There’s a persistent idea floating around parent forums and school comparison spreadsheets that goes something like this: classical education is fine for reading old books and learning Latin, but if you want your child to do serious science, you need a STEM school.
At first, it sounds reasonable – but it also happens to be wrong. The liberal arts vs STEM debate rests on a misunderstanding of what classical education actually includes. Newton was classically educated. So were Darwin, Copernicus, and Galileo.
The tradition that produced those minds never treated science as a separate track. It treated science as inseparable from the disciplines around it, an approach that still shapes how online learning works at classical schools like Virtual Preparatory Academy of Oregon today.
The Myth That Classical Means No Science
The misunderstanding starts with how “liberal arts” has shifted in popular usage. Today, the phrase conjures humanities departments and literary theory, which makes it easy to assume a classical school will prioritize Shakespeare and leave the periodic table for someone else.
The original liberal arts told a different story. They were organized into the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music as mathematical harmony, and astronomy). Four of the seven foundational disciplines were mathematical and scientific. Science was built into the architecture of classical education from the beginning, not bolted on as an afterthought.
The Scientists Who Prove the Point
Newton didn’t start with optics and gravity. He started with Latin, Greek philosophy, and classical mathematics at Cambridge, and those subjects certainly weren’t a detour.
Darwin’s time at Edinburgh and Cambridge dragged him through rhetoric, theology, and natural history so wide-ranging that when it came time to connect dots across botany, geology, and zoology, he had the vocabulary for all of it. Da Vinci moved between anatomy, engineering, and optics as if they were rooms in the same house, because his Florentine education taught him they were.
The pattern didn’t stop with the Renaissance. Werner Heisenberg, the man behind the uncertainty principle, once said that modern physics had “decided in favor of Plato.” He wasn’t being poetic for the sake of it. He meant that his grounding in philosophy and classical literature shaped how he thought about the problems that defined his career, not just physics alone.
Why Classical Training Builds Better Scientific Thinkers
The liberal arts vs. STEM framing assumes these tracks compete for the same hours. In practice, classical training develops exactly the cognitive skills that make someone effective in science.
Studies consistently show that liberal arts students perform well in science courses, sometimes outperforming peers who focus exclusively on STEM coursework. The reason comes down to how classical education trains the mind:
- Socratic questioning builds scientific reasoning: Classical students learn to interrogate assumptions and defend their thinking daily. That habit transfers directly into the lab, where the ability to question a hypothesis matters more than the ability to recite a formula.
- Analytical skills are portable: A student trained to dissect an argument in a Latin text or construct a persuasive essay is working the same cognitive muscles a research paper demands. The skill isn’t subject-specific.
- Broad thinkers adapt faster: STEM-only programs can produce technically capable graduates who struggle when problems shift shape. Classical education trains students to carry their tools between disciplines, a quality increasingly valued in research, medicine, and engineering.
- Writing and communication compound the advantage: Scientists who can articulate their findings clearly have a measurable edge over those who can’t. Classical students practice this from day one.
What This Looks Like at an Online Classical School
One concern that comes up regularly for parents considering Virtual Preparatory Academy of Oregon is whether an online school can handle real science without a physical lab. The short answer is that VPA Oregon’s science curriculum was designed with that question in mind.
Our students participate in labs, interactive science activities, research journals, and group projects, all integrated into the academic program. Oregon-certified science teachers lead live virtual sessions using inquiry-based methods that ask students to investigate, reason through problems, and connect what they’re learning in science to the questions they’re exploring in history, literature, and philosophy.
The curriculum also includes AP courses and dual enrollment options with advanced science tracks that feed directly into college-level STEM. For families weighing the liberal arts versus STEM question, this is what the answer looks like in practice: rigorous science instruction grounded in a classical foundation, with a clear pathway to college credit.
Classical and STEM Aren’t Competing
The most productive way to think about liberal arts vs STEM is to retire the “vs” altogether. Classical education has always included rigorous science and mathematics. What it adds on top, the Socratic questioning, the analytical writing, the ability to think across disciplines, is precisely what modern STEM employers and university admissions offices say they’re struggling to find in candidates.
Plenty of STEM-focused programs have started reintroducing discussion-based learning, critical writing, and interdisciplinary projects into their curricula. Classical education never removed those components. Parents weighing this decision should know that choosing a broad foundation doesn’t mean sacrificing depth in science. If anything, the evidence suggests it strengthens it.
A Curriculum That Doesn’t Ask You to Choose
Your child’s classical education at Virtual Preparatory Academy of Oregon isn’t a trade-off against science or future career prospects. It’s a foundation designed to carry weight in any direction, whether that’s medicine, engineering, research, or the advanced science tracks available through our online high school program.
The students who end up changing things tend to be the ones who learned to think across boundaries, and classical education has been producing that kind of student for a very long time.
If you want to see what that looks like in practice, find out how VPA Oregon’s classical curriculum sets students up for science, college, and beyond.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does classical education prepare students for science and STEM careers?
Yes, the classical tradition has always included mathematics and natural science through the quadrivium. Virtual Preparatory Academy of Oregon builds on that with a full science curriculum taught by certified Oregon educators, lab activities, and Socratic methods that develop deep scientific reasoning.
Do students in online classical schools still do science labs?
They do. Virtual Preparatory Academy of Oregon includes lab-based activities, interactive science projects, and research-driven assessments within the online curriculum. Students engage with hands-on science work alongside their other coursework.
Is classical education better than STEM?
The framing is misleading. Classical education includes rigorous science and math while also developing the reasoning, writing, and analytical skills that make STEM study more effective. It’s a broader model, not a softer one.
Can a classical education student get into a good science or engineering program?
Virtual Preparatory Academy of Oregon offers AP courses and dual enrollment options that provide college-level STEM preparation. Classical students regularly perform at or above state averages on college readiness measures, and selective programs increasingly value the breadth of their education.