What is "Classical" Education?

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Veritas Christian Academy is a ‘Classical’ Christian school. Most understand the ‘Christian’ part of our education, but what about this whole ‘Classical’ business? What do we have in mind with the idea of a classical education and how does that affect the day to day life of VCA? When we refer to ourselves as a ‘Classical’ school we have a few things in mind. 

Classical education is a methodology, or a way in which something is done. We follow the ancient and Medieval method of the trivium, or the three ways of learning, Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. In the Middle Ages, these would be what we call ‘subjects’ today; a student back then would study grammar, logic, and rhetoric. At VCA we study these subjects with the added understanding that these subjects correspond to the developmental stages of a child's mind. The ‘Grammar stage’ corresponds to the elementary years, the ‘Logic stage’ corresponds to the middle school years, and the ‘Rhetoric stage’ corresponds to the high school years. Subjects and classes are intentionally thought out and implemented inline with the developmental capabilities of students in each stage.  

Grammar is the fundamental rules and facts of a subject. Elementary school children like to memorize, chant, and learn through call/response and songs, so we teach them content about every subject through these mediums. Logic shows the relationships between individual subjects and how they connect to the wider world. Students in this stage also begin to question, to argue, and to debate. In the classical methodology, since students naturally tend toward debate and questioning things, we teach them to do it well. Here formal logic classes are introduced to help students think clearly. In the Rhetoric stage, students care about their appearance and how they are perceived by the watching world. If, by God’s grace we add an upper school in the coming years, we will teach them to be respectable young adults who can think, write, and speak well. 

There is also a content element in Classical education. Classical schools self-consciously and intentionally step into the stream of ideas, history, and contributions of Western Civilization to the world. If Western Civilization is a great river beginning with the ancient Greeks and Hebrews up to today, then VCA jumps into that river to identify with the western world as our heritage and forebears. One of the core ideas from the classical world and education is the Greek concept of ‘Paideia’, which was the all encompassing, multi-year project of training, educating, and enculturating future citizens and generations. In multiple places, the New Testament authors take this Greek idea of Paideia and encourage churches to educate and train in a Christian way, a Christian Paideia (Eph. 6:4, Heb. 12:3-11). Classical education is the convergence of the classical world and Christian faith, taking the best of the former and making the most of the latter.

Another aspect of classical content is instruction in Latin beginning in the third grade. Latin, alongside Greek, are the languages from the Classical period or Greco-Roman world. About 50% of our English vocabulary comes from Latin, so viewing the mother tongue of our language gives students insights into their everyday speech. Consider the Latin word porto, which is “I carry.” From this word is derived the English words port, portal, important, transport, export, import, porter, porch, airport, report, portable. Latin is also very ‘scientific’ in which students must take great care and pay attention to detail when translating Latin into English. The different noun and verb endings can totally change the meaning of the sentence. As the Latin instructor at VCA, whenever the class does translations, they are usually accompanied by furrowed brows of concentration and chanting through verb endings to themselves to be sure they get the correct one; I can see wrinkles in their brains being formed in every translation.  

VCA is a Classical school in the sense that we align ourselves with the Classical world in methodology and content. Just as college preparatory schools aim to produce graduates for university, tech schools aim to produce students that have certain skills, and fine art schools seek to produce artists, as a Classical Christian school our aim is to produce students who are well equipped for all of life through passing on, training in, and educating toward a Paideia that is classically informed and based in the Christian faith.