Episode 4: What is Classical Education? (Part I)

that, and in particular, if you could address the Christian aspect. So for example, does this mean that we are just saying, hey, public school, for the most part, has it right? Let's just adopt what we have there. And then we'll open up with a song and prayer. And maybe we will dismiss with a prayer. So we sanctified it on both sides. Yeah. And that's it, right? We've done our part. Is that what we mean when we say classical Christian? That's right. And we do not mean that. When I say that's right, I mean you're totally wrong. We do not mean that emphatically. And if we could just put that clip, by the way, I'm just saying. Yeah, that's right. We'll put that in the intro. That's right. From now on, that's right. And you're wrong. No, and we'll talk about some of the particular of the model of education when we, in the next episode, Lord willing, discuss what we mean by classical and going back to some earlier models for education and ideas about how to educate a human being that existed for a long time prior to the industrialization of education and some of the modern ideas that have crept in. But you're right to start here with Christian. Because while we are a classical Christian Academy and the word classical happens first in that. You know, as you've said before, it's like saying a red hat. So you're still talking about the hat is the main thing. You're not talking

Christian Academy and the word classical happens first in that. You know, as you've said before, it's like saying a red hat. So you're still talking about the hat is the main thing. You're not talking about a red. Right. You're not talking about a rat. We're not talking about a classical school. First, when we aim to start a school, the most fundamental part of that is the Christian part. It's the Christian part, not the classical part, though that is important. And we obviously are aiming for a classical model for a reason. When we say Christian, let me first start by saying what we don't mean, because sometimes you'll see certain types of education advertised to varying degrees as sort of Christian. One of those might be, well, we're giving our children a Christian education, even though we're sending to the public school, they learn all of the, they're learning all those subjects out of the public school, but when we get home, we do catechism, we make sure we educate them theologically, we discuss the topics they're talking about. So it's a Christian education. Some people mean something like, well, we homeschool because, you know, the public schools are icky, and we're scared of the drugs. We don't want them cussing. And we don't want them cussing, right? We don't want them having purple hair. And so we're homeschooling, so we bought a really good curriculum from this, you know, mass-produced, just kind of like we got the curriculum that he used in the public school. It was the state-sponsored one, whichever it was, they kind of went for it.

mass-produced, just kind of like we got the curriculum that he used in the public school. It was the state-sponsored one, whichever it was, they kind of went for it. And then we add, you edit the evolution part, and we add a Bible class. We read mere Christianity this year, like, it's totally a Christian education. Or you can take even a private Christian school that would virtually adopt a modern educational paradigm and curriculum, and then add a chapel, like you said in the middle, you know, begin and end with prayer, maybe before the, or after the Pledge of Allegiance or something. I've got a Christian flag, too, in there. and where our teachers are all, they have to sign a statement of faith. Okay. All of those models of education are not Christian. They're not Christian education. Because you'll notice a thread that runs through all of them. And it's that the meat of what they mean by education basically is identical to what any secularist would mean by education. They're just adding something. They're viewing the Christian portion of the education as an additive. An illustration might be they're viewing the education as like the bottle of water. And then what makes it Christian is we take this Kool-Aid flavor packet, we pour it in, we shake it up, and now, look, all of the water's been, you know, it's got Christian in it. And all of those are fundamentally inadequate because they fail to deal with education for what it actually is, for what the Lord made it to be.

we shake it up, and now, look, all of the water's been, you know, it's got Christian in it. And all of those are fundamentally inadequate because they fail to deal with education for what it actually is, for what the Lord made it to be. It fails to properly, here's the key word, it fails to properly integrate knowledge, fails to properly integrate knowledge. We cannot call an education Christian merely because it adds a Bible class, it adds a theology class, it sprinkles some Christian additives to a fundamentally secular education. We can't call it that. And the obvious quote for this, right, from the scriptures is in Proverbs, where it says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, or the fear of the Lord's beginning of knowledge. Both of them, right? So the idea there is that it's not, we're looking at the house. and now we're just putting the roof on top, but it's from the foundation, it's from the ground up, it's from the root to the trunk, to the tree that produces the fruit. That's right. You can't just look at the top part of the house. It doesn't work like that. Yeah, we're building a different thing. We're building a different thing. We're growing a different thing. We're growing a different thing. They're building, think about secular education. It has a different anthropology, different view of what a person is. It has a different view of reality, of knowledge, of ethics, of, reality knowledge ethics. It is a different view of good, true, and beautiful, different view. I mean, we could go down the line. And this is why, as a little bit of an aside, this is why

