Course Concepts
The Rolling Acres School offers three, multi-year class cycles that provide what we see as the essential elements of a proper education.
Overview
In a nutshell, we aim to teach the students the skills and habits of a disciplined mind in the context of familiarizing them with the Western Cultural tradition. In general, we focus upon the acquisition of the basic skills of observation, listening, reading, thinking, speaking, discussing, and writing. In the Traditio Nostra cycle, we encounter and discuss the great ideas, equations, and moments of the Western Tradition, including the voice of the Church throughout the chronologically arranged reading lists. The focus is upon the dialectical engagement of the students with each other around these sources of truth. In the Legamus Latinam cycle, we memorize 40 prayers of the Church, learn to read real primary source Latin, and immerse the students in the language through composition assignments. In addition, students are tutored in both Latin and English grammar and syntax, making this stand as the grammar section of the mediaeval trivium structure which undergirds our curriculum. The other two legs, logic and rhetoric, are found in the third cycle. In Schola Philosophiae, we balance the open-ended nature of the dialectic in Traditio Nostra with a more focused, lecture-style examination of the first principles of thought and being. This cycle begins with logic, the basic tool for the learning of all sciences, and then turns to rhetoric as a continuation of the consideration of the ways in which a person is persuaded. With these preparations in place the cycle then turns its focus to the created universe, beginning with the nature of man and his purpose in life. In the advanced level classes the students study Catholic moral theology, Catholic citizenship, and conclude with a course in Theology proper. The good, true, and beautiful are at the forefront of every lesson. Logical and rhetorical analysis are a constant component of all the courses, as are "field assignments"—opportunities for the students to take the theories presented by the philosophers we read into crafted experiences which allow them to test, tweak, and embrace or discard ideas in common-sensical ways.
These core classes have much in common with what has been called "classical" education insofar as we focus upon teaching the student the skills needed to think freely and follow a curriculum that reflects the liberal arts of the Mediaeval schools (we cover the trivium, not the quadrivium in our upper-level courses). However, we think that the development of a systematic understanding of the way things are that is grounded in observation and first principles, enriched by Catholic history and culture, guided by Catholic dogma, and ultimately focused upon the person of Christ is the abiding goal. Hence, we do not attempt to slavishly reproduce any particular system.
Traditio Nostra
“Our Tradition” is a class sequence dedicated to the reading and discussion of primary texts and proceeds chronologically through the important works of the Western, Catholic Tradition. Unlike many “great books” courses, this course cycle does not divorce the voice of the Church, and her saints, from the conversation. Thus, our understanding, as history itself, is balanced and guided by her. The key components of the courses are challenging primary readings, guided dialectical engagment, and written work (analytic, argumentative, and self-reflective).
The Traditio Nostra schedule for both intermediate and advanced (approximately middle school 7th to 9th grades and high school 10th to 12th grades) is as follows:
- Year One — Ancient & Classical Times
- Year Two — The Christian Age
- Year Three — Modern Times & Our America
The three-year historical cycle is repeated with a marked increase in depth and scope for the advanced years. The course examines both the defining issues of each age and the Church’s response, displaying the Church’s critical engagement with the world in all periods of her existence. It is important to note that Traditio Nostra does not attempt to replace your narrative historical reading program; rather, it is designed to supplement and enrich it. The courses in this cycle do this in three distinctive ways:
- Primary Source Readings. Primary sources offer direct insight into the minds of historical figures. Beginning readings are adapted excerpts of 10 to 20 pages, and advanced readings are complete works or large un-adapted excerpts.
- Dialectical Engagment with Guidance. As your student reads, ideas will flow, questions will pop up and naturally he will want to join in a larger conversation. This course helps the student engage directly with the great minds of the past in the company of their peers. Thinking, speaking, and analysis skills emerge as the students learn not only how to participate in a discussion, but how to lead one. This approach to learning is sometimes called "Socratic Discussion."
- ‘Reflect and Write’ Compositions & 'Prepare and Present' Assignments. Weekly writing or presentation assignments require students to think carefully about the reading and discussion and either present a position before the class or argue their own position upon further reflection after it.
LIVE, Independent Study, and Co-op Options
- For specific information about the classes being offered Live and as Independent Study Classes, please see the LIVE & IS Classes page.
- For information about using these student materials along with the supplemental teaching materials we provide in your co-op or cottage school, please see the Schola Rosa: Co-op & Home Curriculum page.
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Legamus Latinam
“Let’s Read Latin” is a class sequence designed to immerse students in the language of the Church in its ancient, medieval, and modern forms. Students learn over 40 Latin prayers of the Catholic Church, read passages from over 40 Latin authors, and write over 40 compositions by the end of their second year! From day one students spend time reading “real” Latin texts and writing their own Latin compositions, creating a unique written immersion approach. In addition, to providing direct contact with the living tradition of Latin withing the Church, this course also provides a rigorous tutorial in the nuts and bolts of grammar, syntax, and usage in both Latin and English. It provides the grammar component of the trivium framework—grammar, logic, rhetoric—that forms the basis for our curriculum as a whole.
