by Head of School, Rachael Oren
The Classical Academy has reached another important milestone, just three weeks before our very first Commencement! Our three seniors successfully (and impressively) defended their senior theses in front of a chosen panel, Academy staff, and upper school peers.
The senior thesis is a capstone project – a highlighted masterpiece showcasing a student’s academic journey. It brings all that they’ve learned—reading, writing, and arguing—to bear on one issue. They learned the background of their topic, analyzed other people’s arguments, and synthesized their findings and discoveries, and then put it all together to form a true, good, and beautiful whole.
These three young scholars began their three year rhetoric journey as sophomores with a mix of eagerness and trepidation. It was beautiful to watch them demonstrate true ownership of their education as they drafted six parts of their thesis—introduction (exordium), statement of facts (narratio), thesis statement (partitio), argument (confirmatio), counterargument (refutatio), and conclusion (peroratio). Along the way, they not only learned specific rhetorical skills, but they each learned how to find his or her own voice and use it to masterful effect. This was not the end, but the beginning, of practicing the art of winning others’ hearts and minds for what is true, good, and beautiful.
The senior thesis defense included the writing of a twenty-page paper that was then presented and defended to an audience of specialists, teachers and peers. We are incredibly proud of their work and perseverance. Our school logo features a tree, but we aren’t merely growing oaks; we are raising a generation of Godly thinkers and communicators with deep roots and wide-reaching branches.
