What is Arete?

Arete Academy is a new school community growing in North Texas in 2026.

We exist to provide academic excellence with the beauty of old traditions and skills.

The word arete is a word from the Bible and ancient Greek philosophy meaning excellence, virtue, and the fulfillment of one's purpose.

Our school exists because arete is missing in today's world. Christian parents are looking for something different and excellent for their children--and we exist to provide it.

________________________

Distinctives

In order to help our students grow in arete, we are committed to three distinctives as a school: we are Christian, practical, and classical.

What does this look like? As we think through our courses for this summer and fall, we are imagining a new way of education. Think of theology and bread-making, humanities and agriculture, literature and bonfires, languages and creating homemade gifts, moral philosophy and woodworking, logic and floral arrangements with fresh pine and dried fruit, biblical theology and building fences.

________________________

Why all the trees?

Arete is committed to a traditional Christian view of student growth.

The Bible is filled with testimony that God has chosen trees as a special way to teach us about growth (Ps. 1, Jer. 17, Ezek. 31, Luke 13, &c.) Arete has therefore chosen a tree to symbolize our school. We aim to help students grow like the tree of Psalm 1:

Like a tree planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers. (Ps. 1:3)