Legamus Latinam includes three courses with activities for ancient, medieval, and modern Latin, which means that these courses can complement any year* in the Traditio Nostra sequence. Legamus Latinam has at its core "real" Latin language. The assignment types are an interwoven spectrum of original language opportunities within reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Thus, the following components represent these four foci:
- Memorization (listening and speaking): Assignments include the memorization of Latin prayers and hymns. This allows students ready access to real Latin examples as they study grammar.
- Oral Quizzes and Penpals (speaking): Oral quizzes that can be graded by parents or co-op parents are included. In the co-op setting, penpals are recommended.
- Translation (reading): Translations are carefully chosen from primary sources, so students are exposed to "real" language and not only workbook examples. For example, students spend much time translating writers, such as Vergil and Cicero, Church Fathers, and Papal documents. The emphasis is on “meaning” as opposed to linguistic drill. The goal is not to decode the grammar of a text, but to discover what the text actually means.
- Composition (writing): This fourth step is widely considered the most difficult to master, so students begin with it the first week of class. Compositions are creative writing opportunities for students to write about a variety of topics, including expositions about their favorite feast days, family vacation, and chores around the house. The compositions contain clear parameters, including limited vocabulary per composition and detailed examples to be modeled. Grading rubrices included.
LIVE, Independent Study, and Co-op Options
- For specific information about the classes being offered Live and as Independent Study Classes, please see the LIVE & IS Classes page.
- For information about using these student materials along with the supplemental teaching materials we provide in your co-op or cottage school, please see the Schola Rosa: Co-op & Home Curriculum page.
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Schola Philosophiae
“The School of Philosophy” is a class sequence that has two intermediate goals and one ultimate goal. For the first two goals, (1) we hope to develop in the student the best habits of thought and speech and (2) to re-introduce the students to the true, the good, and the beautiful which they have been immersed in, in some ways unaware, to this point in their lives. For the ultimate goal, we hope to do our part in helping the students progress toward wisdom, which we take to mean, at its simplest, knowledge of God (inasmuch as such is possible) and the best way to live in His world here and now—wisdom, in its full sense, is both knowledge for its own sake and knowledge for the practical business of life.
Students move from Logic and Rhetoric (the second and third components of the trivium) into the study of the ‘natures’ of things, the human person, and, ultimately, God. Once past the initial classes, all courses are ‘philosophical adventures’—guided encounters with the real (from ants, to trees, to music, to rainbows)—that help students to test and truly learn for themselves the principles of thought and being that underlie how we think and what things are, which are the topics that we humans .
The philosophical outlook from which we teach might be typified as "Catholic Aristotelian Realism." The world is real, man can know about it as a rational animal, using his senses and reason, and yet the point and purpose of all things is only to be fully understood by becoming aware of the transcendent first principle of all things and accepting the light of revelation under the guidance of the Church to give us insight into God. Every effort is made to clearly distinguish matters of reason and faith. Though the limits and assumptions of reason, and the rationality of faith are both topics we consider. Though the title might be taken to imply that revealed theology has no place in this sequence, it is included and highlighted at various points.
Schola Philosophiae operates on a three-year cycle and has two levels—intermediate and advanced. The classes offered can be arranged by year as follows:
Intermediate
- Year I—Logic
- Year II—Advanced Logic & Rhetoric
- Year III—Human Nature & Ethics
Advanced (proposed, not yet offered)
- Year IV—Morality & Citizenship: A Catholic View
- Year V—Order, Beauty, and God
- Year VI—Living a Life of Wisdom
Schola Philosophiae begins with courses specifically dedicated to learning how to think and speak and culminates in the systematic introduction to the most important topics about which we think and speak. Due emphasis is given to the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition as the students move from Logic and Rhetoric into introductory courses in study of the human person, human flourishing, human society, and how these point toward God. The two-fold focus here is on the acquisition of a disciplined habit of thought and a systematic science of the things that exist. The last four years of the cycle incorporate the “Philosophical Adventures” approach. The key feature are field assignments that take the students out into nature and human society to observe, analyze, and describe the activities of the world around them. These assignments are supplemented by analysis and composition tasks which present the students with pro and con argumentation in the manner of the mediaeval questio debate format. In the fourth year, we frame the Catholic view as a response to the philosophical problems that arise from the picture of human nature, mind, and flourishing that have emerged in our earlier classes. The fifth year explores the order and beauty of the cosmos and introduces the students to natural theology. The final year of the sequence is a course that is intended to take a step back from all of the considerations undertaken thus far and consider whether and how a Catholic life in all of its components is the sanest, most beautiful, funniest, happiest, and most reasonable life that one can live. The goal of education is a life well lived, and this class is an attempt to sum up just what that could mean as students are sent out of the door of formal schooling into their lives.
LIVE, Independent Study, and Co-op Options
- For specific information about the classes being offered Live and as Independent Study Classes, please see the LIVE & IS Classes page.
- For information about using these student materials along with the supplemental teaching materials we provide in your co-op or cottage school, please see the Schola Rosa: Co-op & Home Curriculum page.
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