History
Brief History
The ATHENEUM SCHOOL, located between Barangay San Rafael I and San Rafael II, in Noveleta, Cavite was conceived in response to a great need. Well-meaning residents of Cavite City, Noveleta, Kawit, Rosario, General Trias, Tanza, and other nearby towns, either send their children to perceived quality schools in Metro Manila or make do of neighborhood schools. In the first case, the rigors and travails of daily travel, tax the children's health not only because of distance but more so because of chaotic traffic becoming increasingly difficult each day. In addition, street and drug crimes and pollution in exceedingly congested Metro Manila are sources of parental nightmares. These, and other reasons such as the passing of the founders' beloved son – a tragedy turned catalyst for a legacy to start and offer a kind of holistic education different from the ones in existence in terms of methodology and condition of learning environment had led to the foundation of this institution.
ATHENEUM had its name from the Greek word, "athenaeus" which means a place where a number of learned men meet and discuss topics on art, philosophy, science, math, language, food, etc. which were preserved in 15 books, of which 10 have survived in their entirety, the others in summary form. A student from this school is called an AMCANIAN instead of Athenean which is a coinage of the words in the Latin phrase, "cogito, ergo sum" - "I think, therefore I am."
ATHENEUM was founded in 1990 (but the high school department opened in 1995) by two educators with a passion for excellence, Atty. Reynaldo C. Laserna, an alumnus of the University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University and former chief legal counsel of Metrobank and Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and Adelaida A. Laserna whose teaching career started at O.B. Montessori and De La Salle-Zobel in Alabang before she teamed up with her husband to put up Atheneum with the core of faculty recruited from De La Salle-Zobel.
ATHENEUM education aims to develop a child in all aspects-intellectual, physical, moral, social, emotional, and spiritual so that he/she may be better prepared to adjust and cope with college/university work or life itself, to maximize the student's potentials through a variety of carefully selected and meaningful experiences considering his/her uniqueness, interests and capabilities and to make every Amcanian a self-propelling, thinking, contributing, and productive individual.