The Catholic Classical Difference - Academics

Our Catholic classical education curriculum meets and exceeds all state requirements, and specifically aligns them, enriches them, and integrates them cohesively into a beautiful tapestry that reflects all the best that has ever been thought, written, spoken, or done. 

We are truly unique in that we are the first school in the Diocese to transition our entire curriculum, PK3-12th grade, to the classical model.  In addition, we are the FIRST Chesterton Academy in the state of Texas and in the southern United States, so we are leading the way among Catholic schools in this endeavor. 

The authentic purpose of education and of life - and the search for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness - drives every decision and lesson.  Lesson plan objectives are based not on what “students will be able to do”, but rather, on what “truth students will behold.”  Students are constantly reminded that we are training for heaven.

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Austin do not take the Texas STAAR test.  However, we do utilize Reading and Math benchmarks and nationally norm-referenced tests that allow us to measure progress and ensure academic growth. We have written a classical academic program that is accepted by the accreditation process for Catholic schools, identified by the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops Education Department.

 Our Catholic classical curriculum seeks to awaken in students their natural desire for a life of virtue, which sets them free to know, love, and serve God and neighbor, aware of their ultimate purpose in life – to become a saint.

The keystone of the classical model is the Trivium (i.e., Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric), which simply recognizes the child's natural stages of development. Tried and true for centuries, this method produces lifelong critical thinkers and learners who seek excellence in all facets of life, fully armed to meet the modern challenges of our secular culture and to determine truth from falsehood. The classically-trained mind is formed by the best that has ever been written, thought, spoken, composed, created, performed, and painted, regardless of whether or not it has fallen out of popularity or favor with modernity.

St. Mary's Catholic School offers an education in excellence, wherever it is found naturally and however it is revealed supernaturally. Teachers joyfully integrate Scripture and Tradition throughout the curriculum and prepare students to “give an account for the hope that is in them” (1 Peter 3:15). Students first come to know the authentic doctrines and morals of the faith, illumined by love. This faith is then reinforced by reason, allowing students to discover its connections (in all subject areas) to human experience and make sense of man's search for happiness.

This conviction will help students encounter, not lofty ideas, but a person, Jesus Christ, who is truth, beauty, and goodness personified and with whom a personal relationship gives life a new horizon and decisive direction.