learn more about classical Christian education

In our current setting, we use the term classical education to describe how wise people in antiquity taught their students. They studied human nature and observed what worked. They also had a name for what they did: education. We add the designation Christian to classical education to delineate the contributions and guardrails that the church, after Christ’s resurrection and through the middle ages, added to the classical tradition of education. Christian teachers agreed that education should train in virtue, but included the theological virtues faith, hope, and love with the cardinal virtues of wisdom, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Whereas the ancient hero fought for his own rights — name, glory, and often his very survival — the hero following the example of Christ should be willing to be reviled, forsaken, and disregarded. He trusts in God for his salvation and his daily bread. Goodness, truth, beauty, and virtue now have a face and we look to Him as our model. 1 Corinthians 1:27 tells us, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,” for the suffering servant is victorious.

We do not reject the ancient wisdom; instead, we take what is good, baptizing it and putting it into the service of the church, just as Paul did on Mars Hill when he quoted the pagans’ own poets in defense of the Truth. St. Basil tells us to visit pagan literature as a bee visits flowers, gathering pollen. But we must sift out and reject what is dangerous, so as not to poison the honey that flows from the harvest. We can accept the wisdom of ordering studies to begin with piety and gymnastic (or physical, embodied training), followed by the “muse-inspired” studies of history, literature, poetry, and the like. We can use the many great classical examples and texts to study the liberal arts of the trivium and quadrivium. And to the philosophy of the ancients we can now add our understanding of the Gospel, even while we wait for the final return of Jesus to tell us the rest of the story.

What we will do in the classical Christian education project is described throughout this website and in the provided resources. It also bears mentioning what we will not do. We will not treat education as mere preparation for college or career; that bar is low and lowering, and the project of questionable merit. We will not become obsessed with progress just for the sake of progress. We will not abandon the essential skill and habit of reading, nor the importance of listening and speaking well. We will not separate student learning from expectations for virtue, piety, and executive function. Only a humble and respectful person can learn from another. Only gratitude for what is given helps us move through difficult work with joy. And new skills can only built upon mastered simpler skills. So we will not cease to ask students to listen, to obey, to be grateful with us for what has been given, and to commit to the hard work that bestows blessings.

A selection of resources for learning more about classical christian education (CCE):

That perfection of the intellect which is the result of education, and its beau ideal, to be imparted in their respective measures, is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension of all things, as far as the fine mind can embrace them, each in its place, and with its own characteristics upon it. It is almost prophetic in its knowledge of history, it is almost heart-searching in its knowledge of human nature; it has almost supernatural charity from its freedom from littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose of faith, because nothing can startle it; it has almost the beauty and harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal order of things and the music of the spheres.

— John Henry Newman