Stratford Classical Christian Academy Newsletter

April 2003

CURRENT NEWS:

OPEN HOUSE THIS SATURDAY APRIL 19th, 2003 from 10AM until Noon. Sidney Henriquez will speak on the distinctives of Classical Christian Education. In addition, details will be given regarding our new part time program. Tell your friends, and RSVP by calling 609-932-3710 or RSVP online at http://www.stratfordcca.org/

PART TIME PROGRAM OFFICIALLY INTRODUCED- SCCA will be offering classes 2 - 3 times per week for older students (5th grade and higher) who wish to learn from a classical perspective. Some classes being offered: Latin, Logic, Geometry, Calculus, Algebra, Apologetics, Hebrew, Greek, Rhetoric, Physics, Music Appreciation, etc. We encourage anyone interested in the part time program to attend our open house. We are accepting applications now. Openings for part time classes are limited, so please submit your application as soon as possible. Applications can be downloaded online.

SCCA ACCEPTS FIRST STUDENTS - SCCA moved forward towards its planned opening in the fall 2003. We accepted our first students since interviews began on March 29th. We continue to accept applications and schedule interviews. The first step in finding out if SCCA is a match for your student is to attend an open house. The 2nd step is to submit an application and schedule an interview. The interview will be an opportunity for the headmaster and parents to discuss the specific needs of their child, and to determine if SCCA can meet these needs. Part time and full time students will go through the same application process.

NOW HIRING - SCCA is looking for qualified teachers to teach Kindergarten and 1st Grade. Prospective teachers should download an application online and email a resume with cover letter to ralphcochran@stratfordcca.org.

FUNDRAISING (matching campaign - only 45 Days left). SCCA is conducting a startup fundraising campaign. Our goal is to raise $20,000.00 to help with the initial capital needed to fund the school in 2003. A large donor has guaranteed to match the first $10,000 of any donations from now until May 31st. If you would like to support SCCA, please visit www.stratfordcca.org for more information.

PARENT VOLUNTEERS - Currently SCCA is seeking parents to help with various upcoming activities for this summer. If you are interested in helping and would like further details please email ralphcochran@stratfordcca.org

HEADMASTER MOVING TO LAUREL SPRINGS - Mr. Sidney Henriquez has officially signed his contract as headmaster, and will officially begin working on June 15th. Sidney will be moving his wife and 5 children from Lancaster, PA to a house in Laurel Springs during May and June. The Lord has worked out the details as He always does, and found the Henriquez's a wonderful home in Laurel Springs, along with a great landlord.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Open House is scheduled for April 19th and May 10th at 10AM, and June 6th at 7:30PM.

This will be an informal presentation for parents to learn about the distinctives of Classical Christian education and additional details about SCCA. We plan on having further information available concerning our part time program. Please see website for details and RSVP by emailing Ralph Cochran

Parent/Student Interviews will be conducted in afternoons following Open House.

FEATURE ARTICLE:

THE FRUIT AND JOY OF A CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

By Sidney Henriquez - Headmaster, Stratford Classical Christian Academy

"As she sat down in one of the stiff mahogany chairs, Sara cast one of her quick looks about her. Sara often thought afterward that the school was somehow exactly like Miss Minchin. It was respectable and well furnished, but everything in it was ugly, and the very armchairs seemed to have hard bones in them. In the hall, everything was hard and polished. Even the red cheeks of the moon face on the tall clock in the corner had a severe polished look. The drawing room into which they were ushered was covered by a carpet with a square pattern upon it, the chairs were square, and a heavy marble timepiece stood upon the heavy marble mantel. "I don't like it, papa", she said. "But I dare say soldiers, even brave ones, don't really like going into battle." 1

For many, the thought of a classical Christian education conjures up a picture similar to Sara Crewe's first impression of Miss Minchin's London boarding school in "A Little Princess". Yet this initial impression of classical education swiftly fades away as one begins teaching children by using this ancient pedagogy. One soon begins to recognize that it compliments a child's normal development.

Far from being dry and dull, when I enter a classical Christian academy or a home school, I see students jumping for joy to begin Latin. "When can we do declensions, Mr. Henriquez?" I hear memorable songs, jingles, and chants enthusiastically being sung as children fill their minds with knowledge in an enjoyable way. Second and third graders are confidently constructing paragraphs that support a topic sentence, and writing stories modeled after favorite fairy tales and fables. Students delight in building model mosaics from Pompeii, constructing Roman roads out of beans, climbing up into a model Trojan horse to do some reading, and using famous "Phoenician purple dye" to tie dye shirts. Outside, a Greek Olympics complete with wheelbarrow "chariot races" is taking place, and a group of older students dressed in army fatigues are engaged in the intensity of "Logic Boot Camp". Seventh and eighth graders are pouring over the daily newspaper, scanning articles, advertisements, and letters to the editor for logical fallacies. A group of teenagers are passionately discoursing about the meaning of Homer's Iliad, and holding eloquent debates.

