Our Philosophy of Education

The focal point of all that is, has been, and ever will be, is the person of Jesus Christ. We believe that the education of our children begins with this reality. We desire our children to self-consciously live and move and have their being in Christ, as the Scriptures teach in Acts 17:28.

We believe God reveals Himself not only especially in His Word, but generally in every facet of His creation. All knowledge is therefore interrelated and teaches us about God’s character, wisdom, and power. Ultimate reality exists only in Him, the Creator and Sustainer of all things, and therefore truth can be understood ultimately only as it relates to Him as the Sovereign Lord over all. The Scriptures teach that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). We believe therefore that every aspect of our children’s education needs to be intentionally grounded in this, our historic Christian faith.

We believe God has given parents, not the Church or the State, the responsibility of educating their children and teaching them to faithfully love and serve Him. We believe our role as educators is to be inloco parentis, “in the place of the parent.” Our Board and staff view themselves as servants of parents who assist them in their Biblical obligation to educate their children in the Lord. Our school administration, academic instruction and discipline aim to be consistent with and supportive of Biblical teaching concerning the family and the authority of parents. We believe that fathers are the God-ordained heads of their households. Whenever possible, we desire that each father assume leadership in the education of his children. Our instructional format shall endeavor to maximize parental participation in the child’s academic training.

We believe that Biblical discipline, the encouragement of an obedient child and the correction of a disobedient child, is a critical and necessary part of education. Under no circumstances will the misbehavior of one child be permitted continually to hinder the education of other children.

God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind (Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). We therefore believe that all instruction must encourage students to love God through their academic endeavors. Students must be challenged at all levels to do quality academic work because God is worthy of their best. Students must be taught to behave in a godly manner because God is holy and therefore commands that his children be holy (1 Peter 1:13-19). Parents and teachers should teach the children to do all they do “heartily, as unto the Lord” with the purpose of glorifying Him (Colossians 3:20-25).

We believe students should be provided an historically substantive and rigorous liberal arts education that draws deeply from the history and culture of Western Civilization. We employ proven Classical methods and curriculum that are modeled on the medieval Trivium. The Trivium is understood as an approach to instruction in which the tools of learning are imparted to students in stages that correspond with their natural pattern of cognitive development (grammar – the tool of knowledge, logic – the tool of reasoning, and rhetoric – the tool of communication). The goal of the Trivium is to educate students not in what to think primarily, but in how to think thoroughly, maturely and Biblically. After we have recovered the “lost tools of learning” received in a Classical education, students will be well equipped to live to the glory of God with hearts and minds which know and love that which is good, true, and beautiful. The tools of learning in combination with an active and Biblically guided exploration of the events, ideas, and people of the past will equip students to think clearly, reason persuasively, and speak precisely, to evaluate all human knowledge and experience in the light of Truth, and to do so with grace, humility, and wisdom.

We believe that a child’s education should affirm and nurture the God-created differences between men and women and the respective God-ordained roles of men and women. Biblical masculinity should be cultivated in the lives of male students and Biblical femininity should be cultivated in the lives of female students. Behavioral expectations, classroom instruction, role-modeling, and school culture should encourage growth of the students into Biblical manhood and Biblical womanhood.