Academics
NDCA employs the methods of traditional and classical education. In a traditional education setting, the teacher moderates the material and assesses students on the mastery of the material. In a classical approach, quality of material is stressed over quantity and a variety of methods are employed to deliver and assess material. A classical education recognizes three stages of education.
Grammar
In the grammar stage, the learner establishes a firm foundation of facts about math, reading, science, history, the arts and music. The student begins answering who, what, and where questions of education.
Logic
In the logic stage the student learns to analyze facts and employ logic in answering “why” questions while providing supporting evidence.
Rhetoric
In the rhetoric stage the student becomes able to express ideas clearly and persuasively in writing and public speaking while engaging in evidence based reasoning.
Our goal at NDCA remains committed to producing students who understand the world around them and their place in it from a biblical worldview. Building a biblical worldview is foundational in understanding our place and purpose in God's plan for our lives. It gives us a framework for making sense of our world aided by critical thinking and problem solving strategies that are reinforced through the curriculum.
With the help of a curriculum that is designed from a biblical worldview and supplemented to support needs of individual students and classrooms, our teachers strive to create an atmosphere of learning that fosters understanding and produces mastery.
Building on the biblical worldview, NDCA employs a method of academics that focuses on understanding, critical thinking, and problem solving. We believe that the importance of education is to produce life-long learners who can comprehend ideas, events, and facts in context. It is our aim to provide a blend of traditional and classical education where students are given content that leads to the development of analyzing skills and evidence based reasoning. In this process, we keep our focus on the fact that these skills are built around the truth of Scripture and its preeminence over all facts. This approach to academics brings meaning and value to all aspects of our teaching and discussions.