Learning in the light of your family's worldview.
Every AI tutor ships with a worldview — usually the invisible one it absorbed from the internet. Cognaa is the first platform that lets you choose yours. Thomistic Catholic. Classical Christian. Indian heritage. Hispanic heritage. Secular. Per family. Per child. Per subject, if you want.
AI doesn't "just teach facts."
It teaches a worldview too.
When you ask a generic AI tutor "How was the world formed?" you don't get neutrality — you get the default ontology embedded in its training data. That's fine for some families. For millions of others — homeschool Christians, Catholic classical families, Indian heritage families, Hispanic heritage families — it quietly contradicts what you teach at the dinner table. Cognaa fixes this at the root.
Ontology-level, not surface
Most "faith AI" adds a Bible verse or a disclaimer. Cognaa configures the underlying frame — what counts as a source, what framing is used across science/history/literature/philosophy, which pedagogical tradition informs the scaffolding.
Depth level 3–4 (Stanford HAI)Parent-controlled — always
You set your worldview. You set each child's. Children can't change theirs. No "defaults drifting." No community override. The family — not the algorithm — is the authority.
Per-user · per-child · explicitCurriculum-aligned
Each worldview pack ships with alignment notes for the real curricula families actually use — Seton, Classical Conversations, Chinmaya Mission, Llamitas Spanish — not our guess at what you might want.
Publisher-validatedPick one. Change it anytime. Set a different one for each child.
Catholic Classical Education
Thomistic classical education rooted in Catholic intellectual tradition. Faith and reason as "two wings" — Aquinas, Augustine, the Church Fathers, the Doctors of the Church, papal encyclicals. Sacramental worldview. Natural law. The transcendentals of truth, beauty, and goodness as objective and convertible.
- Origins: theistic evolution permitted per Humani Generis (Pius XII, 1950)
- Trivium stages: Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric
- Encyclicals woven in: Fides et Ratio, Laudato Si', Evangelium Vitae
- Bioethics & sexuality: Theology of the Body, natural law framework, deferring sensitive personal questions to parents or priest
- Liturgical awareness: Advent, Lent, feast days as natural teaching moments
"Why should I be good if no one's watching?"
That question is at the heart of moral philosophy, Maria. The Catholic tradition answers it with natural law — the idea, articulated beautifully by St. Thomas Aquinas, that goodness isn't a rule imposed from outside but written into the way you were made. Being good isn't about being watched. It's about becoming who you actually are.
Sources drawn on: Aquinas (Summa Theologica), Augustine (Confessions), natural law tradition.
Classical Christian Education
Trivium-based classical education integrated with biblical worldview — inspired by Dorothy Sayers's Lost Tools of Learning and Susan Wise Bauer. Grammar (K-4) for absorbing facts. Logic (5-8) for reasoning. Rhetoric (9-12) for articulate expression. Bible as the integrating thread across every subject.
- Origins: respectfully presents young-earth creationism while acknowledging range of Christian positions
- Pedagogy: Charlotte Mason narration, copywork, primary sources
- Denominational breadth: works for Protestant, Evangelical, Reformed, non-denominational
- Character virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, faith, hope, charity, diligence
- Scripture integration: woven into context, not as proof-text
"Why do leaves change color in fall?"
What a wonderful thing to notice! Leaves change color because of something called chlorophyll — the green pigment that captures sunlight for the tree all summer long. When days get shorter and the tree prepares for winter, the chlorophyll fades away, and the reds, oranges, and yellows that were hiding underneath finally show through. It's one of those places where careful observation reveals the wisdom embedded in God's creation — Psalm 19:1 says the heavens declare His glory, and honestly, so do sugar maples.
Sources drawn on: Apologia-style living science, creation-as-worship framing.
Hispanic Heritage Education
Family-centered, bilingual/bicultural education rooted in Hispanic and Latin American cultural values. Emphasizes familismo (family bonds), respeto (respect for elders and learning), and being bien educado — academically excellent with strong moral character. Pre-Columbian heritage, mestizo identity, pan-Hispanic contributions to world civilization.
