Classical Education: Stuffed-shirt academics?
When I tell people that we are moving our school into “Christian Classical Education” they are curious. They may ask, “Doesn’t that turn children into eggheads and geeks who can relate to books better than to people?” or “Does that mean kids are going to greet each other in the halls, spouting Latin phrases and proverbs?”
In truth, just the opposite is likely to happen. Classical training equips children with confidence and the skills to benefit others, and as genuinely educated people they will be gracious and kind to people in every station of life. So what, then, is Classical Education, and how does it become “Christian” Classical Education?
Time-tested.
The program is called “classical” because it is time-tested and avoids fads and needless innovations that come and go in education. It is also “classical” because it is based on the educational philosophy that created the great Western civilization. It gives students the “tools of learning.” They can recall a lot of facts given them, and, as they grow, they can make sense of all they are taught. Ultimately that leads to original thinking by which they can master any subject.
What difference will a Classical Education make to your child?
What practical difference will a “Classical Education” make to your child? He will have a basis for logically figuring out what the real world is and how it works. Children have a natural curiosity. Classical education allows them to follow their interests capably, using the natural building blocks of learning.
Teaching Styles Appropriate to a Child’s Development.
Classical educators follow a plan called The Trivium, which divides itself roughly into three categories (hence the name, “trivium” or “three ways”).
First is the Grammar stage.
Every field has its own vocabulary and grammar. We could call this the “data acquisition period.” Younger children readily learn large amounts of information. They love to memorize in these early years. That’s why teaching languages, such as Latin, Greek, or a modern language is started in the earliest grades. (See below: The Advantages that Come from Studying Latin and Greek). We still call the earliest grades, "The Grammar School."
Teens love to reason and debate. This is called the Dialectic period.
As Dorothy Sayers puts it, “They love to argue, so we should teach them to argue well.” It’s the perfect time to introduce them to logic, which will prepare them not only to debate the great issues of their time but also to become capable researchers and technicians, which will help them enormously later in life. For example, clear logic is indispensable to a doctor who is trying to diagnose an illness. Similarly, logic is essential for a mechanic trying to find an elusive transmission problem.
The poetic phase.
Studies at this level are called Rhetoric. Now the young scholars are ready to make an elegant argument for a point of view, to present a case before a judge as it were. By this time they are also able to draw from a wide range of studies and marshal their arguments from their entire educational background. We have fallen far enough from these ideals that we almost unconsciously add the adjective “empty” to “rhetoric,” whereas true rhetoric is a finely honed art of communication.
Latin and Greek.
Why do we teach children Latin and Greek? Once children get familiar with Latin they may indeed address one another in the halls with Latin phrases and proverbs, or show off their Latin at home. But far beyond these entertaining aspects, there are many good reasons for teaching classical languages.
Latin or Greek Help with English Grammar. We have a small seminary on campus. Our Greek teachers have consistentlly said, “Most of my students begin to make sense out of English grammar only after they have had to learn it in Greek.” And as they learn the Greek (or Latin) grammatical system, they learn to make their English writing clearer and more forceful. That’s because these languages have a standardized set of terms that describe words in relationship to other words in the same sentence, and help the students make better sense of English structure.
Illiteracy is a billion-dollar liability in the workplace. If our graduates can handle the English language well, they will be top contenders for positions of responsibility and leadership in business, govern- ment, and industry.
Latin improves the vocabulary. Students who had even a very basic exposure to Latin show stunning increases in their vocabulary. A mastery of English words that comes from knowing their Latin roots gives us an advantage in the workplace that cannot be achieved as easily by any other method. Even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin improves one’s vocabulary. Students can surmise the meanings even of words they have not seen before because so many English words are based on the much smaller catalog of Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
Latin Improves SAT and Other Test Scores. Latin fosters careful reading and leads to a better understanding of English. Knowing Latin trains the mind in precise thinking. Not surprisingly, Latin improves math and science scores.
How is our curriculum “Christian?”
A classical education does not yet make a Christian. Nor does an educational philosophy become “Christian” merely by adding some Bible verses or chapel services to the usual or existing curriculum. Rather, it teaches students, as Nancy Pearcey quoted in her brilliant book, Total Truth, “to think Christianly.” Christ and the Bible are the core of all wisdom, and are the basis for all study, from physics, to economics, to history, and even to mathematics. This is not a new kind of fundamentalism in which the Bible becomes a textbook of, for instance, electricity. Rather, it teaches that the universe reflects God. These principles extend even to physical fitness and competitive sports.
So, for instance, there could be no fruitful study of the sciences if the universe were not intelligently designed and was therefore not orderly and predictable. Not only that, but the whole idea of doing repeatable experiments would be impossible in a universe that had no order and was totally random.
It is also Christian in that students are involved in discipleship training as day after day, week after week, they are challenged to correlate biblical perspective with the subjects they are studying. In all, Christian Classical Education stands every chance of undoing the monstrous damage done by humanism from University to Kindergarten.
Most of all, it is Christian to the extent that it inculcates the everlasting Gospel (Rev. 14:6) which is far more than information. It is the message that God's Kingdom is here, where there is forgiveness, healing, deliverance, and freedom from all the power of the enemy for all who come to Jesus. When young people are released into that kind of power their lives are dramatically changed, far beyond what academics alone can do. Some of our young people have thus been touched and are radically committed to the Lord Jesus and give themselves to evangelism and missions.
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