CURRICULUM

Four Pillars

MASTERY BASED

CLASSICAL

COMPETITION

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Crown of Thorns Academy is a mastery-based Classical school implementing the best methods in educating boys: namely, competition and physical activity.

  • Our Mastery-Based curriculum is the hallmark of our Crown of Thorns Academy, and it’s the reason why boys are consistently performing 2, 3, and even 4 grades above grade level. We have 2nd graders that were previously diagnosed with disgraphia that have mastered all their basic math operations, plus long division, long multiplication, long addition, and long subtraction; we have 4th graders that are gaining proficiency in advanced algebra; we have 6th graders mastering universal dependency diagramming.

    Mastery-Based schooling means that students do not move on to the next level of curriculum until they have fully mastered the previous level. This means that they’re never disengaged because they don’t know what’s going on.

    From here, the key to progress for a student is clarity of the bigger picture. We show students exactly what the progression through Math is, from counting to Algebra to preliminary Calculus; we show them exactly what the progression is from learning their alphabet, to the phonetic alphabet, to reading, to spelling, to grammar (and all the stages in-between), to composition. Because they are taught what all the steps are along the way, they know what’s in front of them and what they are trying to accomplish in school.

    Mr. Barker shares this anecdote with parents often: “One fourth grader came up to me, knowing his fellow fourth grade peer was working on advanced algebra, and said, ‘Mr. Barker, can you give me the exercises to master everything I need to master so I can move on to algebra too?’”

    A Mastery-Based system where boys can see the bigger picture becomes an intrinsic motivator that propels them through the stages of mastery.

    What we’re doing at Crown of Thorns Academy is ground-breaking, and other schools are in disbelief that the gains that are happening are truly happening. Just ask any of the current parents and you’ll hear exactly how real these results are!

  • Classical education is all about seeing the whole in the parts. It’s about understanding how everything fits in, and teaching everything in an integrated way.

    At Crown of Thorns Academy, the fact we are a classical school means that we make sure the boys know their fundamentals really well before moving on to anything else. That means we begin by making sure our boys have proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics. The key to preparing them for the advanced study of the whole range of academic subjects is that we integrate the preliminary facts and fundamentals of those different disciplines in the content we use to teach reading, writing, and mathematics.

    Every text they read from, from right when they begin to read in 1st and 2nd grade, helps supplement their knowledge of faith and morals, history and science, growth in virtue, and everything in between.

    After they’ve passed through this first stage, having mastered reading, writing, and mathematics, we then formally expand the content that they learn into all the other academic disciplines, including advanced grammar & composition, advanced mathematics, history, science, theology, philosophy, and logic. In the same way that our boys outpace the grade level standards in reading, writing, and mathematics—in this phase they outpace the standards in history, science, philosophy, and logic.

  • There are two keys to successful education for boys and girls alike: High Standards and High Support. For boys, though, there’s a third prong: High Motivation.

    Studies show, and experience confirms, that if boys are not motivated by the subject they’re learning or the teacher they’re learning from, they won’t do the work. To the contrary, girls are consistent in their work regardless of motivation. (Sax, Boys Adrift)

    So how do we maximize motivation at Crown of Thorns Academy—because we do & it’s the key to the results we get..? Competition & Performance. We employ a variety of different forms of competition and performance. The boys compete against themselves, against their peers, against time; across disciplines—academic, physical, athletic, strategic. We incentivize performance by encouraging them, by making it so that their progression is based on mastery and proving they have mastery, and by attaching rewards (free-time; gym time) to accomplishing their tasks well.

    Studies have found that boys respond great to competition—and that they report loving it.

    But why isn’t competition in other, co-ed, schools? The answer is in the studies as well: girls are generally demotivated by competition. They voice valuing friendship over competition in self-responses; their interest and performance decreases when something is made a competition with their peers.

    At Crown of Thorns Academy we’re doing what other, co-ed, schools can’t do. They can’t lean into competition because it would be bad for their girl students, and that wouldn’t be responsible of them to do. However, at COTA, we’re singularly focused on doing the things that will opitimize boys learning and motivation—and we’re going with what’s been scientifically proven to do that.

  • Boys need physical activity—not just for the sake of their bodies; for the sake of their minds too. Boys learn better when they get sufficient physical activity. Their moods are better. Their attention is stronger… Consider the following: boys are more medicated than girls for attention disorders (even in cases where both present with symptoms of ADHD, boys receive medication 3x as often as girls)—but when they have sufficient physical activity, they not only have less difficulty paying attention, they get better at paying attention.

    At Crown of Thorns Academy every boy has Gym or Calisthenics (physical training) every day of the week. They have recess every day of the week. We’ve watched as the boys have taken to the physical training across the board. Wherever their starting point, whether they can do 0 pushups or 40, whether they can run a mile in 7 minutes or 15 minutes, they learn what it means to work to push yourself, and they’ve all grown tremendously.

