Our Story

“Every education teaches a philosophy; if not by dogma then by suggestion, by implication, by atmosphere.
Every part of that education has a connection with every other part. If it does not all combine to convey some
general view of life, it is not an education at all.”

G. K. Chesterton

Rick and Marie Owens have lived in North Charleston for their entire married life and have watched the neighborhood change. Marie felt fortunate to homeschool her own children, but was always concerned for the children she saw that were limited to the local schools where so many things were going wrong.

Once her own children were grown and having been an instructor and founder of an online classical Christian school, she knew God was calling "someone" to take action locally. That someone turned out to be her and a small start-up board.

Charleston Classical School (CCS) was founded in 2019 with the mission of providing a high quality educational opportunity to students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds to learn together through excellent academics along with the support from their families and our community. Our doors opened to kindergarten to second grade students in August 2021.

The parents of our first students have expressed their gratitude, astonishment, and relief to see their children progressing so well. Moms who have older kids in government schools are particularly excited to see their young children learning so quickly. Despite several ESL (English as a second language) challenges, our students have flourished. You know something is going well when children are sad on the last day of school and ask all summer, "When can I go back to school?"