Speaker 1: Your summer back back of information. I love how they
Speaker 1: just cover everything. Fifty five KRC the talk station atoh five,
Speaker 1: the fifty five KRC, the talk station by the Times
Speaker 1: here wishing everybody very happy Thursday slash Friday. Bottom of
Speaker 1: the r I heard media aviation expert Jay Ratliff and
Speaker 1: as with a distinct pleasure to welcome back to the
Speaker 1: fifty five KRC Morning Show doctor Jed Hardings, who is
Speaker 1: the president of the Cincinnati Classical Academy. You can find
Speaker 1: them online. It's sincey with y sincy Classical dot org.
Speaker 1: Get in line. It is an amazing education opportunity, classical
Speaker 1: education and this is the kind of thing and it's
Speaker 1: really truly amazing. Welcome back, doctor Hardings. It's a pleasure
Speaker 1: to have you on the program. Every time I see
Speaker 1: your website, I just stare in awe. You got almost
Speaker 1: one thousand students from sixty three zip codes in the
Speaker 1: greater Cincinnati area. That is a huge draw. If you
Speaker 1: build it, they will come. And in terms of people
Speaker 1: clamoring for a better education for their children, guess what
Speaker 1: you find it It's in Santa Classical Academy. Welcome back,
Speaker 1: Doctor Harding's pleasure to have you here.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Brian.
Speaker 1: Is there a line all the way around the block
Speaker 1: to get in? I know you're accepting applications at least
Speaker 1: cording to the website for the twenty five to twenty
Speaker 1: six school year, currently it's K through nine correct.
Speaker 2: That's correct. Yep, We're going to have nine hundred sixty
Speaker 2: students this fall, just in a few weeks here in
Speaker 2: kindergarten through ninth grade, and then we'll of course be
Speaker 2: adding a grade level each year until we're fully through
Speaker 2: the twelfth grade with thirteen hundred students.
Speaker 1: Well, demand, I imagine his outstrips supply in terms of space.
Speaker 1: How many people will be applying for these nine hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty spots.
Speaker 2: Well, they've already applied. I mean, that's nine hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty that we have room for, and then there's a
Speaker 2: further wait list over five hundred long. So yeah, it's
Speaker 2: been a real struggle to meet the growth and the
Speaker 2: demand through these years, especially on a charter school budget.
Speaker 2: But you know, the big news now is that we
Speaker 2: do have that solution in place. We bought the property
Speaker 2: in Blue ash By Summit Park, signed the purchase agreement
Speaker 2: just less than eighteen months ago, and now we're ready
Speaker 2: to open it as our middle and high school campus.
Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really wonderful. And you know, we're going to
Speaker 2: have a grand opening celebration on August eighteen. This is
Speaker 2: open to the public. It's an open house for two
Speaker 2: hours from four thirty to six thirty, with a formal
Speaker 2: ribbon cutting ceremony and everything. You know, maybe, Brian, we
Speaker 2: hope you'll consider coming out to join us, because really
Speaker 2: just thirty minutes of visiting the school will give you
Speaker 2: a different idea of what education can and should be well.
Speaker 1: And you know, I look at your curriculum and it's
Speaker 1: really just so healthy and refreshing to see how you
Speaker 1: approach learning explicit phonics, you know Latin. I mean, I
Speaker 1: know you teach Latin at the SINSI Classical Academy. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons that people should still be, you know,
Speaker 1: learning Latin because it's the core foundation for our language.
Speaker 1: Classics reading, and I love reading the classics and I
Speaker 1: still do as an adult, and I think that's fantastic.
Speaker 1: Talk about building your thought processes and your logic and
Speaker 1: learning ability by reading classical education. You got the seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy six curriculum and Singapore math. What is Singapore math
Speaker 1: as opposed to the kind of math or teaching in
Speaker 1: public schools for example.
Speaker 2: Singapore. It's based on a program used in Singapore, which
Speaker 2: has been the number one country globally in math instruction
Speaker 2: for a decade in running. So they must be doing
Speaker 2: something right. But it's just it's it's no, it's not
Speaker 2: the new quote new maths as we've heard about in
Speaker 2: public schools. It's just common sense maths the way you
Speaker 2: would you would have been taught and I was taught.
Speaker 2: But it's also it's also explaining a little bit more
Speaker 2: about the concepts underlying the arithmetic manipulations rather than just
Speaker 2: memorizing the rules for for instance, how to do long divisions.
