The Torch
A deep dive into classical education
Your Preview of The Torch in 24-25!🔥
This week has been incredible. Energizing, exhausting, and inspiring! Our new teachers started last Thursday with a two day orientation and all Nova Classical Academy staff were back in the building on Monday morning. During this week, our staff engages in professional development, setting up classrooms, team meetings, and reconnecting with each other and our purpose in this grand endeavor that is classical education.
One of our exercises this week has been the Lower School grade level teams meeting in dual grades, such as 3rd and 4th grade, in order to share between grades which parts of the Nova Classical curriculum they cover. I will speak more on this curriculum throughout the year, but I was able to see the "spiral" of our curriculum in real time today, and I was fairly jumping up and down with excitement in the experience!
So that The Torch not only continues our discussion about classical education but also emulates this pattern of classical curriculum, I would like to go back to the topics with which I started this newsletter in 2021-2022. This method is the aforementioned "spiral"-- revisiting topics every three or four years to go deeper and strengthen our community understanding.
For 2024-2025, I will cover the following topics, based on some of our most frequently-asked questions:
September: What Is Classical Education?
October: What Is the Trivium?
November: What Is Spiraling?
December: What Is the Grammar Stage?
January: What Is the Logic Stage?
February: What Is the Rhetoric Stage?
March: Why Latin?
April: What Is Classical Education Not?
May: What Is the Great Conversation?
June: What Should We Do over the Summer? *My answer may surprise you!*
I may be an outlier, but this week before school starts is one of my favorites. I get to meet our new teachers, see my colleagues, hear about their summer adventures, and feel the energy of all these incredible people under one roof. We also get to see our students and families again (or for the first time!) at the Kindergarten Picnic and our Upper and Lower School Open Houses. What better way to start another great school year?
May we continue to keep the light of classical education burning bright,
Dr. Missy Johnson
Want to catch up or revisit any Torch issues?
2022-present The Torch
2021-2022 The Torch
As a teacher and student of Latin and Greek, the classical model was a natural choice for me as an educator. I hold the teaching of grammar, logic, rhetoric, and virtues in high regard for learners of all ages and backgrounds. Nova Classical’s community model is inspiring, and I hope to bring thoughtfulness and openness to the Great Conversation.