Seton Home Study School
Encyclopedia
Seton Home Study School is a full-service homeschool curriculum provider and book publisher. With around 11,000 enrolled students, Seton is larger than any other Catholic primary or secondary school in the United States. Headquartered in Front Royal, Virginia
, Seton has students in every U.S. state and over 50 countries. Seton Press books are used by many thousands of homeschoolers not enrolled in Seton’s school, and also by several private Catholic schools who essentially use Seton’s curriculum in the classroom. Nationally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
, Seton has a reputation for high academic standards.
founder Warren Carroll, started a Catholic school in Manassas, Virginia called Seton High School
. The emphasis Mrs. Carroll placed on integrating the Catholic faith into the curriculum was unusual for the time, and soon many parents who did not live near the school were requesting admission by correspondence. Realizing the potential for the correspondence concept to expand, Mrs. Carroll asked Dr. Mary Kay Clark, an educator from Ohio, to come to Virginia as the Director of an independent K-12 Seton Home Study School. Dr. Clark became the Director of Seton in 1985 and moved the Home Study School to Front Royal, VA with a total enrollment of less than one hundred students. The two schools have developed independently since that time.
Seton’s curriculum was largely based upon reproducing textbooks which had been used in the Catholic school system in the 1950’s. Textbooks published in the 60’s and after didn’t have the same focus on the Catholic faith which Seton was trying to provide. Seton eventually began to write some of their own books, and by the mid 1990’s began to publish color textbooks in earnest. Encouraged by Dr. Mary Kay Clark’s eldest son and Seton’s Vice-President, Ken Clark, Seton soon became the largest publisher of Catholic textbooks in the English language. Currently, Seton still uses a few books from outside publishers in its curriculum, but the vast majority of materials are from Seton Press. With the new possibilities available though the internet, Seton has created a wide array of online resources for enrolled students through its web portal “MySeton.”
Seton had experienced exponential growth ever since its founding. In the 1980’s, homeschooling was still a relatively unknown phenomena. Seton strongly believed in the benefit homeschooling could provide for families, not only because of the superior formation in the Catholic Faith that it could offer, but by strengthening families. Dr. Clark began to travel across the country hosting Catholic homeschooling conferences to introduce new families to homeschooling. As homeschooling in general became more accepted in society, Seton’s enrollment gradually swelled to its current number of 11,000 enrolled students.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, every child (and adult) learns by abstracting universal ideas from sense data. This kind of abstraction can take place in two ways, either by discovery or by instruction. When discovery occurs, a person randomly comes across sense data and recognizes some universal elements between the different objects he sees. For instance, after looking at a picture of the Great Pyramids of Giza, someone might notice that when a triangle has sides that are the same size, it also has angles that are the same degree. When instruction occurs, another person who already possesses an idea explains it to one who does not yet understand it by means of arranging sense data in such a way as to highlight the desired principle. Thus, a geometry textbook is designed to have illustrations of equilateral triangles pointing out the correlation of sides to angles. Either way, a student can only gain knowledge when he abstracts the universal idea for himself, but instruction is a much more efficient way to acquire knowledge. Child-directed learning is essentially just discovery, whereas teacher/parent-directed learning is instruction.
The Scholastic Method is an instruction based method primarily distinguished by its emphasis on the use of textbooks, which are designed to help the student, in the easiest possible way, grasp important ideas and concepts.
programs, Seton is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
, meaning that those enrolled students who graduate from Seton's high school program receive a diploma. If a student is enrolled with Seton, quarterly tests and assignments must be sent in for grading, although parent-graded items may comprise part of the student's grade as well.
In addition a minimum of 3 elective credits must be taken. These electives can be from available courses in the subject areas of business education, computers, English, science and health, social sciences, and mathematics.
Front Royal, Virginia
Front Royal is a town in Warren County, Virginia, United States. The population was 13,589 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Warren County.-Geography:Front Royal is roughly west of Washington, D.C....
, Seton has students in every U.S. state and over 50 countries. Seton Press books are used by many thousands of homeschoolers not enrolled in Seton’s school, and also by several private Catholic schools who essentially use Seton’s curriculum in the classroom. Nationally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is one of the six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation...
, Seton has a reputation for high academic standards.