Speaker 1: And you've had some great success with students who've been
Speaker 1: through the since a classical academy. Are you tracking where
Speaker 1: what they have done after lead departing the since classical
Speaker 1: academy and the success that they're having.
Speaker 2: Well, of course we don't have graduates yet, we're just
Speaker 2: starting our first freshman class. But the test results, Brian
Speaker 2: has been you know, off the charts. The school exceeds. Well,
Speaker 2: we just calculated this, which is that a student at
Speaker 2: Cincinnati Class School Academy is three and a half more
Speaker 2: times likely to test as proficient in math, reading, and
Speaker 2: science compared to the Ohio average Ohio public school three
Speaker 2: and a half times more likely to be proficient.
Speaker 1: That's outstanding. But I imagine, you know, the children who've
Speaker 1: left the since I classical academy, say at grade nine,
Speaker 1: probably have a profound advantage and leaps ahead of folks
Speaker 1: in the same situation who've been through K through nine
Speaker 1: in the public schools. I mean that might serve they
Speaker 1: might be a little bored when they get over to
Speaker 1: public school after leaving the classical academy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you would think so. But there are many
Speaker 2: students where we can look to see if that happens.
Speaker 2: Because we've had a retention rate at the school between
Speaker 2: ninety right around ninety eight percent, so very students are leaving,
Speaker 2: and we were particularly cited that ninety five percent of
Speaker 2: our eighth graders from last year have returned to the
Speaker 2: school for high school.
Speaker 1: I have to think, and you correct me if I'm wrong,
Speaker 1: Doctor Harding's that a parent who hears about the Sinsant
Speaker 1: Classical Academy and enrolls their child there and whatever efforts
Speaker 1: they have to go through to get their child from
Speaker 1: wherever they're living over to the Sinsant Classical Academy physical location.
Speaker 1: Those folks are truly concerned about ensuring that their children
Speaker 1: get a great education. I have to imagine that parents
Speaker 1: like that who would go through this process and through
Speaker 1: the extra logistical hurdles to get there, get their children
Speaker 1: there each and every day. The children are probably I
Speaker 1: have to imagine, very disciplined. They're not problematic, and they're
Speaker 1: not disruptive. Coming from a solid background, you have less
Speaker 1: interruptions in classroom and better opportunity to actually teach as
Speaker 1: opposed to deal with disciplinary issues.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's correct. I think that families are
Speaker 2: driving a long way, in many cases an hour each way.
Speaker 2: They're making a lot of sacrifices because what's more important
Speaker 2: than the education of their children. What their children are
Speaker 2: being exposed to for you know, forty hours a week,
Speaker 2: and their families that have done their homework and value
Speaker 2: this and seek for their children an education. Not only
Speaker 2: that's going to you know, teach them the three RS
Speaker 2: and you know, give them good skills, but it's going
Speaker 2: to teach their children moral character, pacivil virtue.
Speaker 1: That's what I was hoping to hear from you. And
Speaker 1: you know I've said a.
Speaker 2: Million times habits of mind, heart and soul.
Speaker 1: Mind heart, and yep, what a profound shift from the
Speaker 1: what you get in the since they are in the
Speaker 1: public schools generally speaking. You know, doctor, I've always said,
Speaker 1: the second best gift my parents ever gave me, after
Speaker 1: the gift of life, was a gift of education. I
Speaker 1: was commenting and reflecting earlier in the program, if we
Speaker 1: were talking to the help squad about people on life's
Speaker 1: margins needing a leg up. Is how blessed I am
Speaker 1: to not have to look back. And you know, my
Speaker 1: parents save me from that by getting me a solid education.
Speaker 1: I've been able to take care of myself because of
Speaker 1: my education background. And here it is right there, Sin
Speaker 1: Sant Classical Academy. Now, going back to your new facility
Speaker 1: again next to the Summit Park, how many more children
Speaker 1: are you going to be able to serve there? Beyond
Speaker 1: the nine hundred and sixty that you take care of.
Speaker 2: Now we'll have capacity to go up to thirteen hundred students.
Speaker 2: Total between our two campuses. So we have the lower
Speaker 2: school campus K through four in Reading, Ohio, and then
Speaker 2: three miles away at some at Park in Blue Ash
Speaker 2: we'll have capacity for another eight hundred and fifty students,
Speaker 2: which will be grades five through twelve.
Speaker 1: Now, you need more space to expand as the years
Speaker 1: roll on, you keep adding an additional grade or will
Speaker 1: this new space along with the other space satisfy your needs.
