About CCA

Columbus Classical Academy (CCA) is a private classical school in central Ohio, serving grades K-9, adding a grade each year through grade twelve. CCA is a Hillsdale College Curriculum School.

Our Mission

Columbus Classical Academy inculcates in our students, through a genuine and rigorous classical education in the liberal arts and sciences, the knowledge and virtue upon which independent, responsible, and joyful lives are built, in the firm belief that such lives are the foundation of a free and flourishing republic.

Campus

The Columbus Classical Academy campus is located at 2000 Polaris Parkway, Columbus, OH 43240. Our campus comprises roughly 60,000 square feet of space on a beautifully maintained and highly accessible 6+ acre property. This campus was made possible by the generous support of multiple donors who provided favorable financing terms as well as the extraordinary assistance of a number of professionals who gave freely of their time and expertise. We thank them for their incredible support and generosity.

The Hillsdale Affiliation

Columbus Classical Academy is a Hillsdale College Curriculum School, a distinction that offers our school access to a tried and true K-12 Curriculum from the Hillsdale College K-12 Education Office.

About Hillsdale

Hillsdale College was founded to provide the kind of sound learning necessary to preserve the blessings of liberty. For over 175 years, it has offered an outstanding liberal arts education for undergraduate students. Restoring excellence to American K-12 education is a natural extension of the College’s mission, and Hillsdale has been helping K-12 schools for over three decades.

Hillsdale teaches K-12 schools to provide an education that is both classical and American in its orientation; one that is rooted in the liberal arts and sciences, offers a firm grounding in civic virtue, and cultivates moral character.

Hillsdale’s curriculum, contained in the Hillsdale College K-12 Program Guide, is available to CCA at no cost; it is made possible by the generous support of friends of Hillsdale College.

Helpful Links

For more information about Hillsdale College support for schools like Columbus Classical Academy, visit k12.hillsdale.edu.

• What is American Classical Education?
• Hillsdale Classical Schools Across the Nation
• Founding a Hillsdale Classical School
• Frequently asked questions about Hillsdale’s support for K-12 schools

Head of School

Daniel C. Gibson is the founding Head of School of Columbus Classical Academy. Prior to joining CCA, Mr. Gibson was a partner at the law firm of Bricker & Eckler LLP in Columbus, where he was a litigator and appellate lawyer for more than 15 years. He also served as an Associate Director at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. immediately following graduation from law school. Mr. Gibson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy, cum laude, from Davidson College and a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School.

Learn more about Mr. Gibson’s vision for Columbus Classical Academy here.

Frequently Asked Questions

You can find out about our location here.

Please see our Admissions page for information about enrollment and tuition.

Please see our Admissions page to apply to Columbus Classical Academy.

CCA will serve grades K-9 in school year 2024/25. We will add one grade each year until K-12 is served.

See our Faith at CCA page for more information.

We support those who choose to educate at home, and encourage those who are interested to look at Hillsdale's curriculum page, as Hillsdale has made its curriculum available to homeschooling families. However, we currently do not have plans to offer a part-time, hybrid, or elective-only option for education at CCA. All of our students will be enrolled full-time in our traditional school environment.

We are hiring multiple faculty and positions. See our Careers page for more information.

Thank you for your support of CCA! CCA has many different areas and opportunities to be involved. If you would like to support our efforts financially, you can donate here. If you have other talents or assets you believe would be better suited in a volunteer capacity, please get in touch and we will connect you with the appropriate Committee Chairman.

Core 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.

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.

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 have no religious affiliation but uphold the value of 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.

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Our Board of Directors

CCA is backed by a group of volunteers committed to the revival of classical education in central Ohio. Our work is motivated by serving our children, grandchildren, and their peers.

Our Shield

Each visual mark in the Columbus Classical Academy shield reminds us of our mission.

The Shape

The shield is classical in nature and a tool of defense. It reminds us that a virtuous life is the best defense of our freedom as both an individual and as society. It reminds us that these things—the good, the true, and the beautiful—are worth defending.

The Torch

The torch is a reminder that education illuminates our mind and brings us into the light of truth. The torch reminds us of our classical heritage—we are a part of something older and greater than just our times, or even the classical world of antiquity which we are inheriting. We are a part of something eternal. We have both received this torch from previous generations and will pass the torch to subsequent ones.

The Colors

The colors are those of our nation. Our nation was founded on these classical principles, and we believe in the inseparable role classical education plays in the thriving of our nation. We look to the past in Hillsdale’s distinctly American classical education model. And we look to the future good of our country for which we are pursuing this education.

Our Motto: Veritas et Virtus

Our motto, Veritas et Virtus, means “truth and virtue.” This orients us toward our mission.

Truth

We are pursuing Truth. We desire Truth. We know there is objective Truth that can be known. We know that the Truth will set us free, and only in this freedom can we live abundantly.

Virtue

Knowing this Truth will lead us into a more virtuous life. Virtue, in turn, allows us to better know the Truth. By pursuing our 7 school virtues we will become worthy of undertaking pursuit of the great transcendentals: the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.

Our 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, and
joyful in the face of difficulty.