Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day and like every other year, it is everywhere! It's on every end-cap at the store; it's on almost every sitcom or television show; even today's radio morning shows were all about Valentine's Day. While some people view today as an ordinary day, others are expressing love and appreciation for other people through cards, gifts, and chocolate (of course chocolate!).

On Valentine's Day the focus is usually on earthly love- the love of friends, the love of family, the love of pets, and of course, the love of significant others. However, as I am immersed by all of the attention society gives to these forms of love, I can't help but be completely intoxicated by the love of God. In the midst of all the conversations about romance and all of the concentration on love, I can hardly help but wonder how many people know just how much God loves them.

As all these thoughts about God and His love float around in my head, I'm reminded of verses like the following:

• Romans 8:37-39- No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• John 3:16-17- For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
• Romans 5:8- But God shows His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• Psalm 136:26- Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever.

I pray that as the focus on Valentine's Day wanes, you're understanding of true love, the love of God, grows. I pray that you experience the love God has for you in such a way that you never have before.

Have a blessed Valentine's Day surrounded by those you love!

Christmas Joy

You are invited to Glencoe Learning Center's Christmas program, Christmas Joy. The program will be on Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 6:00PM. It will feature music performances by GLC's K3 and prekindergarten classes as well as a poem recitation by these classes. The program will also include a message by Pastor Barry and special performances by the students of Glencoe Classical Academy.

If you have any questions regarding the event or your child's participation, please contact the school office at 428-3959.

Maple Muffins

Over Thanksgiving break, many families will spend a great deal of time together and a lot of that time will be spent together in the kitchen; we all know that, after three weekdays with no schools, GCA students are going to be looking for something to do! I found this easy recipe for Maple Muffins (They look so sweet that they should probably be called cupcakes!) that is sure to keep at least some of the students entertained for a little while.

Gather

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup maple syrup
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Icing:

• 1 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon softened butter
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 cup maple syrup

Go

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix all muffin ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Grease muffin tins with vegetable spray.
4. Scoop batter by tablespoons into each muffin cup.
5. Bake for 12 minutes.
6. Beat together icing ingrediens until smooth. Add a little water if needed. Spread on muffins and enjoy!

Operation Christmas Child

Dear GCA Parents:

The holidays are quickly approaching and we are excited to be participating in the Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child project this year. The small gifts of love and messages of hope through Jesus Christ are delivered to needy children overseas.

Parents and students can start shopping together and have fun collecting small toys, school supplies, and other small gifts for an impoverished child. You will find a list of items below that can be placed in your shoebox for either a boy or girl in age ranges of 2-4, 5-9, and/or 10-14 years old. After your small gifts are placed in your shoebox, we invite you or your student to write a small note to introduce a hurting child to God’s love and place it in your box. The classes will be having a contest to see which class can bring in the most shoeboxes, and there will be a special surprise for the class that brings in the most shoeboxes.

Please note the list of suggested toys and the list of those not acceptable. Your child will need to have his or her shoebox in no later than November 14th. To help defray the cost of shipping, Samaritan’s Purse requests $7.00 be included in an envelope with your shoebox. When wrapping your shoebox, please wrap the lid separately from the box so that the box is not sealed; then place the lid on the shoebox and wrap two rubber bands around the width and length of your box. Slip a piece of paper (do not tape) indicating the age range (2-4, 5-9, or 10-14) and whether the shoebox is for a boy or girl. We will print out the labels and attach them to the lids before taking them to the drop off site.

Thank you for your support!

Toys: small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, yo-yos, jump ropes; small etch a sketch, slinky
School supplies: pens, pencils, and small pencil sharpeners, crayons, markers, stamps and ink pad, writing tablets, picture books, etc.
Other: hard candy, lollipops, mints, gum (please double bag all candy), t-shirt, socks, ball caps, sunglasses, hair-clips, jewelry, watches
Do not include: used or damaged goods, war related items such as guns, knives or military figures, chocolate or food: liquids or lotions, medications or vitamins, breakable items such as snow globes or glass containers, aerosol cans

cCe 101: Science, Technology, & Other Modern Phenomena

“Isolating the student from large sections of human knowledge is not the basis of Christian education. Rather it is giving him or her the framework for total truth, rooted in the Creator’s existence and in the Bible’s teaching, so that in each step of the formal learning process the student will understand what is true and what is false and why it is true or false.”

