Oak Hill Academy is a classical Christian school located in Hamilton, Ontario. We opened our doors in September 2018. Currently we are an elementary school, adding a grade or two each year, with plans to start a high school for a full K-12 classical Christian education.
We are a community of families whose imaginations have been captured by the rich classical Christian tradition of education. From Moses and Homer to Dante, John Calvin, and Teresa of Ávila, down through to Thomas Merton, Dorothy Sayers, and C.S. Lewis, the end of such an education is not merely a career, but the cultivation of the human spirit: “teaching the young to know what is good, to serve it above self, to reproduce it, and to recognize that in knowledge lies responsibility” (David V. Hicks, Norms and Nobility). We desire to see our children strive to be sages and saints, to love God and neighbour, to know their heritage and home, and to carry their child-like wonder with them all their lives.
As a community of families, our hearts have been captured by our children. Through their eyes we see again that the world is enchanted, just as it is. Through caring for them we inch closer to knowing what it means to be loved by God. And through them we are reminded of to whom belongs the kingdom of heaven. We have been helped by Charlotte Mason (1842-1923) and her reminding declaration that “Children are born persons.” The obviousness of this statement is perhaps only exceeded by our capacity to forget it. Children are persons, image-bearers, co-heirs of the Kingdom – and to them is due a correspondent respect. It is a wonderful invitation to know them as they are, and to introduce to them beautiful and noble things that will nourish their growth toward holy maturity.
The landscape is rich: fauns and frogs, knights and knaves, sorcerers and scientists, Pharaohs and philosophers, and the underestimated carpenter, peasant, and hobbit. The plot is thick: war and peace, pride and prejudice, irony, accident, and divine comedy. The stakes are high: heaven and hell weigh in the balance. And here come the persons we call children – skipping, stumbling, singing, stopping to watch a snail, finding their place in the Story.
Radix coronam nutrit. The root nourishes the crown.
Welcome to Oak Hill.