Golden View Classical Academy’s mission joins instruction in the principles of moral character and civic virtue with a traditional academic program. Virtue requires both a trained mind and a generous heart, and as such unites our ability to think and reason with our passions, desires, and feelings.

Rarely does a public school speak openly about virtue, since virtue means we judge our actions against an objective standard of beauty or goodness. Instead, most people speak of values, since in our age we are much more comfortable with language that does not make clear discrimination between good and bad. Indeed, to speak of virtue means that we judge some qualities of character to be better than others, and this entails taking a stand in their defense and attempting to cultivate them in our students.

Golden View Classical Academy focuses on seven core virtues: courage, moderation, justice, responsibility, prudence, friendship, and wonder. This list is largely inspired by Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, a great book that our students will read in whole or in part before they graduate. We focus on these virtues because they have withstood the test of time. For over 2000 years, these virtues have guided men and women of every kind toward happiness.