Why Classical Christian Education?
THE FOUNDATION
Education is not neutral. All educational projects are “religious” in the sense that some authoritative vision of the world will be offered from the teacher to the student. The third-grade student who is handed a ruler by her teacher is not simply receiving a math lesson in a vacuum; she is receiving a moral lesson in authority and ultimate reality. The line on the page is three inches, not six, and we know this by the objective standard (the aptly named “ruler”) that every pupil in the class holds in their little hands. In that moment, those children are not just learning how to measure something with a ruler; they are learning to recognize something that rules. The problem with so-called “secular” education is a problem of foundations. If there is no objective, authoritative truth, why can we not all be free to fashion our own “rulers”? The line on the page, to you, is three inches, but to me, it is six, or nine, or forty, or grapefruit. Why can we not all define our worldview by the lights of our own suns?
ROCK OR SAND?
As Jesus taught us, houses are built either on rock or sand (Matt. 7:24-27). Houses stand or fall by the strength of their foundations. In the same way, the “house” of our worldview is only as good as its foundation. There is no such thing as an empty throne, and if Christ is not seated securely on it, chaos is the only alternative. The school that attempts to teach math, history, science, literature, or music apart from the authority of Christ is not teaching from a position of neutrality; they are teaching that Christ is unimportant, irrelevant, and unnecessary to these realms of knowledge. They are never teaching “just math” or “just history”; they are building houses on rock or sand. In Christ, all things hold together; without Him, all things fall apart.
THE LIGHT OF CHRIST
Classical Christian education, therefore, stands as a bulwark against the myth of neutrality. We aim to recover a biblical vision of education that cultivates wisdom and virtue in the souls of our students through the vigorous pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty wherever it may be found. We are dedicated to an unapologetically Christian education that is rooted in the best of our classical tradition. This is a vital endeavor in our day. God often shakes the temporary things of the world so that the permanent things will remain (Heb. 12:27), and the Western tradition stands as a time-tested testament to those stories, sciences, sums, and symphonies that endure because they reflect our eternal God. Though many of these cultural artifacts were shadowed by pagan unbelief, we know that the shadow proves the sunshine, and so we joyously study these great minds and hearts by the perfect Light of Christ. A robust classical Christian education delights in traveling these weathered roads of the past, applying them to the context of our current age, and fixing our eyes on the God who sovereignly orchestrates it all for His glory and our good.