ACA partners with Christian parents to connect students to truth, beauty, and goodness through a Christ-centered and classical education. We come alongside the home and church to develop fully formed disciples who love God with all their hearts, souls, minds, and strength. We cultivate a love of learning, endeavoring to inspire and equip students to find their God-given purpose to serve their community and the world for the glory of God.

Our methodology is Classical, which is based on the Trivium, meaning three ways: grammar (K-6th), logic (7th-9th), and rhetoric (10th-12th). This methodology leans into the fabric of the way a child is made and develops so that we teach “along the grain.”

Grammar is not limited to language studies, but consists of the fundamental rules and building blocks of each subject. It is the accumulation of facts through repeated exposure, taking advantage of the sponginess of elementary-aged children. They will gain knowledge that they will draw from the rest of their lives.

The logic stage is the sorting out of those facts. Here, they are learning how to think not just what to think. Children begin to enjoy arguing at this age so we will teach them to debate well and with respect, showing the “why” behind the “what.”

Rhetoric is the articulation and presentation of those facts in a clear, coherent, and compelling way. A capstone of education is verbal presentation with precision and persuasiveness. Classical Education is concerned with much more than imparting knowledge in order to gain employment. We are more concerned with virtue-training than vocation-training. We are forming souls, not just transmitting test-taking skills. We will seek to educate both the heart and mind, seeking to cultivate a certain type of person, a knowledgeable person as well as a wise person. By God’s grace, we will graduate wise and virtuous people with a love of learning, having mastered the art of learning so as to better acquire and apply knowledge, think critically, and articulate persuasively. The goal is to partner with parents, supplementing your teaching, and enabling you to be all the more effective with your children.

G.K. CHESTERTON

Our content is Christ-Centered. Three fundamental truths will inform everything we do and teach: the Lordship of Christ, the truthfulness of the Word of God, and the importance of worldview.

Abraham Kuyper once said, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!” Jesus Christ is Lord of all. “All things were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16). Education should take this reality into account every moment of the day and with every subject addressed. Secular education places man in the center. We will place Christ at the center.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Prov 1:7). All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ (Col 2:3). We will teach all subjects as an integrated whole with God’s Word as the foundation. As a Christian school, it will be an institution “of the book,” robustly committed to God’s Word - through and through. Abilene Christian Academy will bleed Bible. As Nancy Pearcey puts it, “God is not just the Savior of souls, He is also the Lord of creation. One way we acknowledge His Lordship is by interpreting every aspect of creation in the light of His truth. God’s Word becomes a set of glasses offering a new perspective on all our thoughts and actions" (Total Truth, 24).

Our children will spend some 16,000 hours with educators from K-12th grade. Every educator has a worldview informing all they say and do. King Jesus said that whoever is not with him is against him (Matt 12:30). Romans 1 teaches that all people either acknowledge God or suppress the truth. Neutrality is a myth. Discipleship is always taking place. Enculturation is occurring. Education must account for the biblical antithesis between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, between truth and error, between goodness and sinfulness, between beauty and ugliness. We will analyze ideologies and filter all things from the standpoint of a biblical worldview.

R.L. DABNEY

If you are interested in educating your children in a Classical and Christ-Centered way, click the button below to apply today.