The Quadrivium I

The Quadrivium I course covers the first two of the mathematical liberal arts: Arithmetic and Geometry. It will feature interdisciplinary study where students explore numerical relations, Euclidean reasoning, logical demonstration, and mathematical thinking. Integral to this work is the challenge for students to contemplate order as it unfolds in the integration of mathematics, the natural sciences, philosophy, and the Great Conversation in the history of ideas.

The revival of the Liberal Arts Tradition in Classical Education has focused almost exclusively on the Trivium (the first three of the seven liberal arts that focus on mastery of language and include grammar, logic, and rhetoric). The Quadrivium I and II courses provide an opportunity for students to bring to fulfillment the formation they began with the Trivium. These courses feature an overview of the four mathematical ways of grasping the order that fills our world. The same four ways that were an essential part of the education received by the greatest minds in Western Civilization.

A Brief Quadrivium, Dr. Peter Ulrickson

Dr. Ulrickson prepared this text with high school aged students in mind as his target audience (but is incredibly appealing for any interested adult).

Geometric Compass (small and large are recommended), a straight edge (any instrument that allows for precisely placed straight line segments), pencils, paper, composition notebook.

Kyle Albarado

Mr. Kyle Albarado has been teaching and working in classical education for the past fifteen years. Although formally trained in cognitive science, he has a strong interest in receiving and handing on the Liberal Arts Tradition, especially through mathematics and the natural sciences. He is currently a Junior Fellow at the Boethius Institute and the founding director of the Art of Assessment, an organization dedicated to recovering and advancing the lost art of how to assess students along the path that leads to wisdom.

Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson has devoted his life to the evangelization and education of children for over twenty years. He received his BA from St. Joseph’s Seminary College in 2002 and his MTS from the John Paul II Institute at the Catholic University of America in 2007. A fire was lit in Chris’ heart for Catholic classical education in 2012 and has steadily grown stronger with each passing year. In 2022 he completed CiRCE Institute’s three year Latin Apprenticeship and is currently in his second year of CiRCE’s Lost Tools of Writing Apprenticeship. Chris lives in Carencro, LA with his wife Becky and their five beautiful children.