What is Classical Christian Education?

From an introduction I gave at the Christian Heritage Club fundraising event featuring Josh McDowell...

Abraham Kuyper, a famous Dutch politician and theologian, once said "...there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'mine!'"

This quote is a great summary of what a Biblical Classical Christian school, such as Bethel Prep, is all about.

We believe, as our mission statement says, that Jesus Christ is the center of all learning. Why is He the center of all learning?

Because as Jesus Himself said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Now most Christians are familiar with this verse. What I ask you to focus on is that Jesus is the truth. He is not like the truth. He is not an example of the truth. He is Truth. When students study Jesus, they study truth. When they study truth, they study Jesus. This includes all truth, such as math facts, grammar rules and historical events.

This is what it means to have Jesus Christ at the center of all learning. Our foundation is truth, thus our foundation is Christ, the creator and Lord of all.

We go about teaching truth by adhering to the classical model, which consists of three subjects; grammar, logic and rhetoric. We correspond those subjects to three age groups - the elementary school, the middle school and the high school.

In the elementary years students are good remembering large amounts of information. We take advantage of this by having our students commit to memory many facts related to math, grammar, history, Bible and so on.

In the middle school years our students learn how to reason and discern by being taught formal logic as they begin a Great Book study.

During the high school years, as our students continue to study the Great Books, they learn how to express their thoughts and wisdom with eloquence by learning rhetoric.

In conclusion, what is Biblical Classical Christian Education? Simply put it is the study of truth using the trivium. And with God's blessing we hope to accomplish our mission of, "Shaping the future and restoring our Christian heritage with Jesus Christ at the center of all learning."