Speaker 2: We've built all the space in the past nine months
Speaker 2: that we will need to go all the way through
Speaker 2: twelfth grade. That's great, problem solved. We are excited. We're
Speaker 2: excited to gove in this campus. We're excited to grow
Speaker 2: over the next three years and just to focus on
Speaker 2: education and learning. I mean for the board and for
Speaker 2: all the supporters. Most of the campus development problem that
Speaker 2: is solved. So you know, I think it's one of
Speaker 2: the biggest stories in education in Cincinnati in the last
Speaker 2: decade or more at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I just kind of wonder if you can
Speaker 1: explain my listening audience. I know you're a Hillsdale College
Speaker 1: member school, but this wasn't there one day and the
Speaker 1: next thing you know, you've got a since Ani classical Academy.
Speaker 1: How did you launch this effort? How is it that
Speaker 1: this wonderful organization that people are that there is in
Speaker 1: fact a line around the block trying to get in.
Speaker 1: How is it that it got started and it even
Speaker 1: exists right now?
Speaker 2: Doctor myself and a couple others just had the idea
Speaker 2: when we discovered, you know, that there was this classical
Speaker 2: education and we're enamored with it as the solution to
Speaker 2: all of the ills that plague our other schools and
Speaker 2: universities and colleges. We just got together and just started
Speaker 2: doing the work in twenty nineteen, and it took about
Speaker 2: three years to apply to Hillsdale and get affiliation to
Speaker 2: use their curriculum and have the school's support in terms
Speaker 2: of instruction and guidance, and open the doors in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two after three years of effort.
Speaker 1: Now I know my listening audience can help out. You
Speaker 1: do accept donations to this Insie Classical Academy.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, Go to Cincy Classical dot org and click
Speaker 2: on the giving page. We accept gifts and all forms,
Speaker 2: the state, gifts, one time, contributions, you name it. We
Speaker 2: would love to have any one support, especially because the
Speaker 2: financial challenges are real. Charter schools get about a third
Speaker 2: less funding than the average state school. We get about
Speaker 2: nine thousand dollars per student from the state, and compare
Speaker 2: that to you know, twenty or twenty five thousand dollars
Speaker 2: that you know Indian Hill or Wyoming or Sycamore school
Speaker 2: districts receiving funding. So it's yeah, we're getting the same
Speaker 2: test scores you know, or better so, and we're teaching
Speaker 2: with some different aims. So I think it's a really
Speaker 2: worthy cause that really transcends considerations just of where your
Speaker 2: kids are going to school. This is a national movement,
Speaker 2: a restoration of the education needed for a free thinking
Speaker 2: and self governing citizenry. So I think that that would
Speaker 2: be an appealing cause for everyone, regardless of whether you
Speaker 2: have children or have children in school or not.
Speaker 1: Well, I wish you had the resources to take an
Speaker 1: unlimited number of students because I know you're doing the
Speaker 1: right thing for those young people and their education and
Speaker 1: helping them secure a solid future where they can in
Speaker 1: fact take care of themselves. They do think critically and
Speaker 1: can logically and reasonably analyze things, as opposed to just
Speaker 1: you know, churning out something that was memorized by some
Speaker 1: woke professor or teacher. You know, God bless what you're doing,
Speaker 1: Doctor Hardings. And I just encourage my listeners to check
Speaker 1: out all the information at Sincey with a Y Sinceyclassical
Speaker 1: dot org. If you're lucky, one of the lucky few
Speaker 1: to get in, I'd do it for your child. You'd
Speaker 1: be doing all lifetime's worth of benefit. Doctor Harding's anything
Speaker 1: else you want to add for we part company today.
Speaker 2: No, I think that covers it. I we'd appreciate the
Speaker 2: support of anyone who believes in teaching how to think,
Speaker 2: not what to think, who thinks it's important to learn logic, economics, history, government,
Speaker 2: moral philosophy. Come on out and join us on August
Speaker 2: eighteenth for our open house four thirty to six thirty
Speaker 2: and we'll have a celebration afterwards. And Brian, I really
Speaker 2: thank you, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: On August eighteen, four thirty to six thirty at the
Speaker 1: Blue or at the Summit Park campus location. Doctor Hardings,
Speaker 1: God bless you, sir. Keep up the great work and
Speaker 1: look forward to another school year of learning excellence at
Speaker 1: the Sinsante Classical Academy.
Speaker 2: I do too, thank you.
Speaker 1: Take care of my friend. It's eight eighteen right now,
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