Frequently Asked Questions
Where is CCA located?
You can find out about our location here.
How much is tuition?
Please see our Admissions page for information about enrollment and tuition.
How do I apply?
Please see our Admissions page to apply to Columbus Classical Academy.
When will CCA open?
We eagerly anticipate welcoming our first students for the 2023-2024 academic year!
What grades does CCA serve?
CCA initially serves grades K-8. We will add one grade each year until K-12 is served.
We're a homeschooling family, and we love what you're doing. Do you intend to offer a part-time or hybrid model of enrollment for my child to attend specific classes?
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.
What positions are you hiring?
We are hiring multiple faculty and positions. See here for more information.
I’ve heard about a classical charter school opening in Columbus, is this CCA?
No. CCA is a private school, meaning we are completely independent from state support. Following Hillsdale's example, CCA will never accept government funding or loans. Heart of Ohio Classical Academy (HOCA) is a planned charter school. We are very supportive of HOCA's work, and are glad that there is another classical school planned for Columbus. CCA and HOCA are both affiliated with Hillsdale College. CCA is a Hillsdale College Curriculum School, while HOCA is a Hillsdale College Member School. Both CCA and HOCA use the Hillsdale College curriculum and both are classical.
How can I stay updated?
We will provide updates as we move closer to opening our doors in Fall 2023. You can sign up for our email list here to stay updated.
How can we support CCA?
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.
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 is wisdom in practical matters, the ability to see the good and attain it.
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 allows us to govern ourselves and our appetites in accordance with reason.
We have no religious affiliation but uphold the value of faith, for the most important things in this life and beyond are unseen.
We work diligently with hope not in ourselves but in our Creator.
Our happiness is found, paradoxically, in the outpouring of our love for others.
