Introduction to Classical Christian Education
Classical Christian education is the biblical appropriation of a time-tested method of teaching called “trivium” (grammar, logic, rhetoric), which was practiced throughout the ages since the ancient times, and which produced some of the greatest leaders of history, including the great founding fathers of America.Classical education is, in a nutshell, biblical education par excellence. Classical education began with the Greeks and the Romans before the “Christian era” under the common grace of God, but its roots are found in the Scriptures. It developed throughout the centuries under the leadership of Christian theologians and educators such as Augustine, Diodorus, Alcuin, Erasmus, Milton, Hugh of St. Victor, Melanchthon, Luther, and many others. In America, it was the education of the Founding Fathers. It died out and is now making a comeback more vigorously than ever before.
One way to describe classical education is by the concept of trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These three terms describe both the three stages and the three aspects of a classical education. At the grammar stage, students learn the fundamental rules of each subject. At the logic stage, students order the relationship of particulars in each subject. Finally, at the rhetoric stage, students learn how the grammar and logic of each subject may be clearly expressed.
Classical education emphasizes learning from the “classics,” because it stands on the conviction that God has providentially guided history and that riches of God’s glory can be gained from every age, with its culmination in Jesus Christ.
Classical education also emphasizes languages (ancient and modern), grammar, speaking, and writing because word (language) is God’s unique gift to mankind through which people can learn the deep things of God in Scripture and nature, and gracefully take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.