In short, rather than being a torturous ordeal, teaching classically is, as Dorothy Sayers put it, teaching with the grain of a child. In this article, I would like to explain what is meant by the term "classical", and to present some of the exciting fruits of the return to Classical Christian education. When I use the term "classical" I am referring to the Trivium, which is shorthand for grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Those terms may all sound like Greek to you, so allow me to explain simply how this three phase model corresponds to the natural stages in child development, and to the Biblical concepts of knowledge, understanding and wisdom. "For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." (Proverbs 2:6)

During the Grammar Phase, which includes students in grades one through six, children are blessed by an amazing memory. I think of my wife, Faith, who can still identify all of the trees and birds that she learned in second grade. They are very impressionable, and love to model. How many times have you seen your children get out their toys and act out the job you've just finished, whether it is hanging dry wall or dressing the baby? Therefore, at this age, we teach them the grammar, or rules and basic information, of every subject. We give them clear models to follow, and we fill their minds with memorized scripture verses, dates, names, events, math tables, and rules. We accomplish this by means of chanting, singing, acting out, and building projects. The Biblical parallel to this stage is knowledge. Proverbs 10:14 tells us, "Wise men lay up knowledge" and that is precisely what we aim to help our grammar school students do.

The next stage, grades seven through nine, is termed the Dialectic Phase. To children of this age, the facts are no longer enough. As their capacity to reason begins to develop, they tend to be eager to establish their own convictions, to ask questions, and to debate. So, at this age we teach them formal logic, so that they are able to use correct methods of reasoning, gain the ability to identify fallacies in arguments, and to assemble information into its proper relationships. The Biblical parallel to this stage is understanding. In I Kings 3:9 King Solomon prays, "Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad." This discernment is our prayer and goal for dialectic students.

The Rhetoric Phase completes the Trivium, and covers students in grades ten through twelve. A desire for self-expression, and a desire to spread the knowledge and understanding they have acquired characterize these students. Thus, the students are trained to arrange, articulate, and apply the knowledge and understanding they have already gained to a variety of circumstances with eloquence, clarity, and power. We enable them to do this by studying and modeling the structure and style of worthy books, speeches and debates. The Biblical parallel to this stage is wisdom. We pray that our rhetoric students will be like the preacher of Ecclesiastes 12:9 who, "because he was wise, still taught the people knowledge, yea, he gave good heed, and set in order many proverbs."

The goals of classical Christian education are to train students to have knowledge and understanding, to wisely defend their conclusions from a Christ-centered worldview, and to become "thinking Christians," who weigh their thoughts and deeds in the light of God's Word. Today's educational reforms often grasp at part of the Trivium, but fail to integrate them. The "back to basics" movement correctly sees the importance of grammar. But some "back to basics" curricula never advance to higher level thinking (logic) or to developing individual creativity (rhetoric). Other educational reformers stress the need to "teach kids how to think." They develop "critical thinking" curricula, an acknowledgement of the need for logic.

Mere thinking, though, is not enough, since one must first have something to think about (grammar) and then be able to present one's ideas in a coherent, persuasive way and to use them in real-world situations (rhetoric). In practice today, "critical thinking" too often means nothing more than applied skepticism, tearing down traditional values and authorities, with no attention to either formal logic or common sense, much less the factual grounding of the grammar stage.2

Some of you might be asking, what fruit is this classical education going to bear in my child's life? By all available measurements, classical Christian education is an astonishing success. On standardized achievement tests, classically trained students consistently score in the top 25% percent. A recent class of seniors had a composite that is, an average SAT score in the 96th percentile, meaning that the entire class ranked in the top four percent in the nation.3

While these statistics are impressive, they are not the only fruits to be gained from a classical Christian education. When I talk to classically trained students, I am most impressed with their confidence, and with their desire and ability to critique what they read and hear. These students are confident in their studies because they are being given the tools they need in order to undertake the discipline and specialization of advanced studies. They are not frustrated students, as they are given a broad base of knowledge and are trained in the construction of logically sound, winsome and persuasive arguments. Rather than being at the mercy of the printed word, they are trained to critique the worldviews surrounding them, embracing what is true and casting aside what is false.

With John Calvin they can say, "But if the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and the ministry of the ungodly, let us use this assistance." Calvin himself used the assistance of Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Galen, Cato, Cicero, Horace, Josephus, Juvenal, Lucretius, Ovid, Plautus, Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, Suetonius, and Virgil, all of whom are quoted in his Institutes.

Students who have been trained using the Trivium are warriors who are eager to establish Christian culture throughout all spheres of life, and they are equipped with the knowledge, understanding and wisdom to do so. They embrace and act upon the words of J. Gresham Machen, who said, "The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity." Christianity must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought."4