The Chesterton Academy model of classical education
Joyfully Catholic, classical high schools
For a decade now I’ve been writing, reading, and talking with anyone who will listen to me about classical education. Classical schools have exploded in popularity across the United States and beyond, a development in education I consider one of the most exciting and important in decades.
This is not just a topic of intellectual curiosity for me. I’m delighted to be a part of a team bringing the classical approach to my region of Kentucky. The Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green, a joyfully Catholic classical high school, is slated to open in August 2026, and it will be a game changer for students looking for an academically rigorous learning experience rooted in a deep faith-based mission.
Defining classical education
Classical education is a new concept for most Americans, but it’s really the way everyone who was educated beyond basic reading, writing, and arithmetic received their intellectual formation until about 100 years ago. The elite of every generation prior to the so-called Progressive Era, including the American Founders, were educated this way, and every child should have access to its riches.
I have previously defined classical education this way:
Classical education is a language-rich approach to curriculum that emphasizes history, science, art, and great literature as the foundation of learning and expects students to develop a well-trained mind adept at logic and rhetoric and capable of participating in the Great Conversation of ideas that has shaped and driven the development of Western civilization. It represents the best of what is sometimes conceived as a "liberal arts" education, though that term has become so watered down as to be nearly meaningless, and classical education does not shy away from mathematics and hard sciences but rather provides a strong foundation for advanced studies in all disciplines. Above all classical education understands that education should primarily be about the acquisition of virtue, and only secondarily about vocational preparation.
For a great history of education in America, and how its classical roots were systematically uprooted by the Progressives, I highly recommend Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s book, which he co-wrote with classical schools founder David Goodwin, The Battle for the American Mind.
I’ve also assembled a partial reading list on the sources and principles of classical education, although it likely needs to be updated based on the rapid growth of the movement.
The modern revival of classical learning began with a handful of mostly Catholic and independent Christian schools and today includes secular public charter school chains like The Great Hearts Academies network. But Catholic schools have led the way. As Ryan N.S. Topping argued back in 2016 in his book, The Case for Catholic Education, while Catholic school enrollment overall continues its steady decline (only partially corrected thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic), a return to their classical roots can be the source of a powerful revival.
Indeed, the Chesterton Schools Network is exhibit number 1 for this revival. The first Chesterton Academy was founded outside Minneapolis in 2007 by a group of parents that included Dale Alquist, a scholar of G.K. Chesterton and president of the Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton. With a emphasis on Catholic identity at its core and a classical curriculum to nourish student’s intellects, the Chesterton model proved enormously popular, and parent groups across the country asked to be a part of the emerging brand. Today there are more than 60 independent schools worldwide affiliated with the Chesterton Network.
A local story
I can’t recall when I first discovered the Chesterton schools, but when I did, I immediately recognized an approach that was desperately needed in my own community.
My children have attended St. Joseph Interparochial School here in Bowling Green, KY. For more than a century, St. Joe’s has been the sole Catholic school for our community, and it served high school grades until the last graduating class of seniors in mid-1960s. As an educator and St. Joseph parent, I was recruited nearly a decade ago to be part of a team tasked with exploring the possibility of starting a Catholic high school, something we routinely heard parents say they wanted.
Repeated surveys confirmed this demand, but a variety of challenges stood in the way, at least one of which was preconceived notions about what a high school had to look like (in other words, a large, multi-million-dollar structure housing hundreds of students educated in the conventional, comprehensive high school model).
My knowledge of classical schools had convinced me that there was another way: smaller, intensely spiritual, with an academic focus that reclaimed the lost arts of learning.
While area homeschooling families have been using classical education for years, not a single school based on the classical model exists in our part of Kentucky, let alone in our city. This was an innovative approach that spoke directly to our local need. And the Chesterton Academy design is extremely well suited to groups of parents and educators who want to launch a classical school without creating the whole thing from scratch.
