What in the World Is Classical Christian Education?

Posted on by Society for Classical Learning

“Classical Christian Education” is one of the most difficult products to market. A simple and memorable definition eludes most people. We give an elaborate answer that includes Latin, uniforms, old books and the Trivium. The response back is often a look of curiosity… like being told that the best form of transportation is a covered wagon. Knowing who is asking the questions – parents, teachers, students, donors or college advisors – and how to tailor your response makes a difference, too. In this session, we will examine various definitions and how to explain it clearly, winsomely and accurately in the areas of marketing, parent education and retention.

W. Davies Owens

W. Davies Owens is the Head of Vision and Advancement at the Ambrose School in Boise, Idaho, where he also served as the Dean of the Upper School. Prior to moving west ve years ago, he served for 10 years as a board member, and later, as Head of School at Heritage Preparatory School, an ACCS member school in Atlanta, Georgia. Five years prior, he was the Executive Director of BlueSky Ministries, an innovation lab and consulting organization launched after his work for Christianity.com during the dot-com days of Silicon Valley. He is also an ordained Presbyterian minister who served as a local church pastor for 12 years in both suburban and urban congregations. He has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Furman University, a master’s degree in divinity from Duke Divinity School and a doctorate from Gordon Conwell Seminary in Boston. He has studied on a number of occasions at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland and England. He has a heart for international missions and has been leading teams from Ambrose to work with schools in Rwanda for the past four years. He is the host of the BaseCamp Live podcast, which is dedicated to helping promote classical Christian education nationally and equip parents and leaders involved in raising up the next generation. He and his wife, Holly, see the consistent fruit of classical Christian education in the lives of their three children, Hannah, 19, Liam, 16, and Bennett, 14.

Education as the Cultivation of Love

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What is education? Fundamentally it is not the transference of knowledge, the development of skill sets or preparation for the next stage of schooling. Education is the formation of loves. Its primary task is to cultivate an ordo amoris, an ordering of love, that corresponds to reality and enables students to live lives of virtue. Drawing on thinkers from Plato and Augustine to Josef Pieper and C. S. Lewis, this seminar examines the cultivation of well-ordered loves as the central goal of education and questions how this conception of education should affect what we do in the classroom and how we measure “success.”

David Diener

Dr. David Diener holds a BA in Philosophy and Ancient Languages from Wheaton College as well as an MA in Philosophy, an MS in History and Philosophy of Education, and a dual PhD in Philosophy and Philosophy of Education from Indiana University. In addition to working as a high-end custom trim carpenter for an Amish company and living as a missionary for three years in Bogotá, Colombia, he has taught at The Stony Brook School and Taylor University and has served as Head of Upper Schools at Covenant Classical School in Fort Worth, TX, and Head of School at Grace Academy in Georgetown, TX. He currently works at Hillsdale College where he is the Headmaster of Hillsdale Academy and a Lecturing Professor of Education. He also is an Alcuin Fellow, serves on the Board of Directors for the Society for Classical Learning and the Board of Academic Advisors for the Classic Learning Test, and offers consulting services through Classical Academic Press. He is the author of Plato: The Great Philosopher-Educator and serves as the series editor for Classical Academic Press’ series Giants in the History of Education. The Dieners have four wonderful children and are passionate about classical Christian education and the impact it can have on the church, our society, and the world.

The Seven Liberal Arts: Liberty and Justice For All

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We have heard of the liberal arts – but can we name them? We live in a fuzzy moment in which even college professors at “liberal arts” colleges often cannot name the seven liberal arts, nor tell us precisely why they are called “liberal” and why they are called “arts.” In this seminar, we will name and describe them all. (Hint: They are contained in the Trivium and Quadrivium.) We’ll also learn why they are “liberating” arts and fully-capacitated to do what only humans can do. (Hint: This has much to do with mastering words and numbers.) We will also note the ways that a liberally-educated person can become just and bring about meaningful justice in our world.

Chris Perrin

Christopher Perrin, MDiv, PhD, is the CEO with Classical Academic Press, and a national leader, author, and speaker for the renewal of classical education. He serves as a consultant to classical Christian schools, classical charter schools, and schools converting to the classical model. He is the director of the Alcuin Fellowship, former co-chair of the Society for Classical Learning, an adjunct professor with the honor's program at Messiah College, and previously served for ten years as a classical school headmaster.

Hektor and Andromache: Balance in a World Gone Mad

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In Book VI, Homer offers us a sort of Iliad in miniature: a self-contained narrative that carries the reader from war to peace, division to reconciliation, barbarism to civilization. We will discuss the various, underlying tensions, and then closely analyze the farewell scene between Hektor and his wife, Andromache. This scene embodies the universal, human need to find stability in the midst of chaos and meaning in the midst of existential despair. Attendees are encouraged to bring a copy of the Lattimore translation of the Iliad.