Francis Schaeffer

There is a myth that exists which basically states that classical Christian education and modernity cannot coexist. It is often assumed that, because a school is “classical,” it cannot be “modern.” Also, it is often thought that this lack of modernity causes classical Christian schools to fail to adequately teach mathematics or the sciences. However, cCe neither eschews modernity nor many of the luxuries it affords educators and students. Also, classical Christian students perform well in advanced areas of both math and science.

cCe recognizes that many of the leaders of the golden era of science were classicists. Also, classical Christian educators recognize that a person cannot adequately study God while disregarding the sciences. However, these same educators recognize that a person cannot adequately study the sciences while disregarding God. Therefore, classical Christian schools typically postpone the study of science until students have gained a working knowledge of God and His Word because it allows them to better view science from a biblical-Christian perspective. At GCA, students begin a formal study of science in second grade. When GCA students enter the logic phase of their education, they enter into a study of the more advanced sciences. At GCA, we neither avoid the sciences or technology such as computers nor do we view them negatively; we simply recognize that there is a proper time to integrate science and technology into the developmental stages of learning.

cCe endeavors to take each student to his or her highest potential; in order to do so, we must realize that humans are not programmable machines. Humans are works to be made. Ecclesiastes 3:11a says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” When we, as classical Christian educators and parents, lay an all-encompassing educational foundation, we produce doctors, authors, ministers, and even scientists, electricians, and plumbers who can think, reason, speak, and write well. There are no gaps in the educations of these people because they received a properly founded education before they received a specialized education.

Essentially, cCe focuses on all areas, including math and science. How will a student truly understand the whole if he or she has only learned some of the parts? Let’s teach them the whole so that they then know all of the parts.

cCe 101: The Lost Art of Learning

“Is not the great defect of our education today…that although we often succeed in teaching our pupils ‘subjects,’ we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think: they learn everything, except the art of learning.”

Dorothy Sayers

In modern education, the skill of learning is often disregarded; unfortunately, this disregard does not count the cost of ignorance. Classical Christian students are trained, from an early age, to learn by thinking. cCe embodies a three-fold method to learning called the trivium. The trivium is simply three developmental stages of learning: grammar, logic (also called dialectic), and rhetoric. Each of these phases consists of an approach to learning, an approach to subjects, and a set of subjects. You’ll find a brief description of the phases below; for a closer look at the trivium and for more information about the trivium, additional resources are available from GCA administration and teachers.

Grammar

In the grammar phase, students in kindergarten through sixth grade are absorbing facts. This phase focuses, in many ways, on memorization. By memorizing facts, students are preparing themselves for reasoning in the logic and rhetoric phases. Students at these ages are excited about learning even though they tend to have shorter attention spans. Therefore, the grammar stage incorporates memorization and learning tools such as chanting, hands-on activities and projects, and singing. The grammar teacher leads students in exploring and discovering, while reinforcing the students’ understanding of letters, numbers, and other fundaments.

Logic

In the logic phase, students in seventh through ninth grades are developing their reasoning skills. At this point, students take the facts that they memorized in the grammar phase, and they begin to question that information and to challenge ideas. In order to hone their developing skills and to teach them the proper use of reasoning, students begin the study of formal logic. The logic teacher uses the students’ tendency to argue and question as a method to mold and shape their reasoning skills.

Rhetoric

In the final stage of the trivium, the rhetoric phase, students in tenth through twelfth grades focus on articulation in writing and speech. In this stage, students use the facts the memorized in the grammar stage and challenged in the logic phase to present their opinions and the facts at hand. Rhetoric teachers use the students’ concern for appearance and self-expression as a tool for teaching the proper way to develop presentations that exude wisdom and effectiveness. Rhetoric teachers focus on speech, debate, and writing.

cCe 101: Worldview, Morality, and Academics

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems to make man a more clever devil.

C.S. Lewis

Many times when a person thinks of a private school, he or she thinks of a government school with morals and maybe even a Bible class. Often times, that is all that many private schools are. At these private schools, they implement the same methods and teach the same subjects but mix in a little morality. They teach creationism, but they still teach evolution. They teach abstinence, but they still teach sex education. They teach history, but they still teach it with a modern bias. While this does not describe all private schools, it describes far too many of them; however, this is not classical Christian education.

cCe is different because it does not simply add in a few morals and a Bible class. cCe begins with the Word of God which is the standard for moral absolutes and the foundation for all of the curriculum, not just the Bible curriculum. Simply put, cCe centers on Christ. Unlike all other educational philosophies, cCe devotes itself to the following three key areas: a Christian worldview, a higher moral standard, and greater academics.

Classical Christian students are not sheltered from the world; instead, they are taught to examine the world from a biblical, Christian perspective. They are taught to look through the lens of God’s Word in order to see everything clearly.
Classical Christian students are held to a higher moral standard. Because the Bible is used as the foundation for all moral development, students are not left with an obscure understanding of morality that is clouded by ambiguity. They develop a clear understanding of morality and immorality by studying the Word of God and by being trained in morality.

Classical Christian students are responsible for greater academic endeavors. Because these students are taught that all knowledge comes from God, they begin to hunger for more knowledge, developing a lifelong learner and cultivating wisdom.