“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.

Each day it's more apparent that our society is in moral and intellectual chaos—unmoored from any transcendent understanding of what's good and true and beautiful.  

This disorder makes crystal clear why classical Christian education is so needed in our tumultuous time, and I was struck by this article spotlighting one Christian public intellectual's call 40 years ago for Christians to reintroduce "ancient wisdom and 'right reason'" to education.

In particular, Charles Malik—a scholar, educator, and diplomat to Lebanon—called for Christians to focus on the humanities, the disciplines that introduce students to the most important questions about our mortal lives.  Surrendering these fields to secular society, Malik warned, would leave areas of profound cultural influence to Christianity's adversaries.  

Our hope and prayer is that students at Knox Classical School would never experience the "dearth of grace and beauty" plaguing our culture but instead learn from their earliest days that the God who is good, true, and beautiful holds all things together—and be ready to share with a lost and dying world that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.  

"Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.  The Lord is at hand."  

— Philippians 4:5

How will choosing classical Christian education affect what your child is doing in the classroom and at home on a day-to-day basis? Here’s a quick summary. 

At the grammar level (approximately grades K-6), the most apparent differences are in orientation and emphasis. From the very beginning of their education, classical Christian students learn that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” not “self discovery” or even (just) the material world around us. Grammar-stage classes also emphasize extensive memorization and strive to cultivate a love of learning through vivid books, hands-on projects, and wide exposure to what’s good, true, and beautiful.  

A kindergartener at Knox Classical, for example, will memorize 160 history-timeline events and a catechism with proof verses, and observe God’s sovereignty over and fingerprints on all human history, six different areas of science, mathematics, the English language, and more!  Students in older grades will build on this knowledge each year, diving deeper into every subject to recognize God’s greatness.

At the logic and rhetoric stages (approximately grades 7-9 and 10-12, respectively), the uniqueness of the classical method is clear from the subjects studied—especially logic, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology—and the goal pursued: Not just knowledge for knowledge’s sake (or for the sake of a standardized test) but developing students who can discern the truth and communicate it with love and prudence.

Read more about this trivium-based approach to learning and why it’s so successful.  

Looking for beautiful Christmas books to enrich your family’s celebration of Advent? Here are some of our team’s favorite Christmas books.

• The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry, ill. by P.J. Lynch)
  
• Mary’s First Christmas (Walter Wangerin Jr.)
  
• The Night Before Christmas, and The Twelve Days of Christmas (ill. by Jan Brett) - Although not Christian books, Jan Brett’s beautiful illustrations can’t be missed!
• One Wintry Night (Ruth Bell Graham)
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (Robert Frost, ill. by Susan Jeffers) - A classic winter poem accompanied by lovely illustrations.

May God richly bless your efforts to disciple your children this Christmas and always! 

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. … For to us a child is born, to us a son is given …” 

— Isaiah 9:2, 6

Knox Classical School is built on the truth that Christ’s sovereignty is evident across all realms of learning, encompassing both academic and personal spheres.  Christian educators who adhere to classical education principles affirm that God stands as the origin and culmination of all conceivable knowledge.  Every facet of existence finds its unity at a singular point—having been brought into being and sustained by Jesus Christ.  That’s why our school seal bears Colossians 1:17 —

“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” — Col. 1:17

A biblical perspective thus permeates every subject and theme at Knox Classical School, with the Bible seamlessly running as an integral thread throughout our curriculum.  Students will learn to perceive every strand of thought, historical event, and facet of the natural world as an extension of the work of Jesus Christ.  This approach equips students to adeptly navigate the moral and spiritual dilemmas that life invariably presents.  They internalize the sentiment expressed by Paul in Corinthians—subject every thought to the authority of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).  In so doing, we pray that students will grasp the enduring and exquisite truth of redemption.

“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” — 2 Cor. 10:5

As teachers facilitate Socratic discussions, our students will delve into profound theological queries, seeking answers to the many "whys" that students do—and should—ponder.  These important questions will become the focal point for thought and reflection, no matter whether they come up during theology studies or math class, and each primary text will be illuminated by parallel examination of relevant scriptures.  We trust that our school will be marked by faculty and students joyfully encountering the living God as they search for wisdom like hidden treasure (Prov. 2:4) in every subject. 

