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by Angie McNichols, Assistant Dean of Students
The time-honored goal of classical, Christian education (CCE) is rooted in the pursuit, study, and cultivation of students being able to recognize Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Let's focus on the first part, Truth, using the CCE premise put forth by Andrew Kern in the article, "What is Virtue": "1. Truth is. 2. Truth is knowable. 3. Truth can be communicated as the foundation." Going back to Dorothy Sayers' essay, "The Lost Tools of Learning", which was a siren call to the fallacies of progressive educational theories and trends, the writer speaks to the woes of education that began in the 1940's. The author states, "For we have let our young men and women go out unarmed, in a day when armour was never so necessary. By teaching them to read, we have left them at the mercy of the printed word". The armor she refers to is teaching a child to think critically by exposing them to what is Truth through the study of God's word and by reading great, timeless literature integrated with the study of the ancient Romans, Greeks, and Hebrews. As the learner moves through the learning stages of the classical trivium, CCE encourages the learner to look for patterns and connections among their studies; to digest and think deeply about great books, which contain weighty thoughts; and to be able to see the characters and authors through the lens of that specific time period. This allows students to see man's frailty and God's greatness and to recognize the eternal struggle between good and evil...and truth and error. Once that armour is in place, students understand how to think critically and gain knowledge, not just study a subject, but to see man's interwoven history within God's masterpiece. The goal of CCE is distinctively different, which is highlighted in the book, The Well-Trained Mind. It states that students will not passively accept information but will interact with it- deciding on its value, its purpose, and its place in the scheme of knowledge (Wise Bauer, p. 241, 1999).
"A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true." -Socrates
Works Cited
Kern, A. (2012, July 1). What is Virtue? Memoria Press. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/what-virtue/ Markos, L. (2015, March 15). The Trouble with Truth: John Milton's Vision of Classical Christian Education. Memoria Press. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/trouble-truth/
Paul, R. (2022, February 11). Truth for All Nations. Memoria Press. Retrieved September 12, 2022, from https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/truth-for-all-nations/ Sayers, D. (n.d.). The Lost Tools of Learning. pccs.org. Retrieved September 21, 2022, from https://www.pccs.org/wp- content/uploads/2016/06/LostToolsOfLearning- DorothySayers.pdf Wise, J.,
Bauer, S. W. (1999, August 1). The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home. W W Norton Co Inc.
"The armor she refers to is teaching a child to critically think by exposing them to what is Truth, through God's word and through great timeless literature, woven within the study of the ancient Romans, Greeks, and Hebrews."