apostate, non-Christian, goat, non-discipled, children who leave the faith, leave the church, sometimes for good when they leave high school. So, what about the situation, though, that people bring up, which is, well, but I'm a Christian, and I went to the public school system, right? I turned out, okay. Yeah. Maybe to answer my own question, just because I've been thinking about this, I've been thinking about this so much. And to plug Doug Wilson again, he had a really helpful illustration for this. It was actually about, I think this was about marriage. This wasn't even about education, but I think it serves the point, which is just because that you take an airplane and you crash land that thing. Yeah. And everyone gets out. And it, who, who, who, who-hoo, high-fives, everything. They're so excited, right? Yeah, exactly. Just so excited that they're alive and they made it. That does not mean that you turn around and say, you know what? We should start crash landing planes from now on. Why do we even put landing here on this? Yeah, why? I mean, they turned out fine. Yeah, right? This is totally okay. So the principle that we get from that funny illustration is that your experience, just because you survived something, does that does not mean that you would want to make that normative. Oh, I dated a non-Christian and they converted. And they converted, right? So does that mean that we should missionary date? Right. No, right? Because that's not the

you would want to make that normative. Oh, I dated a non-Christian and they converted. And they converted, right? So does that mean that we should missionary date? Right. No, right? Because that's not the normative experience, and that's not how you've been instructed either. Right. Well, isn't Christian education that we send our chittled in the public schools to be salt in might and missionaries? To be salt in line. Well, no, you need to train a missionary before you send them out, right? There's a reason we don't put seven-year-olds on the plane to Uganda and say, go reach the natives. No, because the catechizing did not work for those families the way they thought it would. It worked in the opposite direction. They sent their children to be proselytized by the gods of secularism. So, man, we could talk about this all day. But this really does. Don't want to get too far up here. It gets to the center of what we mean by Christian, because you have to make sure that what you say as Christian actually addresses the key reason that that other system fails. You know, you have to address that. And so I said the key word was integration. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that every part of your curriculum and your method is Christian. It's integrated into a Christian worldview. And someone might say, well, so what do you mean? Like, you can only teach math using Bible verses. Like, how many talents did Solomon pull in every year? No, no, that's not what we mean. But what we mean is that we approach education believing what the Bible says about everything. And the fundamental point that we could

did Solomon pull in every year? No, no, that's not what we mean. But what we mean is that we approach education believing what the Bible says about everything. And the fundamental point that we could boil it down to is that a Christian education is Christian because it treats every part of the educational paradigm as if the statement Christ is Lord is true. It treats every part of education from the method to the curriculum to all of it, as if the statement Christ is Lord is true. And it says even further than that, right, when it's talking about Christ in at Colossians chapter 2 where it says that it says in Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all of them. Yeah. In other words, Colossians 2.3 teaches us that everything that is true, every point of fact, every point of knowledge is true because it's because of Christ, because of the lordship of Christ. And we can even go back to verse 15 to 20 in chapter 1. one of Colossians, where he says, Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation by him. All things were created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him, and he's above all things, and he's the head of the body of the church. You know, all these things are true about Christ. He's a creator. They've created by and for him. And so every

him, and he's above all things, and he's the head of the body of the church. You know, all these things are true about Christ. He's a creator. They've created by and for him. And so every point of knowledge is true because Christ is Lord and every point of wisdom, meaning how do you deal skillfully and properly with that knowledge? what wisdom is, you could say, applied knowledge. One way you could define wisdom is true because Christ is Lord. And so what that means is that rather than treating subjects as isolated bodies of knowledge that exist in a vacuum, basically that just hang in midair, where, okay, why is physics true? It just is. It just is. It's a brute factor. You know chaos is king, it just is. Add your Buddhism sauce to it. Add your Christian sauce to it when you go home kids. But physics is physics. literature is what is good literature and bad literature? Well, it's just, it just is. Or it isn't. It's totally relative. It's just your taste. What is beautiful? Well, it's just your taste. Some things might be, you think they're ugly, other people think they're beautiful. It's totally relative. There's no standard for anything. Rather than treating subjects and knowledge and education and wisdom like that, hermetically sealed off packets of information, floating in midair that we want to transport like a via USB cable into the brain stems of our students. And that's what education is. No, no, no, no, no. All of it orbits around Christ. Christ is at the

