Course of study

Students spend over 16,000 hours in a classroom during their K-12th grade education. This time should be used wisely to cultivate the hearts, minds, and souls of the next generation. At Christ Classical Academy, we value the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. Students’ course of study includes reading classic literature and a thorough study of grammar, composition, spelling, cursive writing, and Latin. All these components provide the framework for graduating students who speak articulately and write with beauty, clarity, and power. Furthermore, CCA’s mathematics program utilizes an age-appropriate scope and sequence. We believe in allowing sufficient time in the grammar stage for the mastery of basic skills needed for upper-level math in the logic and rhetoric stages. Add in science taught from a biblical worldview and the history of the great men of the Middle Ages, Greece, Rome, and the founders of America for a complete, thorough study of all core subjects.

Beyond core subjects, CCA students also study Christian studies, logic, and rhetoric. Christian studies is an academic course that is just as demanding as our other courses of study. We adhere to the concept that biblical literacy is just as important as literacy in all other subjects, and we use a curriculum that thoroughly grounds our students in this understanding. Our Christian studies program starts with learning major biblical accounts, prayers, and memory verses. We continue scripture memorization as we move to systematic teaching of the Bible’s main characters and events. Biblical history is coupled with traditional history in chronological order as we work our way through creation to Christ. This helps our students to develop a profound Christian worldview on history. CCA’s Christian studies program focuses on basic theological concepts that are common to all Christian faith traditions. Additionally, logic is also an important part of CCA’s curriculum. The study of logic gives students the ability to form logical arguments, both in writing and in speaking, that are rooted in truth instead of fallacy and emotion. Finally, rhetoric is yet another distinctive course of study at CCA. Our students study rhetoric in their 12th-grade year. It involves a study of political philosophy, ethics, and psychology. Students learn how to give legal speeches that elicit specific emotions in certain circumstances. While the course Classic Rhetoric is for our 12th-grade students, all students aged 12-18 can participate in our Speech and Debate Club and classes and learn how to implement both logic and rhetoric through competition in our speech and debate competition league.

Because we are a private school, we do not take part in the annual Tennessee state testing mandated for public schools. CCA does not focus on teaching a list of standards in preparation for a high-stake standardized assessment at the end of the school year. On the contrary, our focus is teaching students how to think and how to communicate in preparation for higher education and life beyond school. While this is our philosophy, we do test annually using the Iowa standardized form to assist CCA in evaluating our students in reading, language arts, and math to compare their scores to other students nationally. Testing data is one component CCA examines to strengthen each of our subject areas from year to year.