 Academics
Philosophy of Education
Hope Academy was established to provide the children of the
city with a rigorous, God-centered, classical education.
What do we mean by a God-centered education?
There is an undeniable connection between the phenomenal growth
of secular humanism in our day and the disastrous decline of our
nation’s schools. According to Chuck Colson, “The
decline in American public education is not due to poor teaching
or lack of funding; it is due to educational theories that deny
the existence of transcendent truth and morality, that renounce
standards of excellence, and ultimately render children unteachable.”
 The
disintegration of a biblical worldview has doomed our city’s
children to a lifetime of failure. At Hope Academy, we believe
the chief goal and purpose of all things--including education--is
to love God and love our neighbor. True education is literally
impossible without such a transcendent goal and purpose.
The Bible teaches us that all knowledge comes from God, and therefore,
all knowledge has unity. At Hope Academy, we teach all subjects
as part of an integrated whole, with the Scriptures at the center.
Students are equipped to know and love the truth and to utilize
that knowledge to glorify God in all things.
Why must the education at Hope Academy be academically rigorous?
There is no place for shoddy Christian education. We are preparing
Minneapolis’ next generation of leaders, therefore we must
equip them with the core knowledge to take on the most demanding
leadership roles required of the 21st century. An academically
rigorous course of study will best prepare students to deal purposefully
and responsibly with the complex issues of living in this present
society.
 What
do we mean by a classical education?
For centuries, education was grounded on an emphasis of imparting
the basic tools of learning, designed to equip students in verbal
and reasoning skills within a God-centered view of life. Today’s
departure from teaching the basics has resulted in the current
trend of declining student achievement. Dorothy Sayers, a renowned
Oxford trained educator, in her essay, “The Lost Tools of
Learning,” defined the structure of the classic educational
process and found that it fit the natural learning development
of children. She showed that the key elements of classical education
– Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric – corresponded with
the four natural learning stages of a child:
1. Beginning Grammar Grades K-3 (Ages 4-8) Reading/Writing
2. Grammar Grades 3-6 (Ages 9-11) Writing
3. Logic Grades 7-9 (Ages 12-14) Thinking
4. Rhetoric Grades 10-12 (Ages 15-18) Speaking
Hope Academy is both traditional and classical--learning from
the great literature of our Christian heritage, combined with
an emphasis on the basics of mathematics, science, history, and
language.
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