Once our team settled on affiliating with the Chesterton Network, the most immediate need became finding a location. God provided for it, when St. Joseph Church began construction of a new Administration and Youth Building. This building will include the parish offices, but also classrooms for religious education purposes in the evenings. The St. Joseph pastor offered those classrooms as a space to start the school, at least until we outgrow it.
While the Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green will technically be independent of the existing K-8 school and the local parishes, the local pastors have agreed to serve as the school’s chaplains and the diocesan bishop has given his full blessing to our endeavors, so we look forward to a close partnership with the institutional church. The local Knights of Columbus council made a donation of seed money that set our work formally in motion.
The Chesterton model
Following the Chesterton school’s model, other features of the Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green will include the following:
Catholic identity: This school exists above all to form young men and women to be saints in Christ's service. All other aspects of the school will flow from this core purpose and the three pillars of formation. We will strive to make daily Mass and regular confessions available to all students, and all school activities will revolve around our shared life of prayer and liturgy.
Classical curriculum: This school's carefully-crafted curriculum focuses on the Great Books of Western civilization and the seamless, God-ordered connections between the theology, philosophy, the humanities, the arts, and math and science. Students will study Latin, the foundation of many Western languages including English, for at least two years, as well as other foreign languages. The Chesterton Network's collaboration with a variety of colleges and universities means an array of dual-credit coursework will be available to students. We will seek accreditation with both the state of Kentucky and external accreditation agencies.
A safe and orderly learning environment: This school will feature small classes with strong teacher-student connections and a family-like atmosphere supported by the Chesterton Network's house system. The school will feature little to no technology and students will not have cell phones in class.
Athletics: This school will begin with athletics programs based on student interest, likely with a focus on individual sports like tennis and golf. As the school grows, we will explore larger team sports like soccer, basketball, volleyball, etc. Well-established Chesterton schools feature an array of individual and team sports. Athletics flows from the Catholic emphasis on the health and integration of the entire person as a child of God.
Affordability: This school seeks to serve every family who wants an academically rigorous, faith-filled high school education for their child. We will strive to offer an affordable high school tuition price (likely in the range of $7,000 to $8,000 per year), and will engage in fundraising efforts to provide scholarship support for eligible families.
Inspired by the life and example of G.K. Chesterton: The patron of our school is G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), the English Catholic convert, writer, and apologist known for his wit and faithfulness. Students will study the life and works of Chesterton and his spirit of joy and intellect will fill our school.
Watch this video to learn more about the Chesterton approach:
Our website is still in development, but if you’re interested in our work, please follow the Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram for regular updates on our plans for opening. Information sessions will soon be scheduled for multiple locations in Bowling Green and surrounding communities where you can meet members of the founding team, learn more about the Chesterton model, and get involved.
Above all, please pray for our efforts. We have been so blessed to see the years of prayer, discernment, and hard work begin to take shape, by God’s grace and for His glory. May He continue to richly bless our labors and bring great fruit to bear in the lives of our children.
You are so blessed with this opportunity in Bowling Green. Chesterton Academy of Annapolis, started in 2018, saved our son (now a junior) from the swirling drain that has become our local public school system, and also the hyper-sports-centric local Catholic high school. Prayers coming your way!
Much to commend in this educational project and yet I must call out the shifting of the goal posts in this piece... You claim that “every generation” of western elites were “classically educated” but in your description of what that entails here and now you emphasize Catholic identity. This may give the impression that what you describe as your take on classical education is essentially no different than the American (or even western) tradition. And yet American elites back in the day were rarely catholic themselves and commonly hostile to Catholicism (and to Catholics) to a greater or lesser extent… same goes to most of the English speaking world from the reformation and well into the 20th century. Even in Catholic majority counties such as France many of the great writers and thinkers (who made it into the “great conversation” and the canon) were anti clerical at a minimum if not outright anti catholic. In fact your project tries to bridge the inherent tension between classicism and Catholicism. This may well be a worthwhile and potentially successful endeavor, but honesty and humility would demand you fully acknowledge the challenge rather than gloss over it. Your project lionizes the works of mostly pagans Protestants and others who were indifferent to or frankly had a low opinion of Catholicism.