Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
New Catholic school emphasizes classical education
In the wake of a new school year, Regina Coeli Academy, a new catholic elementary school in Abington, is taking a different approach to education — an approach it calls “classical education.”
Regina Coeli, located in the 1500 block of Marian Road, is a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade academy whose goal is to promote the intellectual growth and talents of students through a classical liberal arts education, according to the school’s mission statement.
“Liberal means to be free,” said Joseph Austin, the headmaster of Regina. “We want our students to acquire a skill set that makes them free members of society, contributors to society and [individuals] with the ability to learn, think, make judgments and form opinions.”
Rather than focus on practical learning, which emphasizes school, college, job, Austin said a classical education is one that “emphasizes who you are as a person made in the image of God and is committed to the true, the good and the beautiful.”
Austin said that a classical education divides childhood development into three stagesW grammar, logic and rhetoric, which he called the “trivium.”
Grammar is emphasized in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, he said.
The grammar phase does not just emphasize the structure of a sentence, but focuses on memorizing basic facts, vocabulary, history and arithmetic.
“[The students] love to soak up knowl- edge,” Austin said. “They memorize poetry, the Baltimore Catechism and learn songs, called jingles, to help them learn the rules of grammar.”
Austin said the grammar phase lays a foundation of knowledge the students will unpack later in their education.
In fifth through eighth grade logic is emphasized. Students are challenged to think critically at this stage in their educational experience, Austin said.
“We want students to embrace questions and think about good arguments and support those arguments logically,” he said. “We also want students to see how facts fit together.”
Austin said the school works to integrate subjects so students see how different ideas relate.
“If students are learning about the industrial revolution in history class, they will also read a novel by Charles Dickens,” he said. “This makes history come alive. They will see how the novel connects with the time period.”
Last, students in seventh and eighth grade focus on rhetoric.
“We are preparing students for high school,” Austin said. “[Rhetoric] places an emphasis in the eloquence of speech, writing and public speaking.”
Students practice rhetoric during student forums held three days a week. Austin said students give 10-minute presentations on a unit they finished in class, a lab they completed or recite a poem they learned. Austin said these forums include the entire school and allows for the younger students to learn from the older students.
Students at Regina also study Latin and Greek. Austin said these languages are emphasized because much of the English language is rooted in Latin and Greek words and it helps students identify different parts of speech.
Austin said they also offer after-school programs for students such as drama club, chess club, track and Lego robotics.
There are 230 classical schools in the rnited States and it’s a growing form of education, he said. Regina has two sisters schools — Regina Angelorum Academy in Ardmore and Regina Luminis Academy in Dowingtown. All three schools contain student bodies ranging from 60 to 80 students.
Founded in 2003, the first of the Regina academies, Regina Coeli was originated in Wyndmoor, but moved to Abington in July when a school building next to Our Lady Help of Christians parish became available.
Austin said the school relocated to connect and be involved with an active parish and for the improved facility, which includes a gymnasium and library that it did not have at its former location.
“This is [also] a great opportunity for [the school] to grow in a residential neighborhood,” he said.
Austin, who has been headmaster for three years, is a firm believer in classical education, because he says he sees what it can do. His five children attend the school.
“I’ve seen how [classical education] has informed their [my children’s] writing and communications skills … it’s beautiful. [It’s] very rewarding and reminds me of why we are doing what we are doing.”