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BeaufortLifestyle.com | April 2025 11Students, sharpen your pencils for this pop quiz question: What do Dr. Seuss and William Shakespeare have in common? If your answer is %u2014 both have a captivating way with words and have written works enjoyed the world over, you%u2019re not wrong. But that%u2019s not all: Both authors also share a place in the second grade curriculum at Holy Trinity Classical Christian School. And, no, that%u2019s not a typo %u2014 seven-year-old students at Holy Trinity are just as likely to hear the words of Hamlet as Green Eggs and Ham in their classroom. %u201cThe Bard is not inaccessible to children,%u201d said Elizabeth Booman, second grade teacher and chair of Holy Trinity%u2019s theater department, in a recent school newsletter. %u201cHis archaic words may be unfamiliar, but the musical syntax trapped in each syllable is easily heard and appreciated by children. Many credit Dr. Seuss as the writer who ignited their love of reading. Why not let Shakespeare ignite a child%u2019s love of literature? Is it ever too early to ignite such a love? At Holy Trinity, we think not.%u201dDEVELOPING MINDS AND HEARTS The idea that students %u2014 even very young children %u2014 should have the opportunity to experience a wide and deep range of academic challenges is a key part of Holy Trinity%u2019s commitment to providing a classical Christian education. It%u2019s a traditional approach to education that blends the curriculum and teaching methods of the seven liberal arts %u2014 grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music, and geometry %u2014 with the historic Christian faith, an approach the school says %u201cnourishes students on truth, goodness, and beauty to cultivate societal leaders characterized by wisdom, eloquence, and virtue.%u201d %u201cOur students are curious learners and deep thinkers,%u201d said Minnie Bullock, the school%u2019s director of advancement. %u201cThey learn how to think and how to ask questions. They%u2019re unafraid to try new things. They learn how to express themselves persuasively and voice their opinions in a way that%u2019s agreeable. These skills will be a blessing to them regardless of where they end up in the future.%u201d The emphasis on %u201ctruth, goodness, and beauty%u201d is more than an idealistic vision of the world, sure to be shattered quickly once students leave school. Instead, it equips them with a foundation to evaluate what they%u2019ll experience in the future, Minnie explains. %u201cWe nourish and pour into very young children the beauty of art, music and poetry, and the elegance of science and math,%u201d she says. %u201cOur students can recognize dissonance when they encounter it because it%u2019s not part of their native tongue.%u201d Speaking of native tongues, Shakespeare shares shelf space with Latin textbooks in those second grade classrooms. %u201cWe start with Latin because it%u2019s the foundation of the Romance languages and helps them learn logic and reasoning,%u201d Minnie says. Students can take modern languages starting in 10thgrade. Those high school years culminate in a rigorous senior thesis project, when seniors must orally defend a written argument they compose based on %u201cgreat ideas%u201d %u2014 justice, freedom, virtue, sacrifice %u2014 in Western classic literature, from Lord of the Flies to Pride and Prejudice to the Bible. The challenging curriculum debunks the idea that Christian schools lack academic rigor. Those in doubt can do the numbers: The school boasts a 100% college acceptance rate since its first graduating class in 2020, with five National Merit Scholarship Finalists, two National Merit Commended Scholars, and 18 Palmetto Scholars among its 79 alumni.MEETING A GROWING DEMAND Holy Trinity describes itself as both %u201cdistinctly classical and distinctively Christian.%u201d And although it was founded by the Parish Church of St. Helena, it%u2019s not affiliated with a specific religious denomination and includes students from more than a dozen churches in Second grade teacher and Head of the Drama Department Elizabeth Booman