The Educational Philosophy of Liberty Common School
Understanding Liberal Education at LCS
Liberty Common School is a classical, liberal arts, college-preparatory institution accentuating the humanities with a strong emphasis on math, science, and engineering. We believe a high-quality, rigorous education is the “great equalizer” among individuals allowing all students to achieve mature literacy and obtain the ability to thrive in college.
One's economic and social status, race, physical attributes, and other conditions become less relevant in the pursuit of happiness when armed with superb intellectual aptitude oriented toward true freedom.
The founders and leaders of Liberty Common School share a genuine concern for both the general decline in the quality of American public education and the preparation of American students to live free and compete well in a dynamic economy. Our remedy is Liberty Common High School and the philosophy described herein.
We reject the anti-intellectual traditions that have become so prevalent in American schools and colleges, particularly colleges of education. We find fault with the progressive, romantic theories of education that have come to dominate American education systems. Instead, we advocate the systemic acquisition of broad knowledge, superior language and active, engaged minds consistent with the idea of “intellectual capital” described by Core Knowledge Foundation founder E.D. Hirsch, Jr.
Our students are expected to excel in history, literature, English, fine arts, math, science, and engineering. They are expected to be familiar with at least one foreign language and to maintain physical fitness.
Instructional strategies at Liberty Common High School build upon the standards-based instruction and the Core Knowledge Sequence.
As a classical-liberal academic institution, Liberty Common School endeavors to cultivate the minds of its scholars in preparation for authentic liberty. While all citizens enjoy unalienable and civil rights, the full and responsible exercise of our fundamental individual rights is a direct function of a well-prepared mind and internalized virtue.
A Liberty Common School diploma warrants a graduate is capable of independent thinking and understanding of what is required to “live the good life.” A graduate has acquired accurate familiarity with essential concepts rooted in literature and philosophy – joy and despair, happiness and tragedy, dignity and corruption, and other indispensable juxtapositions.
All Liberty graduates possess the ability to objectively evaluate the nation's place in the world through a deep appreciation of history and an intensive study of civilizations including their rising and falling. They grasp nuances of relevant cultures including their languages, religions, governments, and economies. Graduates know well the background of America's allies and adversaries. A survey-level treatment of economics further promotes a solid understanding of America's imprint on human civilization and its future.
Liberty Common School scholars fully appreciate art, truth, beauty, goodness, and perfection. Robust exposure to these values renders specific genius marking creativity, imagination, inventiveness, and moral seriousness.
Developing practical leadership qualities and supporting skills in students is a proven strategy for applying comprehensive knowledge in constructive ways. Lessons learned in the classroom are deployed by students through organization, advocacy, persuasion, implementation of supporting projects, and wholesome community leadership.
A proper liberal education gives honored stature to science. Key scientific contributions and the scientific method are taught to all students throughout high school. Scholars are cognizant of significant scientific achievements in biology, chemistry, and physics especially those that elevate the human condition, promote prosperity, and enhance freedom. Students are also taught to understand the limits of science. All students should be exposed to the fundamentals of engineering in high school. The synthesis of applying scientific and mathematic principles to meritorious social and economic situations draws upon the multiple disciplines taught at Liberty to solve important problems.
Competition and choice in public education result in schooling of a higher quality. Teachers should be treated like real professionals. Parents should play the most influential role in the management and maintenance of the school. It is the right and responsibility of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. Liberty Common School exists to assist conscientious parents in this fundamental duty. The school exists because of parental leadership and parental oversight of the institution.
Liberty Common students are intellectually awake and able to engage in meaningful, mature conversations about any academic and philosophical topic. They are vigilant, active, and brave. Our goal is to educate for freedom, to achieve excellence in all we do, and to become the best school in America.
Underlying Philosophy of Liberty Common School (K-12)
Assumptions about how one learns, the purposes and goals of learning, and what constitutes effective teaching are what define an educational philosophy. Liberty's educational philosophy is known as agency education or classical education. It forms our decisions on how knowledge, skills, and democratic values should be taught and how students, parents, and teachers should work together to accomplish the portion of education that occurs during formal schooling.
Trailblazers
The individuals who have most clearly identified and characterized the major issues of education reform as well as put forth the best solutions are E.D. Hirsch (The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them, Cultural Literacy), William Kilpatrick (Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong), Neil Postman (The End of Education, Amusing Ourselves to Death, The Disappearance of Childhood), Diane Ravitch, Thomas Sowell (Conflict of Visions), and Jacques Barzun (Begin Here).
We ask all parents to please read The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them and Why Johnny Can't Tell Right from Wrong. Copies are available in the school libraries. We also encourage parents to read the other books from this list in order to gain a better understanding of the philosophy of this school.
Parents In Charge
The chief metaphor of classical education is the journey. The journey is the individual's own quest in life and includes responsibility for one's own education, which is a lifelong endeavor. The purpose of a liberal education is to lead young people on an odyssey of the mind and heart, which will steer them toward self-reliance.
The Journey
The classical allegories for a liberal education, such as the journeys of Odysseus, Aeneas, and Faust, represent a journey of the soul from one's particular time, place, and attachments to the universal and back again. The beauty of this journey is its applicability to the actual development of mind, heart, skills, and knowledge in each child. Children begin their cognitive development by first developing a broad framework of knowledge through early acquired curiosity, much as they acquire their early spoken vocabulary.
The Thinking Framework
After students have gained a wide familiarity with literature, history, science, math, music, people, and places, as one does in the early years of Core Knowledge, they begin to appreciate patterns and forms. Following this, particularly when trained in the "Habits of Mind" of different disciplines, the student is able to engage in mental modeling, which is possible only when one's broad background knowledge allows one to associate ideas and to observe patterns. By persisting in both these habits of mind and the search for patterns, discernment is applied to deeper levels of knowledge, enabling one to solve problems and exercise judgment. The beginning of the moral journey follows a similar course.
Moral Literacy
At first, the focus is obedience to parental authority. Later the child focuses on rules or the required patterns of expectation. As in writing or thinking, it is only through the formation of good habits that the ability to act rightly and act wisely becomes instinctive. As those habits become more and more internalized, the student journeys closer to self-reliance.