Seven Oaks: A Classical Curriculum

One of the things which makes it a joy to teach teenagers is that they are ready to learn such a broad variety of things - their minds really are ready. Our goal, at Seven Oaks, is to construct a curriculum which helps them to connect with their humanity first, while at the same time developing their ability to think for themselves. Those goals are best fulfilled by a Classical Curriculum.

Fortunately, there are many resources available for building that type of curriculum, including relatively robust offerings from the Chesterton Network, the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education (ICLE), and Hillsdale College. Those represent the foundation of the curriculum at Seven Oaks.

Of course, there is no such thing as a "one-size-fits-all" curriculum. None of those three offerings represent a good fit for the character of Omaha, Nebraska in their current form - the Omaha educational community is unique in that it offers a broad range of choices and features a down-to-earth, plain-spoken population.

A very broad overview of what we intend to use is depicted in the chart. It is an intense curriculum - there is a lot there already, and we are committed to carving out time for things that students find engaging in important - such as a yearbook, and journalism, and speech, and the use of technology . . . all of those things will be wrapped into what we do, so please ask questions about our plan for bringing it all together.