St. Michael's Catholic School is a Catholic day school for boys and girls in grades pre-kindergarten through six. Founded in 1936, the school is located in West Memphis, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The school is under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock

Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock is a Roman Catholic diocese in Arkansas. It was founded on November 28, 1843.-History:A dozen Catholic priests accompanied Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto down the Mississippi River in 1541 to a Quapaw Indian village near present-day Helena-West Helena,...

.

History

St. Michael's School was the first school to be officially established in the city of West Memphis and is the oldest private school in Crittenden County. The school opened during the great depression years in order to serve the Catholic population of Crittenden County. The school was originally opened and staffed by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine, Kentucky. In 1952, the sisters withdrew and the school closed for a period of two years. In 1954, the Olivetan Benedictine Sisters from Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, Arkansas, reopened the school. The school initially served grades one through eight. To meet the challenges in education, the school currently serves grades pre-kindergarten through six. Today, St. Michael's is staffed by both Benedictine Sisters and laymen.

Curriculum

St. Michael's School is rooted in the traditional classical education movement

Classical education movement

The Classical education movement advocates a form of education based in the traditions of Western culture, with a particular focus on education as understood and taught in the Middle Ages. The curricula and pedagogy of classical education was first developed during the Middle Ages by Martianus...

 and is faithful to the Magisterium

Magisterium

In the Catholic Church the Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the Church in union with the Pope, led by the Bishop of Rome , who has authority over the bishops,...

 of the Catholic Church. The school provides a classical education to its kindergarten through sixth grade students that is unique among Catholic schools. Classical education recognizes that all knowledge is interrelated and grounded in the virtues. Recognizing and respecting the natural development of the child, classical education leads the child to discover truth through history, language, science, math, and the fine arts. Students are equipped with the tools of lifelong learning and right judgment following a pattern called the Trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric (memorization, analysis, and articulation). In addition to the Trivium, all students study theology and grades four through six study Latin.