What is classical christian education?

We are just over 30 years into the Neoclassical movement. After the popularization of this movement in the early 1990s, a variety of “classical” methods began to surface. Some methods like the Trivium became scrutinized and some still question whether Dorothy Sayers’ method is truly classical. Today, “classical education” usually means a form of education that avoids as many pitfalls of the progressive system and includes a humanities education in the Western Tradition.

The landscape of “classical” education is broad, many-faceted, and hard to define. The overarching purpose of Classical Christian Education (CCE), is to shape and form the whole person towards fullness in Christ–also known as cultivating virtue. CCE insists that the world belongs to God, and history is the complex story of God redeeming His people. This is accomplished through reading old books, ancient histories, interacting with writings in The Great Conversation, all compared and contrasted with what God is doing in the church, the heart, and in history by a careful reading of Scripture. In the long-run, a CCE forms people to love learning for a lifetime, teaches people how to think, not merely what to think.

CCE proponents often pair this purpose of education with methods such as Charlotte Mason, or the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) which, historically, provided the foundation for a student to advance to the Quadrivium (math, astronomy, music, geometry). 

The Trivium framework is most popularly adapted to fit how the child learns best where the grammar stage (ages ~7-12) is characterized by rote memorization, chants & sound-offs–it is the “what” of our world. The logic stage (ages ~12-15) is characterized by students exercising sound logic, spotting fallacies, and engaging in Socratic discussions–it is the “why” of our world. And, the rhetoric stage (ages ~15-19) involves students wielding the skills previously learned in order to gain an audience and winsomely argue in writing or speech for a certain truth–it is the “how” of our world.

This framework is also applied to particular lessons, topics, or areas of study. For example, “the grammar” of basketball is to understand what a basketball is, how to dribble, where the boundaries are and how to win. The logic would be applying drills, and working plays, and the rhetoric would be when the athlete is competent and is trained to perform proficiently and in harmony with other good athletes. 

In contrast to modern public education, CCE does not aim at training students to become competent in jobs, prepare for college, or pass a certain test. While those things are delightful outcomes, we recognize that a person is much more than a worker, student, or test-taker.

At Emmanuel Hall

We believe church history is history. The redemption of God’s people and the growth of Christ’s Kingdom is the story of history. We integrate literature, history, and Bible study to show students that the incarnation of Christ and the mustard seed growth of His Kingdom pervades all things. Even pagan works of writing and the fine arts will reveal something about God—they either portray the depravity of man and his futile pursuits, they attempt to mimic the grand narrative of death and resurrection, or they beg for the redemption of mankind. Thankfully, our Lord has taught us where all this is headed and we pass this way of thinking on to our children. Students will come to see that the whole world is subject to our Lord and King, and “of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end” (Isa. 9:7).

This task will be accomplished by assisting parents to develop a student’s love of learning through exposure to the Western tradition—the reading of great books and the study of Western government & philosophy. Students will be taught through these works that the expansion of Christ’s Kingdom where the Gospel has pervaded culture is evidence of His promise that the world is being Christianized and that there will be a day when the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.

A student’s education should be rigorous in the sense that the material and ideas he works through should challenge, grow, and shape him, however, we do not believe this necessitates applying rigor through pressure or a certain pace. Accountability and structure must be accomplished without killing a student’s love for what he is attending to. There are times in a student’s life where he is faced with having to exercise fortitude and diligence to finish work even though all his friends are playing outside during a sunny day. This is not the same as ruining a student’s love for Augustine because the pace through City of God prevented him from enjoying it. If this is a risk, either that student should go slower through the material, or the expectations should be adjusted. Conversely, a bored student may come to disdain C.S. Lewis because the place and/or depth was inadequate to challenge the student. Adjustments should be made in this case as well. With our curriculum and the flexible Forms model that we employ, such adjustments can easily be made.

We believe students cannot always be accurately grouped by age. A better “metric” for grouping students is maturity—academic, emotional, spiritual. This may often coincide with age, but sometimes students may be better grouped with a slightly older or younger group. Since our main curriculum instruction is humanities-based, the main academic skill needed for placement is a student’s reading ability. Parents ultimately decide how to place their students with the assistance of teachers and administration at Emmanuel Hall.

We operate with the Forms model:

Form 1 - ages 5-7 | Pre-readers & early readers. Students are expected to be able to write their name, identify letters, letter sounds, numbers, and colors with ease, use markers and scissors without help, and orally summarize short stories and events.

Form 2 - ages 7-9 | Fluent readers, able to read simple picture books and answer basic summary and comprehension questions. Students are expected to show proficiency in everything characteristic of Level 1. By the end of this level, students will be able to fluently read and understand books such as Courage of Sarah Noble.

Form 3 - ages 9-11 | Proficient readers, able to easily read books such as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and answer both summary questions and thematic/idea questions about the text.

Form 4 (Logic) - ages 11-14 | Advanced readers at or above the level of The Hobbit and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and identify complex ideas in the text, and are able to write interesting 2+ page essays about these books.

Form 5 (Rhetoric) - ages 14+ | Able to read and discuss books like Tale of Two Cities and Brothers Karamazov and independently identify and write about themes and complex philosophical/theological ideas. Able to participate with maturity in classroom discussions while citing the text for support of claims. Able to research, write multi-page papers, and present winsomely with confidence in front of peers and other adults.

Typical classical Christian pedagogy is applied in appropriate ways for the frame of each child, pulling methods and philosophies from a few different popular sources like the Trivium, Charlotte Mason, The Seven Laws, and The Well-Trained Mind. Teachers at Emmanuel hall are trained in these methods and professionally apply them.