Philosophy
Education does not take place in a philosophical vacuum. Underlying
traditional Western education is the Aristotelian and Catholic
view that there exists outside of the mind a reality that can be
known and communicated to others. This realism, or realist approach
to the world, recognizes the primary role the five senses play
in a young person’s coming to know and understand reality.
Direct experience with the physical world awakens the imagination
and develops a sense of wonder in the created order by leading
a student to appreciate the very things – trees, streams,
fields, cows, the moon and the stars – that are celebrated
in literature and form the basis for all learning. In an age when
so much of many young people’s daily lives is mediated through
television, computer games, the internet, and other technology,
Chelsea Academy provides opportunities for students to experience,
explore, study, and interact with the natural world.
Education is more than the study of nature. In the Western tradition,
it has also involved the transmission of the classical and Christian
heritage of learning, wisdom, and human achievements in the arts,
mathematics, sciences, humanities, and political realm. The “100
Great Books,” which include the major works of philosophy,
political theory, and science, have often provided the backbone
for a liberal arts education in college or university. At Chelsea
Academy, the academic curriculum is rooted in the “1,000
Good Books,” those works which in the words of writer and
educator John Senior are “indispensable as the cultural soil
of moral, intellectual and spiritual growth” and without
which the great books are likely to be arid abstractions incapable
of producing lasting fruit. Through reading, memorization, recitation,
and study, students gain more than a passing familiarity with the
legacy that includes Virgil, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, and
Dumas. They develop a love for literature and learning in all the
disciplines, and their intellects are sharpened.
A complete education also recognizes the spiritual reality made
known through divine Revelation and transmitted through the centuries
by the Catholic Church. This deposit of faith reveals the nature
of God, man, and man’s relationship to God. It affirms that
man is created in the image of God (imago Dei) and that the Creator
endows man with the capacity to know the Truth, to do the Good,
and to recognize the Beautiful. It also asserts that man finds
his true happiness in the end for which he was created: to know,
love, and serve God in this life and to be united with Him forever
in Heaven. Embracing the Catechism’s teaching that “The
desire for God is written in the human heart,” Chelsea Academy
instructs its students in the teachings and devotions of the Catholic
Church.
At its root (educere), education involves leading forth, drawing
out, releasing a person from his narrowness and self-centeredness
to a greater awareness of the world and others and to the realization
of his full human potential. To these ends, Chelsea Academy provides
a nurturing and challenging environment in which all students are
able to develop their physical, intellectual, and moral capacities.
A faculty and administration chosen for their strength of character
and their commitment to the Academy’s mission and philosophy
do more than guide Chelsea students by instruction. They guide
by example. As Cardinal Newman put it, “Persons influence
us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us.” Inspired
by the example of their parents and teachers, the strength of their
friendships, and the vitality of the faith to which they are heirs,
Chelsea students are encouraged to see life as an adventure in
which they will build on the tradition that was passed on to them.
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