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.