
great books (with optional, Socratic discussion
groups), could be more efficacious for Catholic
students if it were based upon the shared starting
points of a common creed as defined and clarified
by the Catholic magisterial authority. So
it was that The Angelicum Academy was formed.
TA combines the great books approach found at
the GBA, with an intellectual assent to the teachings
of the Catholic Church. Its essential purpose
is to combine Catholic wisdom and secular learning.
Consequently, the teaching Church, the Magisterium,
becomes the shared starting point for the conversation
at TA. For this reason, it had to be separated
from the GBA. Furthermore, it is this grounding
in Catholic doctrine that is seen as a great counterpoint
to the modern errors of which, due to their overwhelming
influence on contemporary life no liberally educated
man deserving of that title can remain ignorant.
 Meet
the Chairman of
the The Angelicum Academy: Dr. Peter A. Redpath,
Full Professor of Philosophy at St. John's University,
Philosopher, Educator, Author, Lecturer. What
the Dean Emeritus of the Catholic University of
America, Jude Dougherty, had to say about Dr.
Redpath: "a profound thinker . . .a learned
and serious philosopher who shows clearly that
ideas have consequences . . . given the breath
of his historical survey and his analytic power,
he is reminiscent of Hegel in his most sweeping."
(from the June, 1999 issue of The Review
of Metaphysics).
The
study of such errors should not overly concern
parents because, to quote from Christian Education
of Youth by Pope Pius XI, when truly Catholic
schools are . . .
.
. . in harmony with the Church and the Christian
family, the various branches of secular learning
will not enter into conflict with religious
instruction to the manifest detriment of education.
And if, when occasion arises, it be deemed
necessary to have students read authors propounding
false doctrine, for the purpose of refuting
it, this will be done after due preparation
and with such an antidote of sound doctrine,
that it will not only do no harm, but will
be an aid to the Christian formation of youth.
Put
another way, the study of truth and error, side
by side, serves only to reinforce in the student
the ability to be properly formed by the truth.
The "due preparation" needed for this endeavor
is provided by TA in the primary years in the
study of the liberal arts (the learning arts).
To this are added both the Good and Great Books
Programs, together with the optional, Socratic
discussion groups moderated by Catholic tutors
trained for this purpose. By the time the
curriculum gradually reaches the modern errors,
the student is well into the high school years,
and has been duly prepared to juxtapose truth
and error.
Meet a Founding Director of
the The Angelicum Academy: Thomas R. Orr, Esq.
graduated cum laude from the University of Washington;
graduated magna cum laude from the Puget Sound
LawSchool; was a Sergeant on the Seattle police
force; is a Lieutenant Commander (Sel) in U.S.
Naval Intelligence; a member of the U.S. Supreme
Court Bar, and a founding Director of the Angelicum
Academy. Tom lives with his wife Pam and two sons
in Federal Way, WA.
In
addition to offering all the services available
from the GBA, TA also provides a religious curriculum
that is faithful to the Magisterium of the Catholic
Church and mindful of the teachings of Saint Thomas
Aquinas. TA's attentiveness to Saint Thomas'
theology is reflected in its name (The Angelicum
Academy), which is taken from the informal title
of the Dominican University of Saint Thomas Aquinas
in Rome.
With
the advent of The Angelicum Academy, homeschools
and private schools at all grade levels now
have: a classical curriculum, founded upon fidelity
to the Church, teaching the liberal arts of
learning, and reading and discussing the greatest
books of Western civilization. Faith is
thereby enabled to seek understanding, of what
we must be and what we must do here below, in
order to attain the sublime end for which we
were created.
The
TA has a fully developed homeschool elementary
curriculum for grades nursery through 8th, selected
eclectically for the very finest materials available
from numerous publishers. This conventional
curriculum is organized for easy viewing at
The
Angelicum Book Store
by grade level or by subject (eg. math,
history).
HOMESCHOOLING.
After the millennial Catholic tradition of homeschooling
prior to the mid-1800's (and even until the
early mid 1900's) it remained the favored educational
method for families of diplomats, military and
mariners, often on the move or in remote locales,
through the 1970s. The widespread publicity
given to academic and disciplinary problems
in schools beginning in the 1980's prompted
a groundswell of parental demand for homeschooling
curricula. Skyrocketing school violence and
drug use in the 1990's, even in parochial schools,
greatly increased the number of homeschooled
students. Estimates place the number of homeschooled
students in the U.S. at over 2 million (including
well over 100,000 Catholics). Study after study
has concluded that homeschooled students outperform
publicly-schooled students by wide margins,
in every academic category, and even in "socialization"
skills. In the early 1990's homeschooling was
often adopted by parents reacting negatively
to problems in the schools and in society at
large. Beyond the absence of the problems associated
with public and parochial schooling, little
was expected of homeschool curricula except
the elementary basics - the 3 R' s. As one author
noted: "The aim of state education has
been (historically) to prevent people from discovering
the classics are worth reading. In this endeavor
it has been almost wholly successful."
