Our K-12 plan for developing virtuous students.
“The habits of the child produce the character of the man, because certain mental habitudes once set up, their nature is to go on forever unless they should be displaced by other habits. … Every day, every hour, the parents are either passively or actively forming those habits in their children upon which, more than upon anything else, future character and conduct depend.”
— Charlotte Mason, Home Education (Vol. 1)
Over the course of our students’ education at Knox Classical School, we hope to capture their imaginations as we train them to love God, love others, and rightly love themselves by exemplifying the seven virtues:
Faith
Rational assent to and unwavering belief in God and His revealed truth.
“holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Hope
Puts current hardships and successes into proper perspective, given spiritual and eternal realities.
“a continual looking forward to the eternal world”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Charity
Requires that we act for the good of others, especially by sacrificially showing God’s forgiveness for us to others.
“a state not of the feelings but of the will; that state of the will which we have naturally about ourselves, and must learn to have about other people”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Temperance
Resists immediate urges and requires moderation to honor realities that are greater than the current moment.
“not abstaining, but going the right length and no further”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Prudence
Considers both the past and the future while acting in the present.
“practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Fortitude
Doing what is right in the face of fear and danger—no matter the consequences.
“not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point ... the kind [of courage] that faces danger as well as the kind that ‘sticks it’ under pain”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Justice
Acting fairly to establish peace, and treating others with dignity as fellow image bearers.
“everything we should now call ‘fairness’; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life”
Lewis, Mere Christianity
Secular culture bombards us with images and ideals of a different kind of “good life”—and these fill our imaginations, engage our minds, and draw our sinful hearts. We intend to captivate and inspire our students with illustrations of a “more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31b).
We’ll do this first by filling their minds with stories, character, and images illustrating Christ-like character and the blessings of living life as God desires His people to live. This will happen both through the rich books that are part of our regular curriculum and through reading stories outside our regular curriculum that particularly highlight the seven virtues.
And second, particularly at the grammar and early logic stages of education, we’ll train students to form habits that will equip them to show virtue in a variety of circumstances. Habits are our inclination or natural response to a given situation. They’re the things our bodies and minds do without having to think—the neural pathways of our brain that have been made strong through regular and consistent exercise. And in their early years, children are forming neural pathways that will help govern their behavior for the rest of their lives, so developing certain habits early on makes it easier for children to later do those same things without much thought. That’s why thinkers as far back as Aristotle have recognized that the habits we form “from our very youth” make “no small difference”—they make “all the difference.” Nichomachean Ethics (emphasis added).
How do habits equip children to act virtuously? Habits train children to react both in action and emotion in a way that affirms what God loves and rejects what God hates—even before they are capable of reasoning deeply about why something is or isn’t good, true, or beautiful. And as they mature in their ability to reason over time, children will be inclined, because of their good habits, to “feel liking for what ought to be approved.” Lewis, The Abolition of Man.
Of course, one could train students in certain habits as a purely manipulative way to control their behavior. But that’s not what we’re interested in. Our goal is to condition the heart to love what is good, and by the Holy Spirit’s work, we pray that students will grow to desire to always act how Christ would. For that reason, our habit training should always begin—and end—with how that habit will better help the student to love God, love others, and love himself rightly. For example, a habit of shutting a door when you’ve opened it to enter the room shows courtesy and respect toward others who may be using that room (i.e., it cultivates the virtues of justice and charity).
“[A] man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of a virtue.’” – C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“His habits of kind and friendly behavior will, by degrees, develop into principles of action; until at last his character is established, and he comes to be known as a just and virtuous man.” – Charlotte Mason, Home Education (Vol. 5)
Each year, we’ll focus on several different habits with our students, depending on their grade level. For each new habit, we’ll seek to (1) introduce the new habit through stories and illustrations; (2) memorize the habit; and (3) practice it in different contexts and with different variations.
Teachers will strive to nurture the featured habits in students throughout the school day and discuss each student’s progress in cultivating these habits in their quarterly reports. These habits will also provide a framework for student behavior, training students what is expected and helping them practice those behaviors. Parents should do the same at home, emphasizing and practicing the habit we’re focused on at school in everyday life.
We hope and trust that our Habits and Virtues Framework will lay the foundation for students to demonstrate virtue as they continue to mature and also provide a consistent vocabularly and set of expectations for students and teachers in the classroom.
