A classical curriculum is based in history, in curricula that came before. It is founded on a principle not of innovation, but of looking to the wisdom of the ancients to preserve the best. If there has been any change over the centuries in the arts, it has not been in their substance but in the greater organization and refinement of its elements so that the truth would be more clearly understood and its arts more easily mastered.
A classical curriculum includes the 7 liberal arts primarily. Like all good things, it must have a proper order. To order things well, we must know the end to which they should be ordered. The proper end of the liberal arts is Wisdom. Seeking wisdom also goes by the name Philosophy. Thus, it is called a philosophical education, because it has Wisdom as its purpose. Wisdom in turn, leads to happiness. St. Thomas Aquinas states in his commentary on Aristotle “omnes artes ordinantur in unum, scilicet, ad hominis perfectionem, quae est eius beatitudo” (the arts are ordained to one thing, namely, to man’s perfection, which is happiness).
