Veritas Preparatory Academy is a charter school in Phoenix, Arizona centered around classical education and is a member of the Great Hearts Academies charter network. School philosophy As a charter school, Veritas Prep offers a Great Books education centering on fundamental texts in the Western canon. Veritas Prep's philosophy includes small class sizes that reach up to 30 students and education using the Socratic method. While at school, students are prohibited from mentioning anything seen as “Pop culture” focusing rather on classical texts and works such as those of Plato, Aristotle, and other canonical philosophers of the Western tradition. Teachers ask questions, and prompt them to think deeply about the subject matter. A key idea or assignment might require that the teacher present material to the class, but the forward progress of the class is driven by the questions that the teacher asks of the students, the answers that they give, and the further questions that those answers inspire. Curriculum overview All students seeking graduation from Veritas Preparatory Academy must take at least one course in Latin. While high school students have the opportunity to choose between Spanish, French, and Latin / Ancient Greek, all 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students take Latin. High school students are required to take two years of honors physics, including kinetics, dynamics, electricity, magnetism, mechanical waves, light, and sound. Students also take a year of honors chemistry, honors biology, as well as natural, life, and earth science. These courses are taken alongside two years of honors calculus, honors Euclidean Geometry, and honors algebra II/trig. Throughout middle and high school, students take five years of music, three years of studio art, and one year of honors economics, drama, and poetry. Students were forbidden from choosing their own classes with the exception of a foreign language. As of the 2020-2019 school year, students were given some electives in the high school. Uniform Veritas Prep uniform requires a blue or white shirt with the Veritas logo badge for all students, and a plaid skirt for girls or Khaki shorts or pants for boys. Boys are required to wear pants from fall break to spring break. All students 7th grade and above must wear black Dress shoes and black Dress socks. Boys’ hair must not grow over their ears which is a Controversy of Great Hearts Academies. Admission As a charter school in Arizona, Veritas Preparatory Academy has