Students and parents have legitimate questions about a unique method of education
that calls itself both Christian and classical.

To begin, it is important to acknowledge the fact that no school or its education is neutral. All methods of education, all curriculum, all faculty, a school’s culture, are all unrelentingly directly and indirectly promoting (even if only subtly) or formally teaching a world view based on an underlying ideology. This ideology has the potential for finding its way into all activities of a school and into the hearts, souls, and minds of your children.

One definition of education provides some interesting insights. Education is “the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, morals, beliefs, habits, and personal development.”[1] These critical characteristics, found in any school, will either affirm who God intends your child to be or diminish it. Your child’s teachers will teach and model what supports your values as parents, or not.  For this reason, parents must think carefully and prayerfully about the God-given stewardship of their children as it relates to their choice of:

• what their children will learn,
• how they will learn it,
• by whom it is taught, and 
• what vision the education has as its end for its graduates.

These choices have a significant influence not only on what your children will learn, but who they will become. Does Christian classical education and its distinct offerings and approach actually make a difference? To find out, we asked the experts – our graduates.

Since our founding in 1997, the benefits that graduates from Faith Christian School report having received as a result of their Christian classical education have been consistently remarkable. As they enter and experience college, they report that, compared to their peers, they:

• are better writers and handle larger assignments better
• feel more confident speaking in front of others
• are equipped to defend their faith
• easily engage faculty and adults
• find they seek out deeper friendships and navigate difficult relationships more skillfully
• engage new material with greater ease
• have a deeper appreciation for the arts
• desire classes that promote discussion

During their tenure at Faith Christian School, students may at times wish they were in a larger or easier school, or even one that had more electives. However, when they find themselves in college facing increased academic rigor and, at points, a hostile culture, they are able to appreciate the benefits of their Christian classical education that was distinct in its offerings, focused in its curriculum, and robust in its expectations.

Those of us who teach in Christian classical schools are not surprised by these results. From the earliest grades, our expectations are appropriately high. Likewise, our support for attaining these expectations is great. This education all takes place in the context of a pedagogy that believes the fundamental purpose of all education is to tune our hearts toward those things that are good, true, and beautiful, and to the One who is ultimately the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful.

- Peter Baur, Head of School at Faith Christian School

We invite you to read more on the benefits of Classical Christian Education. Come and check us out! Schedule a tour of Faith Christian School.

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[1] https://en.unesco.org/themes/education/sdgs/material/04. Accessed 15 Sep. 2022.