Alberta Classical Academy

The Alberta Classical Academy is a public charter school division operating in Calgary and Edmonton. Our tuition-free classical education programs provide students in grades K-8 with an academically rigorous and traditional liberal arts education, equipping them with the virtues, knowledge, and habits befitting free citizens. A classical education aims to preserve, transmit, and build upon the wisdom of past generations — not to dismantle or repudiate it. It relies on knowledge-rich curricula and teacher-led classrooms, and is centred on great and enduring works of art, literature, and philosophy. Through the study of classical works from around the world, students nurture a sense of philosophical wonder. They learn to inhabit different perspectives, think deeply about life’s most fundamental questions, and develop intellectual, moral, and aesthetic discernment. Although academically rigorous, a true liberal arts education is not limited to making students narrowly useful or equipping them for material success. Recalling Confucius, we hold that “an educated person is not a tool.” Children are not merely future workers; they are future friends, spouses, neighbours, parents, and citizens. They are bearers of souls, which thirst after knowledge of the true and the good. A classical education prepares students not only to live, but to live virtuously and with purpose.