Students at RMCA do the scholar’s work of a first-hand reading of or listening to living books. These are enduring sources of truth, beauty, and wisdom from contemporary or historical sources. These texts give the student the opportunity to experience for herself a living education, the thrill of encountering life-changing ideas. Avoiding textbooks of dry, predigested facts, our curricula is designed to nourish the child’s whole person of mind, soul, and body. This exposure also includes direct contact and observation of real objects from nature (plants, minerals, animals, the elements), art, music, as well as other human disciplines (maps, instruments, etc.).
As Charlotte Mason believed, we stress that living ideas – not mere information – should form the foundation of our educational efforts. We are not building an instrument that will be able to learn or think when we are finished with it. Rather, we are feeding the living mind of a person which will grow and flourish according to the nourishment it receives.
