The Hillcrest Curriculum: An Education Ordered Toward Worship
Why We Teach What We Teach
Every school has a curriculum. Not every school can tell you why.
At Hillcrest Lutheran Academy, our answer begins at the cross. The goal of our curriculum is to begin the process of reorienting young minds and hearts, through the reconciling work of Christ, toward that which is worth loving and for which they were created: the worship of God.
That conviction shapes everything a Hillcrest student reads, memorizes, calculates, debates, sings, and writes from Pre-K through graduation. We are not simply preparing students for the next test or the next grade. We are forming people. By the time a student walks across the stage at commencement, we want them to carry six things with them:
A growing relationship with Jesus Christ
Sound reason and historical knowledge
A masterful command of language
Broad literacy shaped by the best books ever written
Well-rounded competence in mathematics, science, the arts, and athletics
A virtuous and mature character
These are the desired outcomes of a Hillcrest education, and every course in every grade is sequenced to move students toward them.
How We Do It: The Three Stages of Learning
Hillcrest follows the classical model of education, which honors how children actually grow. Rather than teaching every subject the same way to every age, we match our methods to the natural stages of a child's development, using academic disciplines to teach children and young adults and build understanding and character.
The Grammar Stage (Lower School, Pre-K–6): Young children love to memorize, chant, sing, and collect facts. So we fill these years with the building blocks, the "grammar" of every subject: phonics and handwriting, Scripture memory, math facts, Latin vocabulary, the timeline of world history, and hundreds of hours inside wonderful stories.
The Logic Stage (Middle School, 7–8): As students begin to ask "why?" about everything, we teach them to ask it well. Formal logic enters the curriculum, writing moves from imitation to argument, and students begin reading the great works of the ancient and medieval worlds, asking hard questions of Homer, Augustine, and Tolkien alike.
The Rhetoric Stage (Upper School, 9–12): Finally, students learn to express what is true, good, and beautiful with clarity and persuasion. They write, speak, debate, and defend. They join what we call the Great Conversation, the centuries-long dialogue of Western civilization, and they learn to weigh every worldview they encounter in the light of Scripture.
Woven through all three stages is our Character Code, built on four Habits of the Heart: Attentive, Obedient, Respectful, and Responsible. Students memorize Scripture that promotes Christian character, practice responsive recitations, learn manners by model and instruction, and study a rotating cycle of sixteen virtues. We hold students accountable for their attitudes as well as their actions, and we use story, deliberately and constantly, to instill a love of virtue deep in the heart.
The Lower School: Building the Foundation (Pre-K–6)
The Lower School years lay every foundation a student will build on later.
Bible. From their earliest days, students live inside God's Word. Pre-K and Kindergarten students hear the whole sweep of Scripture through The Story Bible, while grades 1–6 move systematically through Bible study and Scripture memorization, culminating in fifth grade with the Gospels and sixth grade with Acts through Revelation, alongside inductive study of Psalms and Proverbs.
Language Arts. Reading begins with systematic phonics (UFLI) and grows through grammar (First Language Lessons), penmanship and cursive (Pentime), and structured composition through the Institute for Excellence in Writing's Teaching Writing: Structure and Style. By sixth grade, students write with clarity and structure because they have practiced it, step by step, for years.
Literature. Hillcrest students grow up on real books. Early readers enjoy Frog and Toad, Little House in the Big Woods, and The Boxcar Children. Middle grades journey through The Sign of the Beaver, Where the Red Fern Grows, Detectives in Togas, and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Upper elementary students read Johnny Tremain, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, A Christmas Carol, Around the World in Eighty Days, and Carry On, Mr. Bowditch-style tales of courage and character. These aren't supplements to the curriculum; they are the curriculum, chosen to align with each year's history and to instill a love of goodness in young hearts.
History. Beginning in second grade, students travel the full story of Western civilization in sequence: the Old Testament and Ancient Greece, then Greece and Rome, the Middle Ages and Reformation, the Age of Explorers through 1815, and finally 1815 to the present, using Veritas Press materials that pair history with the literature of each era.
Mathematics. Students build mathematical fluency through Singapore Mathematics (Dimensions), one of the most rigorous and conceptually rich programs available, and then transition to Saxon in sixth grade to prepare for pre-algebra.
Latin. Formal Latin study begins in the upper elementary years with Latin for Children and First Form Latin, training students in the language that underlies English vocabulary, grammar itself, and centuries of the Church's theology and hymnody.
Science, Music, Art, and PE. Students explore God's creation through hands-on study of botany, arthropods, ecosystems, geology, weather, energy, and the human body. They sing in children's choir, study the great composers, learn the elements and principles of art, and build healthy bodies through regular physical education.
The Middle School: Learning to Reason (7–8)
Middle school at Hillcrest is where students learn to think carefully, honestly, and biblically.
The Great Conversation begins. Seventh graders enter Omnibus I, an integrated study of Bible, history, and literature from the ancient world to 300 AD. They read the Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Herodotus, Hammurabi's Code, and the early history of Rome alongside Genesis, Exodus, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Luke, Acts, and Romans, plus works like Till We Have Faces, The Screwtape Letters, and the Chronicles of Narnia that bring ancient questions into modern light.
Eighth graders continue with Omnibus II, moving from 300 AD to the Italian Renaissance. They read Augustine's Confessions, Eusebius's Church History, The Rule of St. Benedict, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Canterbury Tales, and Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, learning that the medieval world has much to teach us about beauty, story, and faith.
Logic. Students take Introductory Logic I and II, learning to identify valid arguments, name fallacies, and reason soundly—skills they apply immediately across every other subject.
