What is Classical Christian Education?
Christian parents have an additional (and stronger) motive for caring about education. Through Moses, the Lord commanded the people of Israel to teach his commands to their children throughout the day (Deuteronomy 6:7-9). They should write his commands on their hands, their foreheads, the houses, and gates. In other words, God’s will should shape what people do, what they think, their families, and communities. Paul places this obligation specifically on Christian fathers when he tells them to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
Given these commands, many Christians in the United States have found it incomprehensible to send children to a school for eight hours each day where employees never refer to Scripture. Thus, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate prayer from public schools, Christian schools and homescho
What is Christian Education?
For Greenville Classical Academy, Christian education is more than a Bible or theology class. Christian education is a way of looking at the world. A secular view of education has no way to hold the disciplines together. Science and, say, history are simply two subjects a student needs to study. For Christians, these subjects are part of the overall way of looking at the world. The Christian story is the metanarrative that explains all other narratives, whether they are the stories of history or science. A Christian education provides context and motivation that secular education doesn’t. Here are three examples.
Science Reveals God’s Creation
Can a person understand the Second Law of Thermodynamics without Christianity? Absolutely. But does a desire to know the truth of that law make sense, regardless of what practical benefits may result, apart from Christianity? Creation for a Christian is good (Genesis 1:4,10). In other words, creation exhibits a beauty and desirability that comes from the Creator. The story of science is a story of countless individuals seeking to know the truth about physical reality, with varying degrees of success. To use a biblical phrase with a different context, science is thinking God’s thoughts after him (Isaiah 55:8). Creation is worth studying and delighting in (Psalm 111:2).
Math Reflects God’s Order
Math is the same. Why is math important? Yes, mathematical ability may allow one to have a more stable career (and be a good steward of God’s resources). But a Christian education provides a stronger motivation: math is important because truth is important. Christianity makes sense of math. Do numbers exist? They aren’t solid, liquid, or gas. They aren’t made of anything. But yes, since they exist in God’s mind, they are objective. Math, like life, is what it is regardless of how we want it to be.
Stories Point to Christ
Christianity also makes sense of stories. Can you understand what Charles Dickens is doing in A Tale of Two Cities without Christianity? Yes. But Charles Darnay’s actions become far less plausible outside of the gospel. The patterns of narrative become, within Christianity, the patterns of reality. Redemption is not simply something people prefer in a story; redemption is the way things are
What Makes Education Classical?
For many people, the defining word in classical Christian education is classical. While classical education traces its roots back to ancient Greece and Rome, it experienced a modern revival through Dorothy Sayers’ influential 1947 essay, The Lost Tools of Learning. In it, Sayers argued that education should do more than fill students with information; it should teach them how to learn.
Teaching Students How to Learn
She pointed to the medieval trivium, a framework built around three stages of learning: Grammar, Dialectic (Logic), and Rhetoric. These stages align with the natural development of children. Young students delight in memorizing facts and building foundational knowledge. As they mature, they begin to ask questions and learn to think critically. Finally, they develop the ability to communicate their ideas clearly, persuasively, and beautifully.
It is less about telling students what they need to know and more about teaching them how to learn. Some may say that “classical” means it’s “old” or that it’s chasing a fad or trend. Still, classical education is rooted in history—a system that has endured for centuries across many civilizations, shaping our modern world. At Greenville Classical, this means students engage with books and ideas that were significant hundreds of years ago, and will remain hundreds of years from now.
The Goal of Classical Christian Education
Ultimately, classical Christian education is about more than producing successful students. It is about forming wise men and women who love what is true, good, and beautiful because they know the God who is the source of all three. At its heart, classical Christian education is about more than imparting knowledge; it is about forming thoughtful, articulate, and wise students whose minds and hearts are shaped by biblical truth as they learn to understand, defend, and communicate what is true.
If you want to learn more about Classical Christian Education and what it looks like at Greenville Classical Academy, schedule a tour or reach out today!
