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LAKESIDE PARK - The kindergartners here at Cornerstone Classical Christian Academy are learning first-grade math. Second-graders are being read "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." Third-graders are learning Latin.
"We're not for the gifted - we're an extraordinary school for the ordinary child," said John Davis, founder and president. "We're giving kids an education that, for the most part, none of us has received."
Though not affiliated with Lakeside Christian Church, the school occupies the church's lower level. Students wear uniforms and take classes in all the core subjects, along with art, music and gym. Tuition is $3,900 a year for half-day kindergarten and $5,900 for the rest.
In just its third year, Cornerstone is rapidly growing.
It began as a K-2 school in 2007 with five students and one teacher. It added third grade, six students and a teacher in 2008. This year it's grades K-4 with 24 students and three teachers. The kids come from Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties.
A few years after Davis, an attorney, moved here from Alabama in 2000, he and his wife were hoping to find for their children a Christian, classical education school, something they became familiar with in Alabama. He said the closest one to this area was about 30 miles away at Mars Hill Academy in Mason, Ohio, so he decided to start his own.
Davis consulted in 2004 with a relative on the board of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, attended many conferences, visited schools and reached out to potential donors for money to get it started.
Classical education uses a teaching method called the trivium, a three-part process of grammar, logic and rhetoric stages. They are based, according to the school, "in accordance with the God-given stages of child development."
The grammar stage, in the elementary years, is when students learn facts through memorization, mostly taught with chants and songs. For example, one way kindergartners learn math is through a rap song their teacher made up that includes a lot of movement.
When they get to the logic stage in the middle school years, the time of life when many kids naturally become argumentative, they will learn through analysis and argumentation.
In high school, at the rhetoric stage, students will learn how to present those arguments in a clear and convincing manner.
Students go through the three stages learning all of the core subjects, such as math, reading, history and science. They also study the Bible and learn more about their belief in Creationism, the idea that the earth is roughly 6,000 years old and refutes the theory of evolution.
They will delve deeper into it during the logic and rhetoric stages.
"We don't just teach them the creationism philosophy, but can you understand the opposite point of view - its strengths and weaknesses - and can you be persuasive and articulate why your view is superior to their view," Davis said. "It will be very good for debate."
The three teachers rotate classes halfway through the day. Kindergarten teacher Taylor Kehl instructs first graders in the afternoon. She was the first and only teacher hired here three years ago when the school opened.
"I feel like I should have been more nervous about teaching at a new school," Kehl said. "It was a big step of faith, but I trusted in the Lord."
Jennifer Davis (no relation to John) was hired this year. She teaches first grade in the morning and second grade in the afternoon.
"I enjoy teaching the students through the chanting and jingles, and love being able to teach scripture and share my faith with them," Jennifer Davis said.
Staci Hoffman, hired last year, teaches a combined second and fourth grade (there are no third graders this year) in the morning. In the afternoon, she teaches just fourth grade, which has only one student, 10-year-old Sheena Delp.
Eric Delp likes that attention his daughter gets and that it's a Bible-based education.
"I also like the trivium because I think that's how kids develop. It's incredible at this age to see how much they can memorize - they just soak it up," Delp said.
"We set the bar high, but the kids tend to rise to the occasion," Davis said. "And if a child needs more attention, our classes are small enough that we can give it to them."
The school would like to continue its trend of doubling its enrollment year-to-year. The goal is to eventually become a K-12 school.
"We're projecting that we'll be K-5 next year, but if a half-dozen sixth graders come out, we'll consider having a sixth grade, too," Davis said. "We will grow as the needs demand and resources allow."
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