Our Educational Approach

Ordo Amoris

At Saint Augustine, we believe that education’s right aim is to grow virtuous citizens, and that the work of education is to cultivate rightly ordered affections. Our primary aim is to understand the truth, goodness, and beauty of our Lord. We do not want our students merely to know information but to love our God, His people, and His world.

Curriculum & Pedagogy

In our curriculum, we begin the study of language early and continue rigorously. Our goal is that we would be at home in English–and be joyful travelers to Latin, French, and Spanish. Our approach to mathematics is one that puts a primacy on both fluency and understanding. In the sciences, we aim to see the natural world for what it is–ordered and fascinating. In history, we want to see how God has knit His redemptive story from the earliest civilizations until today. In addition to those core classes, we layer: Logic, the art of reasoning well; Rhetoric, speaking the truth with clarity and charity; Bible, the study of the primary source of truth; Ethics, the application of God’s truth to our moral world; and the Arts, the presentation of beauty to the world.

In the classroom and at home, we utilize practices that align with the nature of a student and provide the logical steps necessary for acquiring knowledge and skills. In the lower school, our students engage much in memorization and observation, activities which are key faculties in young children and create a strong foundation for higher-level thinking and writing. In the upper school, as students grow in their desire and ability for discursive reasoning, we teach them to construct arguments, identify fallacies, and speak persuasively. In all of our classes, we approach knowledge as unified and we introduce concepts from parts to whole. Our teachers recognize that imitation precedes art, and thus provide a model for students in instruction, practice, and behavior, embodying the spirit of inquiry and imitating the spirit of Christ as they love the students entrusted to them.

Saint Augustine School, Ridgeland, MS

Classical. Christian. Collaborative.