Tulsa Education: February 2013 Archives

As we near the midpoint of the second semester, it's a good time to consider whether your current schooling arrangement best suits your children's needs. Never before have there been so many options. If you want an academically rigorous but caring environment, grounded in the Christian worldview, taught in accordance with the classical approach to education, you need to consider Augustine Christian Academy. Two open houses in the next few weeks and a banquet this Friday evening are ways to get acquainted with ACA.

Augustine Christian Academy is a non-denominational classical Christian school. The distinctives page on the website gives you a good sense of what the school is all about. A few excerpts:

Whereas public schools are prohibited from presenting a Christian emphasis in any subject and most Christian schools present only a single sectarian doctrine, ACA exposes its students to a variety of viewpoints training them through logic to question the truth and validity of each.

Rather than limiting the expression of their Christianity to traditional religious activity, ACA seeks to train students to expand their expression of faith through an integrated Biblical worldview. Students are taught to bring Biblical principles to every sphere of life and learning in order to completely reflect the glory of God in their life and culture.

Augustine Christian Academy has two upcoming open houses on Tuesday evening, February 26, 2013, 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm, and Wednesday afternoon, March 6, 2013, 2:00 - 3:30 pm. It's an opportunity to tour the school, ask questions, and meet teachers. The school is at 6310 E. 30th St., just west of Sheridan.

Prospective students are also encouraged to shadow a student for a day, and school tours can be arranged at other times. Call the ACA office at 918-832-4600 to schedule a visit.

The ACA annual banquet, this Friday night, February 22, 2013, at 6:30 p.m. at the Tulsa Renaissance Hotel, is another fine way to get to know the school. The speaker for the event is Arthur Greeno, author of Dysfunctional Inspiration.

ACA not only offers an excellent academic environment, but we've also found it to be a warm, welcoming community. Beyond the classroom, there's a strong performing arts program and a "house" system that builds community across the grades through service projects and intramural competition.

One of ACA's notable characteristics is its flexibility in working with the circumstances of a student and his family. Homeschool students in grades 6 through 12 can enroll part-time to supplement their homeschool curriculum and to participate in school activities. Younger homeschoolers can enroll in extracurricular programs at ACA. Some financial aid is available. After-care is available at the school (for a fee) to accommodate parental work schedules.

Our family has been part of the ACA community for the last six years, and this year I'm also teaching first-year Ancient Greek at the school. The more I've gotten to know this school, its leadership, its teachers, and its students, the more impressed I am, not just by the commitment to academic excellence, but by the spirit of community.

Back in early January, I participated in an in-service day for the faculty, which included a discussion of Anthony Esolen's ironically-titled Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. The comments of the teachers revealed a desire to impart a lifelong love of learning and a sense of imagination and possibility that will produce leaders, not mere cogs in a machine.

If you have school-aged children, you owe it to them and yourself to get acquainted with all that Augustine Christian Academy has to offer.

Here's a brief video introduction:

MORE: The performing arts are a particular strength at ACA, and if your children enjoy music and theater, they'll find kindred spirits here. Annual high school and junior high musicals are major productions, and students can take courses in drama, stagecraft, Shakespeare, and vocal music. Here's a clip from last year's production of Hello, Dolly, followed by a montage of scenes from the dress rehearsal:

This Saturday is the first of four informational meetings in the Tulsa area for the Classical Conversations homeschool community and curriculum:

Saturday, February 16, 2013, 1:00-3:00 pm: Mardels, 71st & Mingo
Tuesday, February 19, 2013, 7:00-8:30 pm: Panera, 71st & Lewis
Monday, February 25, 2013, 6:30-8:00 pm: Mardels, 71st & Mingo
Thursday, February 28, 2013, 1:00-2:30 pm: First United Methodist Church Tulsa, Youth and Family Center

Classical Conversations is a national homeschooling organization that develops curriculum and structure for organizing local communities of homeschooling families with a commitment to the classical approach to education and the Christian faith. CC families school at home but gather one day a week for instruction from tutors and review of that week's work, plus special group activities.

(Dorothy L. Sayers's essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning," is a foundational text in the modern resurgence of the classical model of education, describing the three stages of the classical Trivium -- grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric -- and their suitability to the stages of a child's intellectual development.)

Tulsa's first CC community was organized at Reed Park in 2007-2008 and moved to Asbury United Methodist Church the following year. The Tulsa metro area now has 10 communities, in downtown Tulsa, south central Tulsa (2), southeast Tulsa, Bartlesville (2), Broken Arrow, Collinsville, Owasso, and Mannford, with one more being organized in Broken Arrow. CC is also in Oklahoma City, Edmond, Lawton, Enid, Kingfisher, Arcadia, Elk City, Shawnee, and Ponca City, with a new community being organized in Stillwater.

Our family is now in our sixth year in a Classical Conversations community. CC has given all of our kids a strong academic grounding. They have a temporal and geographical framework for understanding world history and current events. They've learned how to organize their thoughts into coherent and articulate essays. They've learned to read and enjoy classic fiction and to analyze and respond to what they're reading. My wife particularly enjoys the fellowship with other homeschooling families and the accountability and pacing of the weekly gatherings.

Click here to find a complete calendar of Classical Conversations informational meetings in Oklahoma.

Click the poster to view it full-sized.