History
In 1975, Anne Carroll, the wife of Christendom CollegeChristendom College
Christendom College is a small Catholic liberal arts college in Front Royal, Virginia, United States, which is located in the Shenandoah Valley.-Educational Mission:...
founder Warren Carroll, started a Catholic school in Manassas, Virginia called Seton High School
Seton High School (Manassas, Virginia)
Seton is an accredited, private, co-educational, Catholic junior & senior high school. Seton teaches orthodox, traditional Catholicism, in harmony with the Magisterium of the Catholic Church and its leader, Pope Benedict XVI. Furthermore, the entire curriculum at Seton is grounded on a Christian...
. The emphasis Mrs. Carroll placed on integrating the Catholic faith into the curriculum was unusual for the time, and soon many parents who did not live near the school were requesting admission by correspondence. Realizing the potential for the correspondence concept to expand, Mrs. Carroll asked Dr. Mary Kay Clark, an educator from Ohio, to come to Virginia as the Director of an independent K-12 Seton Home Study School. Dr. Clark became the Director of Seton in 1985 and moved the Home Study School to Front Royal, VA with a total enrollment of less than one hundred students. The two schools have developed independently since that time.
Seton’s curriculum was largely based upon reproducing textbooks which had been used in the Catholic school system in the 1950’s. Textbooks published in the 60’s and after didn’t have the same focus on the Catholic faith which Seton was trying to provide. Seton eventually began to write some of their own books, and by the mid 1990’s began to publish color textbooks in earnest. Encouraged by Dr. Mary Kay Clark’s eldest son and Seton’s Vice-President, Ken Clark, Seton soon became the largest publisher of Catholic textbooks in the English language. Currently, Seton still uses a few books from outside publishers in its curriculum, but the vast majority of materials are from Seton Press. With the new possibilities available though the internet, Seton has created a wide array of online resources for enrolled students through its web portal “MySeton.”
Seton had experienced exponential growth ever since its founding. In the 1980’s, homeschooling was still a relatively unknown phenomena. Seton strongly believed in the benefit homeschooling could provide for families, not only because of the superior formation in the Catholic Faith that it could offer, but by strengthening families. Dr. Clark began to travel across the country hosting Catholic homeschooling conferences to introduce new families to homeschooling. As homeschooling in general became more accepted in society, Seton’s enrollment gradually swelled to its current number of 11,000 enrolled students.
Method and Philosophy
Seton’s educational method is sometimes referred to as the Scholastic Method. This term is derived from the Latin “scholasticus” which means “of or pertaining to the school.” There is not much difference between Seton’s method and the method that had formerly been used by the Catholic school system. The term “Scholastic” can also refer to the philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages, especially that of St. Thomas Aquinas whose philosophy provides something of a basis for Seton’s educational theory.According to St. Thomas Aquinas, every child (and adult) learns by abstracting universal ideas from sense data. This kind of abstraction can take place in two ways, either by discovery or by instruction. When discovery occurs, a person randomly comes across sense data and recognizes some universal elements between the different objects he sees. For instance, after looking at a picture of the Great Pyramids of Giza, someone might notice that when a triangle has sides that are the same size, it also has angles that are the same degree. When instruction occurs, another person who already possesses an idea explains it to one who does not yet understand it by means of arranging sense data in such a way as to highlight the desired principle. Thus, a geometry textbook is designed to have illustrations of equilateral triangles pointing out the correlation of sides to angles. Either way, a student can only gain knowledge when he abstracts the universal idea for himself, but instruction is a much more efficient way to acquire knowledge. Child-directed learning is essentially just discovery, whereas teacher/parent-directed learning is instruction.
The Scholastic Method is an instruction based method primarily distinguished by its emphasis on the use of textbooks, which are designed to help the student, in the easiest possible way, grasp important ideas and concepts.
Curriculum
Unlike some other homeschoolingHomeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
programs, Seton is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is one of the six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation...
, meaning that those enrolled students who graduate from Seton's high school program receive a diploma. If a student is enrolled with Seton, quarterly tests and assignments must be sent in for grading, although parent-graded items may comprise part of the student's grade as well.
High school curriculum
Seton requires twenty-two credits to graduate from high school, with each credit representing a year taken in a given subject. The required courses are as follows:- EnglishEnglish studiesEnglish studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
: 5 credits - LiteratureLiteratureLiterature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
: 1 credit - Foreign LanguageForeign languageA foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
: 2 credits (both must be of the same language) - MathematicsMathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
: 2 credits - ScienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
: 2 credits (one must be Biology) - Social StudiesSocial studiesSocial studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...
: 3 credits - ReligionReligionReligion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
: 4 credits
In addition a minimum of 3 elective credits must be taken. These electives can be from available courses in the subject areas of business education, computers, English, science and health, social sciences, and mathematics.