Coweta County parents concerned about their children's education will have another option starting next fall.

The Newnan Classical School will open its doors next fall for students from kindergarten through sixth grade.

The curriculum, according to one of the organizers behind the project, Carol Brown, is back to basics.

The school will focus on the classic method of learning with a Christ-centered approach. Starting in elementary school, students will study Latin and move on to Greek in high school. Students will focus on logical, critical and rhetorical aspects of education and will use the trivium method of learning how to think, instead of just memorizing facts to pass a test, she added.

“Eighty percent of our language derives from Latin. If you're in the medical or legal profession, you constantly deal with Latin,” Brown said.

The school is currently looking at sites and probably will locate somewhere between Interstate 85 and Thomas Crossroads.

The school is partnering with Newnan Christ Church, where Brown's husband, Kyle, is an assistant minister. The church currently meets at White Oak Elementary School, but is looking at building a church with an adjoining building big enough for the school.

Tuition will be between $3,000 and $3,500 and Brown is hoping to keep enrollment at 50 students for the first year.

“Every classical school has doubled after the first year and we'd like to keep the class sizes small,” she said.

But if 100 students want to attend the school, they won't be turned away, she said.

There are currently 160 classical schools around the country, with just two in Georgia, on St. Simon's Island and in Smyrna.

The idea for the classical instruction came after World War I, when several soldiers returned home with brain damage. After the classical method worked on the injured soldiers, educators began wondering if the process wouldn't work for healthy students.

The experiment proved successful and classical schools started popping up around the country.

Brown emphasized that parents will be extremely important at the new school and discipline will be emphasized. In the school's mission statement, an entire entry is given to discipline.

“It is our intent at Newnan Classical School to instruct every child to obey his parents and to show respect to all persons,” the statement reads.

For information on the school, phone 770-252-0110.

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