Virtues

At Columbus Classical Academy, our pursuit of virtue is not about planting a flag of self-righteousness, but rather about planting the seeds of humility. For this reason, everything we do starts and ends with a focus on the moral formation of our students in light of the seven classical virtues.

G.K. Chesterton once responded to the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?” by answering: “I am.” At Columbus Classical Academy, our pursuit of virtue is predicated upon this humbling truth.

Those who invoke virtue and insist on the reality of a moral law often are perceived as self-righteous prudes. The reputation is not entirely unearned. Often those with a conscience sensitive to the created moral order take on an air of superiority rather than the introspection that such knowledge demands. We acknowledge that in our hypocrisy, we are not quick enough to recognize and correct our own depravity before we decry it in others.

Yet, as the old adage goes, “hypocrisy is the homage that vice pays to virtue.” And so, the answer to hypocrisy is not the dismantling of virtue, as some would have it, but the humble acknowledgment of our own iniquity along with the intentional formation of good and virtuous habits that help build the character to resist our vices. This requires a knowledge of what is good and right and a desire to conform our lives to it, even though we inevitably will fall short.

Many moral and political ideologies ascendant today, however, respond either by redefining virtue as the unqualified pursuit of self-interest, or by preemptively laying the line of demarcation between good and evil along boundaries of social status, identity, or material wealth, so that the very capacity for virtue becomes a function of cultural power rather than a matter of personal conduct—those who identify with the class of “innocents” are beyond reproach, while all others are beyond redemption.

These distortions are not exclusive to the political left or right. Ayn Rand’s objectivist libertarianism declares the atomizing “Virtue of Selfishness” just as Marxist humanism proclaims the balkanizing virtue of revolutionary class struggle.

After a decade of imprisonment, torture, and exile at the hands of the Soviet Union, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn understood not that his oppressors were uniquely wicked or that he and his fellow victims were simply good, but instead that “[t]he line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart….” His, theirs, yours, and mine.

The Seven Classical Virtues

FORTITUDE

- fortitudo -

There is much to fear in the world, but more important is the virtue with which we confront this fear with courage and overcome difficulty.

PRUDENCE

- prudentia-

Prudence is wisdom in practical matters, the ability to see the good and attain it.

JUSTICE

- justitia -

We act with justice when we give to each his or her due, and when we conform our will to reality. Augustine tells us that justice is the “supreme essential for government.”

TEMPERANCE

- temperantia-

Temperance allows us to govern ourselves and our appetites in accordance with reason.

FAITH

- fidem -

We uphold the value of true faith, for the most important things in this life and beyond are unseen.

HOPE

- spes -

We work diligently with hope not in ourselves but in our Creator.

CHARITY

- caritas -

Our happiness is found, paradoxically, in the outpouring of our love for others.

Honor Code

All Columbus Classical Academy students pledge to live by the CCA honor code, which is recited regularly as a group.

A Columbus Classical Academy Student is:

HONEST

in all things

UPRIGHT

in conduct

DILIGENT

in study

DUTIFUL

in service

JOYFUL

in the face of difficulty