SAINT JAMES THE GREATER CATHOLIC SCHOOL

  a tradition of Virtue-Faith-Excellence!

St. James Catholic School offers a unique Montessori pre-school program, along with a Kindergarten through 8th grade curriculum.

For nearly two millenia, the Catholic Church has approached education as formation, which means that education is much more than collecting facts.  The primary aim of education is to help a person become the best version of oneself.  The Church has always placed a high priority upon education because knowledge plays an important part in actualizing one's full potential.  

Statistically, young people who attend a Catholic schoosl have a higher probability of pursuing studies in higher education and discover an ammenable environment in the job market later in life.  Our approach to the learning environment provides the basis for these beneficial  outcomes of a Catholic education.  This is why the Church firmly believes that the best gift a parent can give their child is a Catholic educaiton.

Catholic education strives to instill in students a thirst for knoweldge.  Knowledge needs to be expressed, and the classical Catholic approach to education focuses on helping students learn to put the knowledge they receive into action. The classical Catholic program or approach to education presumes the presence of three fundamental building blocks, commonly referred to as the Trivium (meaning "three ways").  Those three building blocks are grammar, logic and rhetoric.  Very simply, grammar is the foundation (or the basics) of learning.  Building a firm foundation is essential to the whole educational process.  Logic is the more abstract dimension, providing timeless truths so that students are able to see how the various disciplines they study are connected, one to the other.  Finally, rhetoric is the process of expressing what one has learned.  

St. James Catholic School is dedicated to the education of the whole person, in order to establish a foundation for life-long learning.  It is our belief and tradition that the pursuit of academic knowledge, alongside character formation, allows the child to develop with integrity and excellence.

St. James offers a unique environment to empower the student to understand there is a natural thirst in the heart for Truth, Beauty and Goodness. To become the best version of ourselves, we not only seek to accumulate facts, but to realize that all knoweldge, whether of faith or science, comes from the Fountain of all Truth, God.  Aristotle once said that "all human beings stretch out towards knowing."  To learn is to expand the soul and discover the endless horizons before us. 

St. James places the student in contact with intersection of faith and culture, so that they are able to perceive how Christianity shaped the foundation of western civilization.  The word “disciple” means “student”.  Our goal at St. James is to stir up the natural desire to pursue Truth, Beauty and Goodness, and so bring about our motto at St. James: love to learn and learn to love.

Drawing from the wealth of our Catholic cultural and intellectual heritage, St. James Catholic School creates a unique environment  where the student experiences education as exploration.  Aristotle taught that all human beings stretch toward knowing.  St. James strives to highlight the human desire for truth.  Education is the name we give to the formal learning process.  The teachers and administrators communicate by word and example that education is much more than collecting facts, it is about becoming the best version of ourselves.  

We believe that children can learn by word and example to live as disciples of Christ and take their place in society as productive citizens and active Catholics who can meet the challenges of life with Catholic moral values and principles.

The first responsibility for the overall development of the child rests with parents. Our Catholic School strives to support parents in the effort to develop the child’s intellect, emotional virtue, strength of will, through the various academic disciplines taught in light of the Gospel.

Together with the family, the parish, and each other we will help one another in our pursuit to become disciples of Jesus Christ, who seek the truth and live it in love.