Grace Academy to open for 2008-09 school year
New Christian school now taking applications

By Sherrie Norris
A provisional board of directors for Grace Academy, a newly formed classical Christian school, is

enthusiastically announcing the school’s opening for the 2008-09 academic year.

The school comes as a result of “the earnest prayers and efforts of many families in the area,” a spokesperson said.

“Grace Academy was born from a unilateral desire for parent-driven, academically rigorous, and financially affordable Christian education for students in the High Country,” the spokesperson added. “Its mission is to assist families of the High Country in the education of their children by providing a distinctively classical education with a biblical worldview in the hope of equipping students for a lifetime of learning, service and leadership to the glory of God.”

While not affiliated with any particular church or denomination, Grace Academy will be “distinctly Christian,” due to its worldview and doctrinal commitments, “consistent with the reformed faith.”

It will also be classical, following curricula taught according to the time-proven model of education known as the trivium, the spokesperson said. “The trivium, Latin for ‘three ways,’ divides the K-12 school career into three stages, according to the way children naturally develop – the grammar stage, the dialectic stage and the rhetoric stage.”

The Grammar stage (grades K-5) is devoted to the learning of fundamental facts and rules of each subject with emphasis on “delightful instructional methods,” such as singing, chanting, memorization and recitation. Basic Latin will begin in third grade.

The Dialectic stage (grades 6-8) is committed to teaching students to analyze, reason, question, evaluate and critique. Logic, “the art of arguing correctly,” is a core subject introduced during these ages as the student learns to think clearly about all of life.

In the Rhetoric stage (grades 9-12), students learn to express orally and in written form what they know and what they are learning – debate, apologetics, speech, essay writing and drama emphasized to equip students in being effective communicators.

The rhetoric stage, built on a foundation of accumulated knowledge, “is truly the capstone” of the Trivium. “Content unique to this classical approach will also include the interdisciplinary study of literature and ancient history within the framework of a Biblical worldview.”

The school’s university model structure combines the best aspects from conventional public, private and home schools by pairing professional instruction with caring parents at home, the spokesperson added, “It gives time and access, often robbed from parents by the very structure of traditional schools, back to parents in exchange for their commitment to be academically and relationally involved with their students outside of class.”

This is accomplished “by the implementation of a class schedule comprised of two essential parts – the school classroom, where professional teachers present lessons on a once or twice-per-week basis in each subject, and the ‘home classroom,’ where parents oversee the expansion and completion of the assignments during the remainder of the school week.”

This good-faith partnership between parents and teachers makes school and home integration both possible and practical, the founding members agree, resulting in a family-strengthening, quality education. A cooperative organization of “Academic Support Days” has been established for families whose work schedule requires additional educational oversight beyond the school classroom defined above.

Applications for kindergarten through eighth grade are now being accepted through Aug. 1 with “family information” meetings already in progress. The first session was held on Thursday, July 7, with two more following on Thursday, July 24 and Tuesday, July 29, at Living Water Christian Fellowship, 247 Boone Heights Drive in Boone (next to Boone Bowling Center) beginning at 7 p.m. each night.

The board of directors includes several who are knowledgeable about classical education and the college model schedule. They are David and Cindy Blust, Tim and Libby Dowell, Scott and Renee Fuller, Merrill and Beth Littlejohn, and Bryan and Cindy Vogt

With a few teachers already in place, the board is in the process of interviewing to fill the remaining spots. “We are looking for talented, energetic and loving Christian teachers who are committed to implementing an academically rigorous curriculum using a classical approach.”

For the 2008-09 academic year, Grace Academy will be enrolling students from kindergarten through eighth grade with an expansion to high school grades anticipated for the 2009-10 academic year. Plans are already under way for the organization of athletic teams and other extracurricular activities.

School enrollment ends on Friday, Aug. 1 with classes beginning Friday, Aug. 22.

Living Water Christian Fellowship in Boone will serve as campus for kindergarten through fifth grade; grammar school for grades six through eight (the Dialectic school) will convene at Alliance Bible Fellowship on N.C. 105 Bypass.

For more information, including a list of classes, schedules, academic calendar and costs, visit the school’s Web site at www.graceacademyboone.com.