What is Classical Education?
Classical education is a return to the roots of Christian learning. Throughout the ages, Christian thinkers in the West have drawn upon a common store of literature, theology, philosophy, science, and history. To impart this wisdom, they have leaned upon educational techniques that were initiated in antiquity and perfected throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Today, classical education revisits both the techniques of antiquity and that body of knowledge represented in the greatest art, science, literature, and history of our culture.
In technique, the classical tradition employs methods intended to teach clear, logical thinking, and elegant speech and writing. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric are at the core of this effort. These three disciplines (called the Trivium by medieval Christians) not only govern the study and use of language, but even structure the study of history, science, and mathematics. Beginning with grammar, students learn the basic facts and principles of a given subject, whether in science, math, English, or Latin. In keeping with the developmental needs of the child, this elementary phase is followed by formal logic in the middle school years. Structured debate, comparison, and analysis are encouraged across the disciplines. Finally, rhetoric teaches the art of persuasive communication, but never in isolation from real knowledge. Writing and speaking, therefore, form part of the learning in every subject during the high school years.
In content, classical Christian education seeks to impart the knowledge necessary for a broad and critical awareness of the world and human society. Scripture, theology, history, literature, science, mathematics, English, and the Latin language receive privileged attention. Beginning with the reality of God and His self-revelation in Christ and the Bible, classical educators seek to unite all knowledge into a coherent Christian worldview. In teaching history, classical educators aim not merely for a chronology of events, but for a critical engagement with the great minds and ideas of the past, and for a deep exploration of our culture's crucial turning points. In literature, students read the best books from throughout the ages, testing them against the touchstone of the Bible. In science and math, the goal is not only to master basic facts and principles, but also to learn their significance and to understand the historical development of mathematical and scientific thought. Through Latin, students are taught to scrutinize language and to think and write with precision. Moreover, Latin enables them to read the great books of Western civilization.
Classical education is a tradition with a long history. The earliest Christians saw that the tools of Graeco-Roman education could easily be adjusted for the service of the Church. Adapting the classical model to the demands of a Biblical theology, they employed its emphasis upon language, logic, science, and precision in the articulation of a compelling Christian worldview.
In modern times, however, grammar and logic have been abandoned as either boring or irrelevant. Disciplined and structured rhetoric, moreover, have been passed over in favor of an excessive worship of freedom and of subjectivism. The result of this defection, however, has not been individual discovery, but rather, a loss of moral and aesthetic standards. Classical education today is a rediscovery of these lost tools of learning.