- Bilingual by design: Spanish terms with English context; natural code-switching
- Values: familismo, respeto, dignidad, simpatía, personalismo, trabajo duro
- History: pre-Columbian civilizations, conquest and mestizaje, diaspora contributions
- Fastest-growing US segment: 26% of US homeschoolers
"¿Quiénes eran los aztecas?"
¡Qué buena pregunta, Sofia! The Aztecs — or Mexica, as they called themselves — built one of the most magnificent cities the world has ever seen: Tenochtitlán, built on an island in Lake Texcoco. They were brilliant astronomers, engineers, and poets. Many of their words live on in the Spanish you speak today — chocolate, tomate, aguacate, coyote. Your heritage is ancient and brilliant, mija.
Sources drawn on: pre-Columbian history, Nahuatl etymology, familismo-affirming framing.
Indian Heritage Education
Holistic education rooted in Bharatiya Jnana Parampara — the Indian knowledge tradition. Integrates Vedic wisdom, gurukula pedagogy, and India's contributions to world civilization with modern curriculum. Develops the whole person across the four aims: dharma (virtue), artha (prosperity), kama (aesthetic appreciation), and moksha (inner freedom).
- NEP-2020 aligned: India's National Education Policy integration of IKS
- Cosmology: cyclical (srishti · sthiti · pralaya) presented alongside scientific consensus
- Virtues: satya, ahimsa, tapas, daya, kshama, dhairya, vinaya, seva
- 5,000+ year heritage: Indus-Saraswati → Vedic → classical → modern
- Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam: the world is one family
"Who invented zero?"
Arjun, this is one of my favorite questions. The concept of zero as a number — not just empty space, but a real mathematical quantity — was developed in ancient India. Brahmagupta (598–668 CE) wrote the first formal rules for arithmetic with zero in the Brahmasphutasiddhanta. Later, Aryabhata and the Kerala school advanced the idea further. It traveled through the Arab world to Europe, transforming mathematics everywhere. India's contribution to world science is deep, old, and still shaping how we count today.
Sources drawn on: Brahmasphutasiddhanta, Kerala mathematics, IKS (Indian Knowledge Systems).
Same question. Two worlds.
A child asks: "How was the world formed?" Here's what Cognaa actually replies — no custom prompting, just the worldview pack doing its job. Both outputs are unedited samples from the Sage app.
Great question. Scientists and religious thinkers answer it in different ways, and in Catholic thought those do not have to be enemies.
From the science side, the main idea is this:
- The universe began about 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang.
- This does not mean an explosion in empty space.
- It means space, time, matter, and energy all began expanding from an extremely hot, dense state.
- Matter formed as the universe cooled.
- Tiny particles formed first.
- Then atoms, mostly hydrogen and helium.
- Stars and galaxies formed because gravity pulled matter together.
- Inside stars, heavier elements were made, like carbon, oxygen, and iron.
- The solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a giant cloud of gas and dust.
- Earth changed over time.
- At first it was extremely hot.
- Over millions of years, it cooled, formed a crust, oceans, and atmosphere.
From the Catholic perspective, many Catholics understand this scientific account as describing how God brought the world into being. Faith answers deeper questions like why there is something rather than nothing and what creation means — questions science alone can't reach. Both together give us the fullest picture.
Great question, Arjun.
There are two main ways people answer "How was the world formed?":
- Scientific explanation — how Earth formed physically
- Spiritual/cultural explanations — how different traditions understand creation and existence
In the Indian tradition, it is natural to study both with shraddha and viveka: respect and discernment.
The science answer
Scientists think the Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Very simply, the story goes like this:
- There was a huge cloud of gas and dust in space.
- Gravity pulled that material together.
- Most of it formed the Sun.
- Smaller bits around the Sun bumped into each other and stuck together.
- Over a very long time, those pieces formed planets, including Earth.
- Heavy materials sank toward the center, forming the core.
- Lighter materials formed the mantle and crust.