of the curriculum. Everything is true, is true, because Christ is Lord. And what that does is it actually, because that is the true nature of reality, it gives our students an actual real model of reality when they go out to deal with subjects. They can actually know why something is true. It's hung in an actual realistic model. They have a real foundation for it. Yeah. It's crazy to think that I went through the public school system and never really questioned or understood why two plus two equals four. Right? It's just assumed. It just is because it is. Stop asking questions. Yeah. That's foolish. Foolish. Foolish to ask questions. We take it as axiomatic that one is this monism. And so when you put two of them together, I mean, you just have to start with these nonsense, epistemological leaps, where you just say, and metaphysical and epistemological leaks. It leaps. It leaps. It's just leaks actually is kind of accurate. Everything leaks out. You know, it doesn't work. So when we approach education, and we're going to get into this in greater detail as we build out the model and the different influences that we, even as we talk about classical. the reason that we even use classical as a describing feature and as an influencing part of our model of education is because, you know, essentially, to really oversimplify, and I'm, why you just know, I know I'm oversimplifying here.

the reason that we even use classical as a describing feature and as an influencing part of our model of education is because, you know, essentially, to really oversimplify, and I'm, why you just know, I know I'm oversimplifying here. The history of the West, the discreet tradition from which we get most of the data of our classical education and even methods, is the history of Christ's conquest, right? It's the history of the expansion of the church and Christians interacting with the world. Christians interacting with science and physics and astronomy, Galileo, and Kepler, and even going back, Augustine, and, you know, it's Christians interacting with the world, and going out, one of the key verses I think of all the time in this question is in Proverbs, where, again, and I've referenced it already in this series, but Solomon says, it is the glory of God to conceal a thing. It's the wisdom of kings to search it out. So God is this great, he's like, he gets some kind of joy in concealing these glories everywhere from math and science and geology, everything. He's like, man, someday I made, I made image bearers, and they're going to go out and they're going to figure this out. They're going to find this and be blown away. They're going to be like, we can make iPhones from stuff we dig up underground. What? And they should glorify God. They should glorify God. They don't always. They don't always.

They don't always. actually. Often. Ever. Apart from his grace. Well, you know, common grace. Anyway, we digress. So fundamentally, when we say that education that students at St. Brennan's will get is Christian, is that we mean that there's no such thing as brute facts, but everything from knowledge to wisdom is tethered to and orbits around the Lordship of Christ. Let me also just add another point, as I'm thinking through this, why we would say it's Christian and maybe why other approaches we might not term as Christian is because oftentimes, and you see so many models for this, but if you take like John Locke's tabula rasa, right, the idea that the mind is just a blank slate and you just take that and you're writing on it, or even Rousseau's ungodly ideas in some sense about education and that the child is not actually born evil in really any sense. He just gets corrupted or she gets corrupted as they grow. grow up. We disagree with those, obviously, but one thing that we find that's pretty common to most education systems that just explicitly are not Christian is that they take a purely informative view to education and what education is meant to do. It's meant to give you facts. It's meant to just simply give you ideas. But what we are, one emphasis that we have at our school is that the information that they get is not simply informative, but is also,

It's meant to just simply give you ideas. But what we are, one emphasis that we have at our school is that the information that they get is not simply informative, but is also, meant to be normative. Which means that when we're reading Plutarch together, right, and you see some of these great men and great being amoral that could be good or it could be bad, right? And I could tell, I don't know if we have done, I could tell a funny story from that. But there's a great example set before us about what is good behavior, what is bad behavior, right? And so a student, me, like other people, anybody reading through this, reading through Plutarch's lives, for example, read that and says, either consciously or subconsciously, I want to be like him. That's right. I don't want to be like him. I want to act this way virtuously, courageously. I want to be wise like this man. I want to be wise like Fabius, even though, even though he was maligned, even though he was trash talked by a lot of people, and they wanted to fire him. I think they did fire him, actually. And then he came back once they realized he was actually the wise one. You see something like that, and you want to be like that person. That's a fundamental part of education that we can't forget. And so the content of your

