Classical Education
Classical education is an educational movement aimed at recovering instruction in the seven liberal arts: the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). This movement was largely inspired by a lecture given by Dorothy Sayers in 1948 at Oxford (you can read that lecture here), which also emphasized that classical learning gives careful attention to the stages of a child's development. This movement and methodology have proven to be immensely fruitful and effective. You can also learn more by visiting our resource page.
Listen to one of our Education Council members, Pastor Nate Walker, talk about our vision for a classical, Christian education at TCS:
WORD
TCS gives our children a word-based education. We love words and language—why? Because the Bible tells us that God created the world through his word, and is ruling and saving his world through his word. Humanity was given the task of ruling the world by naming it—through words! And he has told us who he is through a Word (the Bible) and his Word ultimately became a human (Jesus).
We believe that those who know how to communicate well are those who lead the world. Whether in the work force, in a marriage, or simply as a Christian—communicating effectively God’s word through our words is how we bring God’s goodness to the world. Therefore, language, reading, speaking, and writing all must be at the heart of any distinctly Christian education. And we make that a priority at TCS.
We long to see the formation of goodness, beauty and truth in the hearts of our students—that is, the formation of wisdom in them. The Bible’s book on raising children, the Proverbs, is a book that calls young people to seek wisdom. And as Christians, we know that knowledge cannot be the most fundamental goal of an education—love is. “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1). The thing that ultimately drives our lives is not our intellect, but our passions, our desires, our affections, our loves. To equip our students to go out as lights into the world, we need to impact them at a level much deeper than their minds—their hearts.
We believe that love (for God, for people, for the world) and wisdom are only formed in children through the experience of wonder. We love the things that inspire wonder in us. These are the things that capture our hearts. Therefore, the kids at TCS will learn the importance of discipline, order, and hard-work, but always for this important purpose: to lead them into a deeper wonder at who God is and all that he has done in his creation, in history, in Christ, and in us.
WONDER
WORLDVIEW
Christianity is not simply a belief system about how to go to heaven when you die. (It is not less than that, but it is also far more!) Christianity is a comprehensive vision of the purpose of the whole universe, the entire scope of history, all of human life, and ultimately God himself. As Abraham Kuyper once said, there is not one square inch of the whole creation over which Christ has not said, “It is mine.” Our students are being equipped to see all of life under the supreme lordship of Jesus.
We believe that the truth of the Scriptures must not simply be taught in a Bible class, but that the knowledge of God must be the unifying discipline that undergirds all knowledge and permeates every subject. Therefore, at TCS we seek to integrate all of our subjects into each other by centering them all on the knowledge of God and his Word. Our aim is to give our students a comprehensive understanding of God, his world, and their place in it.