As the homeschooling movement has grown and
become mainstream, more parents are searching
for better curricula for their children. Increasingly,
Catholic parents are asking what the specific
goals of education are, and what are the best
means of attaining those goals. In our view,
this is an inevitable and entirely positive
shift. It is the growing movement towards the
approach that addressed and answered those questions
in the past - classical education. The Church
Fathers who wrote on the matter, all supported
classical education of Catholic youth (see related
articles on our website angelicum.net - click
to Articles). It is noteworthy that classical,
Athenian education ("paideia") began
with seven years of homeschooling.
THE
ANGELICUM ACADEMY DIFFERENCE.
Sixteen important elements were brought together
to complete our curriculum: (1.) Catholic religion,
history and literature texts are central to
our curriculum; (2.) Classical education - elements
of items 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8, described below,
make our program distinctly classical in approach;
(3.) the "Good Books" - the great
children's classics, selected by the famed Catholic
classicist, the late Dr. John Senior, which
are read in our nursery-8th grade literature
program prepare our students for the greatest
works of our culture; (4.) the Great Books -
the greatest classics of Western civilization,
beginning with the ancient Greeks, then the
Romans, Medievals and Moderns, which are studied
in our 9th-12th grade literature program (includes
readings of the O.T., the Gospels, St. John,
St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Chaucer,
etc.); (5.) Great Books Discussion - these optional,
online groups develop thinking, speaking, listening
and reading skills while acquainting our students
with the great ideas contained in the classics,
from a Catholic perspective; (6.) the finest
materials available - since we did not write
the classics we are able to select from the
finest illustrated editions and most up-to-date
texts available in other subjects from many
sources, without having to restrict our selections
to our own materials; (7.) our "poetic"
and integrated approach to education of the
senses, imagination and intuition via the use
of the natural wonder and love of the beauty
of nature in young students, which was developed
for older students into the Integrated Humanities
Program by Drs. Quinn, Senior and Nelick (see
articles on this in the online Classical Homeschooling
Magazine issue #2); (8.) our liberal arts and
generalist educational approach (from "libertas"
meaning liberty or freedom from ignorance -
not "liberalism" as a political view)
is preparatory not merely for college, but also
for life; it is not the narrow specialization
or vocationalism that prepares young people
for only one job, skill or specialty so often
obsolete in ten years, or even less in our day;
(9.) designed for homeschool or independent
study, with all the attendant advantages which
numerous studies have demonstrated homeschooling
has over public schooling; (10.) our program
is complete - nursery through 12th grade, 13
subjects, placement tests, daily lesson plans,
quarterly tests, and grading; (11.) flexibility
- students may progress at their own pace, in
each course selected, on different grade levels
- no one-size-fits all obstacles are imposed
in our program. Parents are free to choose and
mix from among any, or all, courses and grade
levels offered; (12.) all enrolled students
are given our unique coded access to 5 online
resources: Britannica Encyclopaedia Online,
edited by the late Dr. Mortimer J. Adler (who
was received into the Church in 1999 at the
age of 96); (13.) Britannica’s Annals (documents)
of American History Online; (14.) The Oxford
English Dictionary Online; (15.) Oxford Research
Online; and (16.) Classical Homeschooling Magazine.
COMPLETE
SERVICES OFFERED.
We offer a complete curriculum for grades nursery
through 12th, including books, lesson plans,
and related materials in thirteen (13) subject
areas: Art, Cartography, Foreign Languages,
Geography, History, Language Arts, Literature,
Math, Music, Philosophy, Religion, Science,
and optional, online Great Books Discussion.
Additional services for enrolled students include
placement tests, quarterly tests and grading,
report cards, diplomas and transcripts, email
consultations, and the 5 online services detailed
above. Much greater detail is provided at our
website: angelicum.net.
OPTIONAL
GREAT BOOKS DISCUSSION GROUPS.
Experienced Great Books Discussion (“GBD”)
faculty moderate optional, online discussions
for grades 3-12. They range from ½ hour
bi weekly (in 3rd grade), to 2 hours weekly
(9th-12th grades), for 5 to 25 students per
group. These online discussions are sometimes
called Socratic Discussion Groups after Socrates'
manner of using mutual inquiry and serious but
friendly conversation to stimulate thought and
learning. They help students develop critical
reading skills, logical thinking, listening
and speaking skills, mutual respect, decision-making,
self-teaching habits and a love of learning,
truth and, indirectly, virtue. The readings
are similar to those at Thomas Aquinas College,
but are less philosophical, and more "poetic."
CLASSICAL
HOMESCHOOLING MAGAZINE.
Our Directors and faculty contribute numerous
articles to Classical Homeschooling Magazine.
These are now available online at classicalhomeschooling.com
and some free at angelicum.net
Angelicum
Newsletter Summer 2008(PDF)
This newsletter announces the commencement of
our ninth academic year
offering our homeschooling curriculum, books,
enrollment services,
online classes and recent developments.
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