“ … if you seek for it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.” — Prov. 2:4–5

Every instructional model tends toward some goal.  Consider whether classical Christian education aligns best with your family’s goals. 

*    *    *

One of the distinctive strengths of classical education is that it focuses on methods and content with proven track records.  Today we’ll focus on the "Great Conversation," an ongoing discourse connecting thinkers, philosophers, writers, and scholars across various cultures and eras as they search for truth, order, freedom, goodness, beauty, virtue—and much more.  It's a way of understanding how ideas have developed and evolved over time through the exchange of thoughts, arguments, and insights.

The Great Conversation plays out in a set of pivotal literary and philosophical works known as the "Great Books."  Simply put, the Great Books are the sort of works that generations of people have considered worthy of passing on to their children.  These are the writings of renowned authors like Virgil, Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Homer, Shakespeare, Milton, and Jane Austen, and they offer profound insight and intellectual rigor that have shaped human intellect and society.  However, this doesn’t imply that classical students completely disregard modern literature—students track the Great Conversation through modern works, as well. 

By immersing students in this Great Conversation, we can help them understand that careful—and influential—thinkers don't emerge in isolation.  (“Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”  Prov. 11:14).  And we train them to desire and value ideas that are good, true, and beautiful and that have stood the test of time.

As we engage students with the Great Books and partake in the great conversation at Knox Classical School, we guide them in communal thinking alongside the most eminent figures from our cultural heritage.  And we approach these texts not from a presumed neutral stance, but rather within the framework of the biblical worldview.  The overarching objective is that as students develop an affection for the virtues of goodness, truth, and beauty evident in the Great Books, their adoration for both God and fellow beings will flourish.

For millennia, classical education has been understood as the sort of education necessary to be free.  Drawing from the rich education history of the Greeks and Romans, classical education aims to pass on a way of life, or “paideia,” to students by instilling in them a set of virtues: the four classical virtues—Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude—and the three theological virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity (added around the time of the Reformation). 

To accomplish that goal, classical education presents particular content in a particular way.  We’ll focus on the “particular content” side of this today, and you can read more about the “particular way” here. Classical education involves each of the disciplines of a liberal arts and sciences education, but it centers on the history of Western thought—both the highs and the lows.  By reading the “Great Books” (more on that to come) students are given the opportunity to join some of the greatest minds in history in the “Great Conversation” and answer basic questions like “How did I get here?” “What is the purpose of life?” and “How should I live?” 

Though far from perfect, Western Civilization has provided more people with more freedom than any other civilization in history. So by understanding the past, classical students are equipped to "hold fast to what is lovely" and move forward “[a]bhor[ing] what is evil" (Rom. 12:9).

Studying Western Civilization might sound like a given for students growing up in the West.  But today, many students never read a book more than 50 years old. That robs students of a chance to know the riches of their history—or learn from the errors along the way. While classical education doesn’t encourage an inordinate infatuation with the past, it uniquely ensures that students have the chance to learn where they fit in the much larger story of human history. 

Of course, the greatest of the Great Books is the infallible Word of God, and classical Christian education teaches that Scripture has proven itself true and Christ “is before all things, and in Him all things hold together“ (Col. 1:17).  Scholars in the Middle Ages recognized theology as the “queen of the sciences,” meaning no discipline can be rightly understood if removed from the truth that God is Creator and Redeemer of all. So classical Christian education orients each discipline based on the arc of human history revealed in the Bible—creation, fall, redemption, restoration—enabling students to make sense of their entire experience by acknowledging the preeminence of Christ. 

I’ll end with a brief word about why we’ve chosen a collaborative model of education.  Throughout their K-12 education, children spend 16,000 hours in classroom instruction.  Our two-day-a-week collaborative approach recaptures some of that precious time—elevating parents as the God-ordained primary influences in their children's lives—while providing the benefits, support, and structure of formal classroom instruction. 

Stay tuned for more information about our plans for Knox Classical School and the riches of classical Christian education by subscribing to our newsletter, and please RSVP for our next information meeting on Sunday, November 5,