A Hindu cosmology perspective
In Hindu thought, the universe is often understood as going through cycles of creation, preservation, and dissolution:
- srishti — creation
- sthiti — sustenance
- pralaya — dissolution
So instead of one single beginning forever, the cosmos is seen as moving in vast repeating cycles. This is a philosophical and spiritual way of understanding existence.
A question for you
When you ask "world," do you mean:
A) how the planet Earth formed in science
B) how the universe began
C) the Hindu view of creation
D) all of them
Pick one, and I'll walk you through it clearly.
Same AI. Same question. Zero extra prompting. The worldview pack does the work — so your child hears the answer in the voice that matches your home.
Worldview is a real architecture, not a prompt trick.
Cognaa's worldview packs are versioned, schema-validated, theologically-reviewable documents that get injected into every persona's system prompt — parent chat, student chat, any future persona. Not a one-shot system message — a first-class component of our prompt compiler.
Versioned & auditable
Each pack is a JSON document with values, subject framings (science, math, history, literature, philosophy, writing, arts), sensitive-topic guidance, interaction style, progression labels, curriculum alignments, and review-ready source material lists. Every pack is a citable artifact.
System-wide injection
The WorldviewPromptBuilder service assembles the pack into every persona's context. Student chat, parent dashboard chat, writing assessment, quiz generation — all worldview-aware, all consistent.
No inheritance, no guessing
Parents have their own worldview setting. Each child has theirs. Micro-schools can set one per classroom. Zero edge cases in multi-child households. Children cannot change their own — parents always in control.
Reviewer-ready
Every pack ships with a named (or "to be appointed") theological reviewer slot and a source-materials manifest. Our Catholic pack cites Fides et Ratio, Humani Generis, Aquinas's Summa, Vatican II. Our Indian pack cites NEP-2020. Publishers and denominations can validate.
A worldview-aware tutor must be configurable at the ontological level. English-language LLMs embed Western secular ontology by default — and without intervention, that becomes the hidden curriculum of every AI-taught child.— Stanford HAI · 2025 AI bias research · the problem we're solving
You're in good company.
Millions of families across the US and around the world teach in a tradition that matters to them. Here's who we're building alongside.
The things parents and schools ask us.
Can I use Cognaa without any worldview framing at all?
Yes. "None (Secular Default)" is the default for every account. You get standard academic rigor with no faith or cultural framing applied. You can set it for yourself and set a different one per child, or leave all children on the default.
How does a worldview actually change what my child sees?
It shifts the framing, not the facts. A Catholic Classical student learning about the Big Bang gets accurate science and the Catholic position on theistic evolution. A Classical Christian student gets the same science with biblical-worldview framing and the range of Christian positions on origins. An Indian Heritage student gets the science alongside Hindu cosmology. Math problems might reference Aquinas, or Ramanujan, or the Mayan calendar — depending on the pack.
Is this doctrinally accurate? Who reviewed the packs?
Every pack ships with a named theological-reviewer slot and a full source-materials manifest — so publishers, denominations, and communities can validate. We're actively working with faith-community reviewers, curriculum publishers (Seton, Classical Conversations, Chinmaya Mission and others), and subject-matter experts to ensure depth beyond surface tokenism. If you're a reviewer or a community leader who wants to collaborate, get in touch.
Can my child change their own worldview?
No — only parents can. Worldview is set by the parent on their own settings page and on each child's profile. Children interact with their assigned worldview; they cannot switch it themselves.
What worldviews are coming next?
On the roadmap: Orthodox Christian, Reformed/Lutheran variants, Jewish (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform), Muslim (Sunni, Shia), LDS, Buddhist, secular-humanist, Nordic/Scandinavian pedagogy, Unschooling-aligned. We prioritize by community demand — request one here.
Do micro-schools and Catholic/Christian schools get volume pricing?
Yes. Partner pricing is available for micro-schools, pods, and faith-based schools during early access. We also offer co-development partnerships for publishers who want to build aligned packs together. Talk to us.
An AI tutor that sounds like your home.
Start free. Choose your worldview. Set one for each child. Cancel anytime.