Frequently Asked Questions
Education Questions
Hybrid education is leveraging the best of home and school environments through a sharing of teaching duties between parents and school under one cohesive curriculum. This approach honors the family structure as the primary place of education yet provides the necessary support and extension of that through teachers at the school. In doing so, we end up with the academic excellence of private schooling with the individual attention of homeschooling in a way that helps reunite family, church, and school. The model is also called “collaborative” or “University Model.” For more on hybrid education, see: “Our Hybrid Model: Familia.”
Classical education is the cultivation of knowledge, wisdom, and virtue by means of a content-rich curriculum that spans the arts and sciences and culminates in theology and Christian worship. The goal is to form human beings physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually with properly ordered affections, tastes, and capacities, allowing them to serve their families, communities, and churches. For more on classical education, see: “Our Classical Approach: Schola.”
Because it is a gateway into a whole world of beauty, wisdom, and truth. We want to open that gateway for students by exposing them to Latin and enabling them to access these great treasures of the church, of theology, philosophy, science, and more. Entering the world of Latin is about much more than gaining the side benefits of learning root words or improving SAT scores. As good as those side benefits might be, they are not compelling ultimate rationales for Latin because those secondary benefits can be achieved in other ways. For more on our approach to Latin, see: “Why Teach Latin.”
Schola, in both Latin and Greek, means leisure. But not in the sense we use it today to refer to things like entertainment or leisure-time activities. Rather, leisure in its historical usage refers to a restful and rooted approach to life and learning that allows you to attend to the world with a receptive and joyful posture. This concept guides our whole approach, as our goal is to love learning and one another in a way that prevents the objectification of others and avoids the reduction of education into a pragmatic measurement of productivity. For more on schola, see: “What is Schola? School and True Leisure.”
We hold our students and families to a high standard when it comes to digital technology use, desiring to help form family cultures that have clear technology boundaries that significantly limit their children’s access and use. This is not because we think electronic entertainment or digital devices are inherently bad, but because such things so easily malform us at the level of desire and attention, and even at the level of the brain and the body. We desire to counteract this with a better yes, with robust real-life experiences as we fill our children’s lives with richer and more lasting, beautiful, and wondrous activities and practices. Over time, children who heavily invest their energy and thought in the shallow pleasures of electronic entertainment and the online world will find those pursuits to be at odds with ASCA’s education and culture. Their tastes, habits, and preferences will not be well-attuned for a deep enculturation and love of what is permanent and lasting. For an education in virtue, wisdom, and faith to be effective, what takes place at school must be in harmony with what takes place at home—especially in a hybrid school model where teachers and parents are partnering in the education and formation of children in on-campus and at-home environments. For more on our tech-minimal approach, see: “The Blessings of Being a Low-Tech School.”
Admissions Questions
See our Admissions page for tuition schedule.
Everything! It is our commitment to not nickel-and-dime families with unending fees. The application fee gets credited toward tuition upon the student’s enrollment, and all required curriculum and teaching materials is included in the cost. Two school uniform polo shirts are even included in the tuition (families will need to have appropriate pants for their children, i.e., khakis, skirts, etc.) The only additional costs are potential costs for some of the school field trips (see below).
Some
field trips throughout the year will cost. Families will have to pay for these trips; but the trips that cost will be optional. Also, a parent from every family will not be required to attend the field trips as long as the appropriate form is signed and arrangements are made.
We do not for three reasons. First, as a hybrid academy where families legally are homeschooling, we are not eligible for the funds. Second, there is a potential that with state money come additional strings over time. We want to insulate ourselves from that potential risk and ensure we have a sustainable model without becoming dependent on state money that could dry up at any time. We follow the rationale and example of institutions like Grove City College, Hillsdale College, and Luther
Classical College in taking this position. And third, regarding SC state funds, we would not be eligible since the academy is in NC.
No. We welcome families from a variety of Christian traditions who are supportive of our model and approach. All Christian share a common inheritance in the foundational doctrines expressed in the Scriptures
and the creeds, and education can be a shared venture as we learn from
each other. We are a discipleship model (also called covenant model)
school, where families affirm their agreement with basic Christian
doctrine and moral teaching, and agree to live accordingly. Families also understand that their children will receive distinctly Lutheran teaching in the classroom and in chapel (for more on Lutheranism, see here). Our school
culture is worth protecting for the good of all our students. For more
details, see our Admissions Process.
Procedural Questions
Our teachers provide guided lesson plans for parents to teach and students to complete during the at-home days Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Recess will be supervised by at least two adults at all times. During the day, exterior doors will be locked, with all teachers having keys to bring their students back inside after outdoor activities.
Yes. An education oriented towards truth, goodness, and beauty deserves something more than gym shorts, hoodies, and flip flops. As we form students in mind, body, and soul, we want our dress and decorum to reflect that. Taking the effort to put on appropriate clothing says to ourselves and others that what we are doing here matters; it becomes part of the ritual and routine of preparing for a great school day! The uniform is a polo provided by the academy (each student gets two polo shirts for the
school year), and pants/skirts are provided by the family since those
are items that have broad use beyond the school (and hopefully the polo
will too!).
Yes. Teacher aides will be used at certain points during the day when an extra adult in the classroom will be beneficial. Aides will be volunteers who pass a background check and agree to abide by the instructions provided by the academy and the teacher they are aiding. Church members and academy parents are eligible to be aides and will have to be approved by the headmaster.
Facility Questions
Part of our philosophy and approach is that bigger isn’t always better. Having small class sizes can be a wonderful blessing for students as it allows for more individual attention, less stress, and building closer relationships between teacher and student and student to student. Our current facility can handle approximately 30 students. If enrollment
surpasses this, we will pursue other avenues like building expansion, mobile units, etc.