• Dignitas: Comporting oneself with dignity and respect.

• Gravitas: Seriousness of purpose

• Pietas: Loyalty to self, others and the school at large.

• Veritas: Truth and Honesty - to thine own self and to others.

Classical Magnet School is a Public Magnet School, which is committed to a liberal arts curriculum centered in the classics.  Students will be engaged with the Paideia driven, Socratic method of teaching and learning, and will be prepared for acceptance at, as well as success at, the finest liberal arts colleges.  We recently graduated a student who gained acceptance to all of the Ivy League Colleges.  In many of these colleges, small class sizes, references to the Classics (Latin, Greek, Philosophy) and the Socratic Seminar are prevalent.  We expose students to this type of Education in high school, so that they will find success in college.  We are a private school education at a public school price, and our highly qualified teachers are there to help your student succeed.

Why Latin?  Students are required to take Latin at Classical, and though it is not a spoken language, it gives us the root words for ALL of the romance languages.  Students with a background in Latin increase vocabulary, as well as have a much easier time learning Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and many others later in life.  Through a deep understanding of the syntax of language and exposure to the Latin roots of many words in modern English, students prepare themselves for challenging careers in the medical field, the Classics, any career requiring language acquisition, lawyering, as well as the liberal arts in general.

Why the Liberal Arts instead of a focus on a specific career path?  Many high school students, and even many college students, don't know what they'd like to do.  This kind of broad approach can prepare students for every eventuality.  We have graduates that are engineers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, mathematicians, and everything in between.  We emphasize writing and research, because at the top of every field is someone who can communicate complex ideas to others, not just perform tasks but really explain them well to others.  

Paideia Instructional Philosophy

At Classical, we utilize the Paideia Instructional Philosophy, which focuses on each student and their individual learning goals and strengths.  In Paideia, we employ Socratic Seminar, Didactic Instruction, but we really focus on Coaching - helping students to achieve their best learning goals by helping them to grow and develop at their pace, in heterogeneously grouped classes which are all taught at the honors level.  

Hartford Public Schools requires high school students to successfully complete a minimum number of distributed credits before they can graduate. To ensure a logical progression toward graduation, the Office of Academics suggests the following guidelines when determining grade level promotion and/or grade level identification. These guidelines apply to students in the class of 2020 and later.

• In order to be considered a Sophomore/10th grader:

  • Students must have successfully completed 6 credits. 

  • Credits must include: 1 in Mathematics, 1 in English, and 1 in Science.

• In order to be considered a Junior/11th grader:

  • Students must have successfully completed 12 credits. 

  • Credits must include 2 in Mathematics, 2 in English, 2 in Science, and 1 in Social Studies/History.

• In order to be considered a senior/12th grader:

  • Student must successfully have completed 18 credits.

  • These credits must include 3 in Mathematics, 3 in English, 3 in Science, 2 in Social Studies/History, 1 in World Language, 1 in Physical Education, and 1 in Career & Life Skills. 

Click here to go to the Connecticut State Department of Education page on Title IX Gender Equity and Sexual Harassment