Louis Markos

Louis Markos holds a BA in English and History from Colgate University and an MA and PhD in English from the University of Michigan. He is a Professor of English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, where he teaches courses on British Romantic and Victorian Poetry and Prose, the Classics, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and Art and Film. Dr. Markos holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities and lectures on Ancient Greece and Rome, the Early Church and Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Romanticism for HBU’s Honors College. He is the author of eighteen books, including From Achilles to Christ, On the Shoulders of Hobbits, Literature: A Student’s Guide, CSL: An Apologist for Education, three Canon Press Worldview Guides to the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, & two children’s novels, The Dreaming Stone and In the Shadow of Troy, in which his kids become part of Greek Mythology and the Iliad and Odyssey. His son Alex teaches Latin at the Geneva School in Boerne, TX and his daughter Anastasia teaches music at Founders Classical Academy in Lewisville, TX.

Living in an Eschatological Universe: Virgil’s Aeneid and The Fall of Troy

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It was Virgil – not in opposition to, but alongside the Bible – who taught Christian Europe the shape of history, the power that moves it forward, the primacy of duty, the pain of letting go and the burden of adapting new strategies. In this lecture, we will explore the scenes of e Aeneid: Book II, opening up the way in which Virgil presents the destruction of Troy as a happy fall (felix culpa) and as a great tragedy that provides the seed out of which greater good would come. Attendees are encouraged to bring with them a copy of the Fitzgerald translation of e Aeneid.

Louis Markos

Louis Markos holds a BA in English and History from Colgate University and an MA and PhD in English from the University of Michigan. He is a Professor of English and Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University, where he teaches courses on British Romantic and Victorian Poetry and Prose, the Classics, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and Art and Film. Dr. Markos holds the Robert H. Ray Chair in Humanities and lectures on Ancient Greece and Rome, the Early Church and Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Romanticism for HBU’s Honors College. He is the author of eighteen books, including From Achilles to Christ, On the Shoulders of Hobbits, Literature: A Student’s Guide, CSL: An Apologist for Education, three Canon Press Worldview Guides to the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid, & two children’s novels, The Dreaming Stone and In the Shadow of Troy, in which his kids become part of Greek Mythology and the Iliad and Odyssey. His son Alex teaches Latin at the Geneva School in Boerne, TX and his daughter Anastasia teaches music at Founders Classical Academy in Lewisville, TX.

Transforming Teaching: Seeing Your Students as Image-Bearers

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After hearing this presentation, a veteran teacher of 30+ years commented that it had more impact on how she viewed her role as a teacher than anything she had previously heard. This is the power of seeing your students as fellow image-bearers – a profound understanding of the opportunities you have on a daily basis to speak into the lives of your students. What does that mean? How might that change the way you see them, teach them and inspire them? Through personal stories, movie clips and insight, this workshop will transform your teaching.

 

Peter Baur

Peter Baur has been professionally involved in the field of independent school education for over thirty years. His tenure has been marked by firsthand experience in nearly every aspect of a kindergarten through grade twelve private schools including admission, college guidance, development, community service, capital campaigns, conferences, strategic planning, major events, marketing and public relations, camp director, teaching, and coaching. Peter Baur serves as the Head of School at Faith Christian School and on the Board of SCL.

When Harry Became Sally

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The transgender movement has hit breakneck speed. It’s gone from something that most Americans had never heard of to a cause claiming the mantle of civil rights. Can a boy be “trapped” in a girl’s body? Can modern medicine “reassign” sex? What’s the loving response to a friend or child experiencing a gender-identity conflict? What should our laws say on these issues? Drawing on the best insights from biology, psychology and philosophy, When Harry Became Sally author Ryan T. Anderson offers a balanced approach to policy issues, a nuanced vision of human embodiment and a sober and honest survey of the costs of getting human nature wrong.

Ryan Anderson

Ryan is a Senior Research Fellow at e Heritage Foundation, and the founder and editor of Public Discourse. Anderson’s research has been cited by two U.S. Supreme Court justices in two Supreme Court cases. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his doctoral degree in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. Ryan has made several appearances on network and cable news channels, and his work has appeared in several national publications.

Ancient Hinges: How the Classical Virtues Inform Transformational Leadership

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The cardinal virtues of temperance, fortitude, prudence and justice were espoused by Plato, Cicero and Marcus Aurelius long before Christianity formally adopted them. Through the classical influence on the scholastics, Christian scholars like Thomas Aquinas and poets like Dante Alighieri came to understand the immense value of these virtues. If 2,000 years of scholarship has defended these virtues, we would be wise to take note. Drawing from his own research, D. Michael Lindsay argues for a renewed understanding of everything the cardinal virtues have to offer us in fulfilling our own callings and in shaping the lives of the next generation of leaders.

D. Michael LIndsay

Award-winning sociologist and educator D. Michael Lindsay is the eighth president of Gordon College, and an expert on religion, culture and leadership. In his book, View from the Top, Dr. Lindsay reports the findings of his 10-year Platinum Study, the largest-ever, interview-based study of organizational leaders – including former presidents and CEOs. Since his appointment to President of Gordon College in 2011, the school has experienced banner years in terms of enrollment, fundraising, financial strength, campus diversity, sponsored research, athletic success and faith expression. He regards these gains as evidence of a winning team. He also serves on the boards of Christianity Today and the Veritas Forum.