    Other schools don’t do this. They don’t give boys ample gym and recess time, and none of them do consistent, weekly physical training / calisthenics. You will see right away how these small details transform your son into a boy that takes responsibility, seeks out challenging activities, and develops a well-rounded joy for life. It’s truly amazing to witness the transformative effect COTA has!

Curriculum Diagram

  • It became popular in schools over the last half-century to claim, “we don’t teach students what to think, but how to think.” Unfortunately, how you think must be preceded by certain “what’s”, so if you don’t declare the “what’s” you’re working from, the result will be that you de facto teach the secular philosophical foundations of our modern world (i.e. Materialism) that estrange the mind from reality (and God). Foundational “what’s” are different than observational “what’s”. We recognize that, and our curriculum is tailored to that, accordingly.

    At Crown of Thorns Academy, the philosophy (+Theology) that undergirds the thinking skills a student will acquire will be thoroughly Catholic-Thomistic-Aristotelian. This will provide the foundations for our boys to learn how to think in its most ideal form—from mastery in reading, writing, and mathematics, to allowing for the integration of the skills of grammar, logic, and rhetoric with ease. From there, their study of History & Science will find its rightful foundation & purpose.

Schedule

  • Many elementary schools have already shifted over to school days that are 5.5-6 hours long because of the added benefits they have for students of all ages. At Crown of Thorns Academy, our school day is under 5-hours. The under 5-hour school day is especially important for boys’ learning and enthusiasm. It’s not an unfortunate aspect of this school, it’s another one of those fundamental reasons the boys that are with us at COTA are truly transformed in every aspect of their lives.

    Having under 5-hours in a school day puts our boys in the ideal position to thrive spiritually, psychologically, emotionally, and academically. The under 5-Hour school day improves attention, energy, general enthusiasm for school, and gives greater balance to school-family life. The family is the fundamental cell of society (CCC 2207). The parents are the primary educators of their children. We, as a school, assist the parents in the education of their children. We’re serious about our duties and our role, and for that reason it comes out not just in what we say our priorities are, but in how we structure the day itself.

  • Our school week is Monday - Thursday. We push the boys hard and we demand a lot out of them. It’s very easy to burn a child out, and the result is disengagment, detachment, and depression. One parent remarked that COTA’s like a muscle-confusion training regiment; the student’s mind gets stretched and pushed and supported, but then they have the three-day weekend every week, so they never feel dread on Mondays about how long the week ahead is, or how quickly their weekend ended. Their whole motivation toward school and life changes, and it’s not uncommon that parents share that their boys were grinding on practice schoolwork on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays (without any homework ever even being assigned!!), because they’ve acquired a taste for how great exerting the mind and challenging themselves makes them feel.

    Every family has reported seeing a radical change in their son after being at COTA for a few weeks. Many of the boys HATED school before—as studies also confirm is a prevalent attitude of boys toward school!—and are now enthusiastic about learning and pushing themselves.

    This isn’t a coincidence—it’s at the heart of the structural balance we have in our school at every level.

    We have many two-parent working families with us, and when they experienced the effect of the four day school week, they immediately understood precisely why it’s such a crucial piece of COTA’s transformational success!

  • How is it possible to get the results COTA’s getting without homework?? It almost beggars disbelief, until, once again, you realize how psychologically insightful this method is.

    When we say that there’s “no homework”, we’re not saying that your son will never do work at home—we’re saying that he will never be graded for any work he does at home, and if he doesn’t do any work at home, we don’t mind!

    At COTA, the boys get tons of reps on their path to mastery. If they rep these things at home, they get to move up to the next level quicker, and they’re rewarded. If they rep them at school, they just miss out on the rewards. We don’t mind which way they go—it’s all about mastery and we help them get there!

    One boy came up to Mr. Barker at COTA and said, “look at how many math sheets I did over the weekend.” The boy was used to teachers rewarding work for work’s sake. Mr. Barker responded, “don’t show me that—good for you, but what matters is only whether it helped you get better or not.” Mr. Barker then added on, “but way to go buddy—this is awesome,” to encourage him… This wasn’t a random tactic, this was about turning the boy’s motivation to work away from external validation / reward and toward the internal validation of it being helpful or not.

    At COTA we tell the boys: there’s hard work, and there’s smart work. We’re going to help you learn how to work hard—but where you really want to get to is where you can both work hard, AND work smart! Then you really take off!

    This is just another reason why we’re different than everywhere else, and why we get different results than everywhere else.

    This is what true High Support looks like in boys’ education!: It funnels into High Motivation and lets the boys feel truly seen and valued. We believe these boys are capable of so much, and our love for them is proven by the way we push them. Love is “willing the good of another”—you don’t love a kid that you let slide into mediocrity through low expectations and false support; you love them by pushing them and encouraging them along the way.