With this portrait in mind, the curriculum at DCS centers on the six core academic disciplines: History, English/Literature, Science, Mathematics, Biblical Studies, and Latin. Taught within the Classical structure, the interconnectedness of truth across disciplines is highlighted.  Through this approach, the student is taught not just to know discrete facts, but to understand and delight in the beauty of God’s truth around him.  Comprehending such truth and knowing God as its source develops a character imbued with knowledge, truth, and wisdom.

Within limited class sizes, our teachers provide a warm environment where children can grow academically, spiritually, and socially. Teachers offer individualized attention and encourage each student to strive for excellence in his or her work. Our students are ordinary children who are inspired and enabled to accomplish extraordinary things.

Entering the Great Conversation: “There is nothing new under the sun!”  The challenges and mysteries of life about which great writers of old like Homer or Dickens wrote are not somehow made irrelevant to our age simply due to the passage of time.  Rather, they represent a small piece of a grand conversation carried out across the centuries.

At DCS, we nourish our students’ minds on the rich feast of classic works from Western civilization so they are equipped to understand and live faithfully in our present culture, and to participate in that conversation themselves.  Beginning with comprehensive phonics instruction, students are given the tools necessary to become excellent readers and writers.  Students develop their thinking, writing and study skills as they engage with the great writers of history, both secular and Christian.  The writings of great authors illustrate good character and bad, moral virtues and failings – and, in doing so, they vividly portray the value of a life dedicated to pursuing all that is pure, noble, and praiseworthy.

Similarly, the study of Latin, which begins in the 3rd grade and continues through the 8th grade, produces increased vocabulary skills, advanced thinking skills, and a foundation for the study of other languages. The study of formal Logic in the 7th and 8th grades engenders within our students the ability to construct sound arguments, to identify logical fallacies and to think critically about issues of importance.  As our students enter their high school years, they hone their writing and rhetoric skills and so become persuasive and engaging advocates.

Joy in Community: There is a great joy that comes from students, teachers and parents discovering truth together.  At DCS, we experience that joy in great measure as we learn and grow as a community.  We have sought to develop a place where a love of learning is part of who we are and everything we do.  Through these efforts, families from diverse backgrounds and experiences are knit together and our children are prepared for a life of service to God and one another.

Consistent with our view that education is a partnership between family and school, parents join us by investing their time in the educational lives of our students.  The community participates in a host of ways, through various forms of service around school, and through help with frequent field trips, special events, and community gatherings.

We realize that through tender cultivation of each student’s intellect and character during these fertile days of youth, we are preparing them for much more than just college. At DCS, we seek to set our students on a path that will lead them to become effective leaders, thoughtful and useful citizens, and wise servants of our Lord Jesus Christ.