is not meant to be simply informative. The content that we're going to go through in a Christian education is also normative. It's meant for you to read through it, to understand it, and to assimilate, or to reject one way or another. Right? So that's a very important part of a Christian education. That's so good. And it really comes back to that reality that only the Christian worldview can give you that. Only Christ can give you an ought. Only Christ can give you... Back to morality. Yeah. You ought to be this way. You can't rescue that from secularism. That's why public education utterly fails at the root is because it's not connected to any kind of foundational reality that can give you any sort of ought. They can't say this is wrong. You can't say this is right and wrong. And it ultimately leads to this absurdity where they're saying this is right and wrong in mathematics. And you're like, why? Who cares? So one way that an education then is that I would say secularist education fails where we can contrast even further is that, you know, this is the failure of saying. like, well, what is education for? Well, it's just pragmatism. It's to equip you to get a job. A great job. Lots of money. No. No. If you're a Christian, of course you'll know that you need to provide for your... And we're going to equip you to go do that. But if you see how all these other models, they boil down the essence of what a person is and is for to an incorrect answer. And so they end up...

for your... And we're going to equip you to go do that. But if you see how all these other models, they boil down the essence of what a person is and is for to an incorrect answer. And so they end up... Yeah, their anthropology is wrong because their doctrine of reality is wrong. Your doctrine of anthropology is wrong. They cannot properly educate you because they don't know what you're for. They don't know what the question on the test is. They're answering a different question. Yeah, and so they'll be wrong every time. A Christian education will equip you for a vocation. It will equip you for the vocation of being a woman of God, a man of God in whatever calling the Lord gives you. But if we boil things down to that, that's even where so many Christians have gotten this wrong with their question of education. They become little pragmatists and utilitarians. And they start saying, well, you know, Christian education, that's all fine, whatever, but we want to make sure our kids can get a job. And we're like, well, of course. We want to treat... But how do you do that? By making them virtuous Christian men and women. By making them men of wisdom and courage and knowledge and valor, so they properly know how to deal with the world as it actually is in its reality. Well, and let's just drive the point home, right? Every education is a religious endeavor. Exactly. Every education teaches you to serve and worship a certain God or certain gods plural. Right? So again, public school system. It's not that they're not worshiping, it's not simply that they're not worshiping Jesus in their

worship a certain God or certain gods plural. Right? So again, public school system. It's not that they're not worshiping, it's not simply that they're not worshiping Jesus in their education, but that they're teaching children to worship other gods. Whether it's the state, secularism, you name it, right? We could go through all of the idols. What is the chief end of man to glorify myself, to enjoy and glorify myself? Yeah. I mean, they're teaching you both by word and by action, by example, to serve other gods. Obviously, not living gods. They're idols, right? Yeah, they're dead gods who can only enslave. And so that, you know, we're now, I'm really excited for the next episode, because in the next episode, as we discuss what classical means, we're going to talk about why headmaster love can quote Plutarch, and, you know, even though Plutarch was not a Christian, and why we can learn from Polybius, and why Christians have, we, don't, we're not scared of that at all. They should be scared of us. Boom. So, there's more we could say, as always, but we'll call it good there for episode four on what does it mean for an education to be Christian? As always, send your questions, or if you'd like to talk about enrolling in the school, if you'd like to support the school financially, you can go to St.brenens. Academy, S-A-I-N-D-A-N-D-A-N-S dot Academy. And there you will find all sorts of

to talk about enrolling in the school, if you'd like to support the school financially, you can go to St.brenens. Academy, S-A-I-N-D-A-N-D-A-N-S dot Academy. And there you will find all sorts of information, application to enroll, ways to support the school financially and otherwise. And if you have specific questions or you'd like to meet, don't hesitate to email Kevin Love at refuge, Utah.org, Kevin Love at refuge, Utah.org, or just in the footer of our website, there is a general email that will be directed if you directed to the headmaster. So Lord bless you and keep you as we journey together for God's Holy Mountain, and we'll see you in the next captain's log. Well, we'll be sharpening in the axe to cut down old daughter's oak. We'll be sharpening in the axe to cut down old daughter's oak. We'll be sharpening in the axe to cut down old daughter's oak. For the Lord, he's far and we all to Jerusalem will