Language and Latin. Composition and grammar instruction continues alongside formal Latin study in Henle I, with keyboarding rounding out practical skills.
Mathematics and Science. Students progress through Pre-Algebra and Algebra I (Larson) while studying Life Science and Physical Science with integrated logic—learning to observe creation with both wonder and rigor.
Oratory. Every middle schooler practices the spoken word: enunciation, recitation, reading aloud, and formal presentation. At Hillcrest, learning to speak well is not an elective—it is a discipline practiced daily.
The Upper School: Learning to Persuade and Defend (9–12)
The Upper School completes the journey, forming graduates who can articulate what they believe and why.
Ninth grade continues the Great Conversation with Omnibus III, spanning Luther to the present. Students read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, The Pilgrim's Progress, Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, Gulliver's Travels, the Federalist Papers, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Animal Farm, and 1984, wrestling with the ideas that built (and broke) the modern world. Rhetoric I begins formal training in writing and speech, and students take Introductory Physics and Geometry.
Tenth grade returns to the medieval world at a deeper level through Omnibus V. Students read Dante's Divine Comedy, Augustine's City of God, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, selections from Aquinas's Summa Theologica, The Canterbury Tales, Le Morte d'Arthur, Shakespeare's Othello, Luther's Small Catechism, and Here I Stand, Roland Bainton's great biography of Luther. Rhetoric II adds debate and mock trial; students study Biology and Algebra II.
Eleventh grade turns to the American story through Omnibus IV, pairing U.S. history with The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, Unbroken, Romeo and Juliet, The Pearl, Plato's Crito, and The Rise of Globalism. Students study Chemistry and advance to Pre-Calculus or College Algebra, with American Literature and British Literature completing the year alongside Rhetoric III.
Twelfth grade is the capstone year. In the fall, seniors take Apologetics, reading works like Mere Christianity, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Strange New World, and The 3D Gospel, learning to give a reasoned defense of the hope within them. In the spring, each senior completes the Senior Capstone (Summa Apologetica and Senior Project), a culminating work of research, writing, and public presentation that demonstrates everything their education has formed in them. Senior literature ranges across The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, Macbeth, Oedipus Rex, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Lord of the Flies, and A Doll's House. Seniors also complete Economics and American Government, including a study of the Constitution, and may pursue AP Calculus, Honors Physics, Anatomy and Physiology, or dual-enrollment coursework through the University of Northwestern.
Across all four years, students continue in foreign language (Latin through Level IV, Spanish, French, German, or beginning Greek), the fine arts (choir, concert band, orchestra, drama, praise and worship team, and studio art courses in drawing, painting, ceramics, and digital photography), physical education, and a rich slate of electives—from Robotics and Aviation to Personal Finance, Engineering Design, and Global Studies. Chapel gathers the community for worship three times each week.
The Path to a Hillcrest Diploma
A Hillcrest diploma represents a completed course of formation, not merely a collection of credits. To graduate, students complete the full sequence in each discipline:
Bible & Apologetics — Bible study integrated through Omnibus in grades 7–11, culminating in senior Apologetics and the Senior Capstone.
English & Rhetoric — Composition and Grammar I–II, followed by Rhetoric I, II, and III, with formal training in writing, speech, debate, and judicial writing.
History & Humanities — The complete Omnibus sequence: ancient, medieval, modern, and American history, concluding with Economics and American Government.
Literature — The Great Books, read in historical sequence from the Odyssey to 1984, from Augustine to Twain—so that every graduate has kept company with the greatest minds of the Western tradition.
Mathematics — A sequence from Pre-Algebra through Algebra II at minimum, with pathways to Pre-Calculus, College Algebra, and AP Calculus.
Science — Introductory Physics, Biology, and Chemistry, with advanced options including Honors Physics, Anatomy and Physiology, and Environmental Science.
Foreign Language — Latin foundations in the middle years, continuing into upper-level Latin, Spanish, French, German, or Greek.
Fine Arts & Physical Education — Continuous participation in music, visual art, and physical education across all four years.
Each year builds on the one before it. A seventh grader memorizing Latin conjugations, a ninth grader debating in mock trial, and a senior defending a capstone thesis are all walking the same road—one designed, from the first day of Pre-K, to lead somewhere.
An Invitation
We believe education is never neutral. Every school forms its students' loves—the only question is toward what. At Hillcrest Lutheran Academy, we order everything we teach toward the One who made our students, redeemed them, and calls them to lives of faith, intellect, and character.
Come see the curriculum in action. Schedule a visit, sit in on a Socratic discussion, listen to the children's choir, and discover what an education ordered toward worship looks like.
At Hillcrest, we teach students, not math, science, history, or other academic, fine arts, or athletic disciplines. Subjects are the tools of our trade, but children are its treasure. Every phonics lesson, Latin conjugation, lab experiment, choir rehearsal, and Socratic discussion exists for one purpose: to reorient young minds and hearts, through the reconciling work of Christ on the cross, toward that which is worth loving and for which they were created, the worship of God.
Mrs. Foss Explains Classical Education in Action
Our curriculum follows the child rather than forcing the child to follow the curriculum, meeting students in each natural stage of their growth: filling the memory-rich grammar years with Scripture, story, and song; training the questioning middle years in logic and sound reason; and equipping the maturing rhetoric years to speak, write, and defend the truth with grace. The great books our students read, the sciences they explore, and the arts they practice are not ends in themselves; they are the means by which we form graduates marked by a growing relationship with Jesus Christ, a masterful command of language, sound reason, broad literacy, well-rounded competence, and virtuous, mature character. Disciplines shape the schedule; students shape the mission.