Welcome to the Classical Liberal Arts Academy! We are working to research, restore, publish and teach the classical Catholic curriculum that was studied and taught by the doctors and saints of the Church throughout Christian history. We lead students of all ages through the ancient texts, providing a true classical studies for Catholic students. If you’re new to the site, please take a minute and watch this welcome video from William C. Michael, headmaster of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy.
Catholic Men Study for Free
Outside of the hours of men’s necessarywork, their leisure hours should be spent in virtuous sanctifying activities. The most excellent of these activities are prayer and study. Study, however, requires study materials, structure and support and, in most cases, this is expensive. Men providing for families can rarely afford such expenses, and that prevents men from seeking Wisdom. Instead, their hours fill up with inferior activities–watching television, surfing the web, and so on. To provide a remedy for this, we invite all Catholic men to study for free in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy. Simply enter the coupon code FREE-MEN when you enroll.
Classical Catholic Homeschool Curriculum
Modern schools, including Catholic homeschool curriculum publishers, do not offer historic Catholic education, but simply serve the requirements of modern K-12 schooling. These schools promise to allow parents to serve both God and Mammon, but in attempting to do so, fall into the errors warned of by Pope Leo XIII:
“If you carefully search for the cause of those errors you will find that it lies in the fact that in these days when the natural sciences absorb so much study, the more severe and lofty studies have been proportionately neglected.”
If you are a Catholic parent seeking to give your children the best education possible today, you do not need to compromise. The Classical Liberal Arts Academy provides a true classical Catholic homeschool curriculum. Not only will we provide you with the richest homeschool curriculum available anywhere, but we will also save your family thousands of dollars by eliminating the unnecessary expenses of other programs.
While our program may be different from what is found in modern schools and homeschool programs, it is not difficult to understand. Best of all, you can be absolutely certain that the education your children are receiving is a timeless and trustworthy Catholic education. Those are bold claims–but we are happy to prove them. Get started with our free book Understanding Classical Catholic Education.
I invite you to contact me directly with any questions you have regarding classical Catholic homeschool education, your family’s circumstances and needs, or practical details of how to get started and succeed in the Academy. I look forward to helping you get things right and feel satisfied homeschooling your children.
Why the CLAA for your Catholic homeschool curriculum?
If you look at what any other classical Catholic homeschool curriculum offers, you’ll find that it’s not solving the problems of modern education. It’s just offering the same K-12 program with Catholic stuff tacked on. The Classical Liberal Arts Academy provides Catholic homeschooling families and private schools with benefits you will not find anywhere else:
1. We serve the true end of education.
The Scriptures command us, “Get wisdom, because it is better than gold: and purchase Prudence, for it is more precious than silver.” Yet, despite this instruction, we find modern schools and homeschool programs ordered to serve college and career –and nothing else. In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we focus on the pursuit of Wisdom, true Philosophy, and trust that all other concerns will take care of themselves.
2. We restore the real classical liberal arts.
When we look back at the history of education, we see that wise men and saints studied and taught the classical liberal arts. Since the 1600s, when the Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution arose, these studies have been abandoned. Most modern schools don’t even teach Grammar or Logic, not to mention Philosophy or Theology. In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we don’t talk about “classical education” and then teach science and math. We teach the real classical liberal arts, revealed as the path to Wisdom by the Holy Spirit (Proverbs 9:1).
3. We are faithful to the Magisterium of the Church
We believe that, in addition to human philosophy, God has revealed all that is necessary for life and salvation and that “the task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.” (CCC 100). We study to be obedient to the Pope and bishops in all things and never contradict the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in any matters of faith or morals.
4. We allow families to study year-round, at their own pace.
Public schools were started when America was an agricultural society. Students went to school when they weren’t needed on the family farm. Modern publishers have arranged textbooks to serve schools hosting children only 180 days per year, but there’s no explanation for why publishers are doing so today. In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, our Catholic homeschool curriculum allows families to study year-round.
5. We make the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum simple.
The world of business and politics is constantly changing. School programs that aim to prepare students for their adult occupations, or participation in a future modern society whose circumstances are unknown, must constantly change. Homeschool parents are flooded with endless catalogs of new products and programs, which multiply every year. In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we focus on God, virtue, and human nature, which never change, studying books that will be true forever, and this makes the Catholic homeschool curriculum simple.
6. We make the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum affordable.
Modern education is just business today and the costs never end–that’s true whether you consider private schools or homeschool programs. They are are designed for the benefit of the teachers and administrators, not the students. A look at Catholic school tuition, or the constantly expanding homeschool catalogs reveals a disconnect between the financial goals of educators and the needs of families. In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we restore classical Catholic education and make prudent use of modern technology, which allows us to make homeschooling incredibly affordable, even free for many.
CLAA Petty School
If you wish to give your children a true, classical Catholic education, the earlier they get started, the better. To help with this, the Classical Liberal Arts Academy offers a vide0-based program for children ages 3-8 called the “Petty School”. For details about this program, visit the Petty School info page. Click here to view a Petty School Reading sample lesson.
Classical Catholic Library
We are working to make all study materials available freely online in our Classical Catholic Library. This is a work in progress, and we will be building the online library throughout the year. Please share these online works freely with your friends, students, etc. Here are the most recently added works:
Understanding Classical Catholic Education
In 2009, Mr. Michael taught an online course that led Catholic parents through a study of the history and principles of true classical Catholic education. The content of these lessons have since been published in book form, and are available for free reading. If there is one source that we would recommend for visitors interested in learning about classical Catholic education, this would be that source. Click here to read Understanding Classical Catholic Education–and please share with friends.