Seven Lessons in Seven Years: Lessons from the Logic School

Seven years ago, I was a bright-eyed freshman teacher, embarking on my teaching career as a classical and Christian educator. I was confident that classical Christian education was the best form of education, and I was full of ideals. And then I met my Logic School students. Suddenly, I was thrust into a world wherein neither students nor parents were always well-behaved, many were not actively pursuing the good, the true, and the beautiful, and in the midst of this, I sometimes found myself floundering, unsure of how to control my class, discipline my students, and point them toward virtue and wisdom.

How do you keep a class of 8th graders under control? How do you offer correction without co-opting class time? How do you capture the imagination of the uninterested? How do you teach 7th and 8th graders to love the good, the true, and the beautiful? This session will be an exploration of seven practical tools I have learned to help teachers gain the control of their classrooms, the trust of parents, and the love of their students.

Aaron Fudge

Aaron Fudge works at Trinity Classical Academy, in Santa Clarita, California, where he is the Dean of the Upper School, the Chair of the Language Department, and a member of the Upper School Humanities and Language faculty. Aaron is also an associate pastor at Christ Church Santa Clarita. He is the husband of Elisabeth, and the father of three classically educated teenagers. He surfs as often as possible and is currently reading All Hallows Eve, by Charles Williams.

What Does It Mean To Teach Latin, Greek and Spanish Classically?

In classical schools, Latin is a given. However, this assumption of Latin has been a double-edged sword. While it has ensured the revival of Latin teaching, we have not had to ght for or justify teaching Latin like we have had to do with Euclid, the Great Books or the progymnasmata. With these, we had to show that the modern tools are inadequate and that classical tools are better suited to our purpose. e ght for Latin has been di erent, and it has le us ill-suited to address the question of what it means to teach a language classically. is seminar will o er a defense of modern foreign languages in our school curriculum.

Aaron Fudge

Aaron serves as the Dean of the Logic School, the Chair of the Language Department and as a member of the upper school faculty at Trinity Classical Academy in Valencia, California. He has been a part of the Trinity faculty since 2013 and has taught 7th-grade Latin, 8th-grade Bible, 8th-grade history and honors Greek. Before coming to Trinity, he taught ESL for four years and served as both a youth and college pastor. He and his wife, Elisabeth, have three children, and all ve can be found on Trinity’s campus daily. He holds a bachelor's degee in biblical studies from Biola University, a master of divinity degree with focus on exegetical studies from Multnomah Seminary, and a graduate certi cate in classical Christian studies from New Saint Andrews College.