PROVIDENCE CLASSICAL ACADEMY
DialecticAcademics : Grammar - Dialectic - Rhetoric In the Dialectic years, grades seven through nine, students learn how facts relate to each other and how to think clearly and argue well. They are developing their logical thinking skills during these years and are becoming acquainted with good reasoning and with the logical fallacies so evident in our culture today. Providence Classical Academy and classical Christian education changes its approach to students during the Dialectic years because students grow and change during these years. In Grammar School students loved singing songs, chanting chants and learning by memory. By the time they are 7th graders this method can become tiresome. So the classical Christian educator changes his approach. Students at this age love to argue and to catch others in inconsistencies. If you have a student this age you’ll recognize this tendency. We teach them to argue quite well, politely and graciously. To improve the students’ critical thinking skills the Dialectic student studies formal logic for two years, as well as logical fallacies. Here the students learn to argue forcefully and winsomely with each other, and to defend themselves against the fallacious thinking that passes for sound argument in our culture. Math during the Dialectic years consists of two years of Algebra and one of Geometry. Some may question the wisdom of teaching Algebra in the 7th grade. However, the well-prepared student is ready to handle Algebra at this stage, having completed pre-Algebra in the 6th grade. He is ready to take all the math information he’s memorized and internalized and see how it all fits together. This is a perfect fit for the Dialectic years. A large chunk of the day of the Dialectic student will be devoted to Omnibus, the Latin word meaning “everything.” Omnibus is an extended class that encompasses theology, history, and literature. The students read and learn and discuss Great Books of Western Civilization. They learn how to think through the great issues that have faced Western civilization and to think through these issues. Students consider free will and predestination as they read Luther’s On the Bondage of the Will, and they ponder what it means to venture toward the Celestial City as they read Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. They also read Lewis and Tolkien, Rousseau and Jefferson, Sophocles and Aeschylus—learning from and arguing with all of them and with each other. Providence Classical Academy’s study of science begins in 7th Grade. Students study general and physical science as well as biology during the Dialectic years. All of these classes focus on learning the art of thinking, so students are encouraged to debate, question assumptions and to think biblically for themselves. |