Another reason the Christian Classical approach to education is superior: Classical Christian Schools develop a Christian Worldview by learning all subjects as part of an integrated whole with the Scriptures as the center.
Bible and chapel at the conventional Christian school down the street tack on a spiritual component to an otherwise progressive approach to education. Much of the “spiritual” components are kept separate because the progressive model implicitly believes education has two parts: religious and secular. Books, teacher training, and other systems shared with public schools ensure that they bypass other opportunities for Christian integration. This results in a divided view of the world, not a Christian worldview.
The Classical Christian school believes that the truth of Christ’s Lordship resounds in every area of study, across all subjects, to every nook and cranny of everyday life. Christians throughout history who practiced classical education believed that Theology (the study of God) was the queen of the sciences and all the various academic subjects were her handmaiden. We believe that everything is united under the fact that all things are created and sustained by Jesus Christ. From this unifying point, all subjects at Christ Church Academy are integrated together under the banner of “Jesus is Lord.”
Because we are under this banner, we hold to and establish Scripture at every point as the foundation on which to build all knowledge. On top of that, we hold to Scripture as the standard of whether such knowledge was built in line with the foundation. If Jesus Christ is not Lord of all, then two plus two does not equal four. If He did not die for the sins of His people, then one plus one does not equal two. If God did not speak the universe into existence, then there is no universe to comprehend. And yes, I am presupposing the truth of Christianity. That’s what Christians and Christian schools do.
Scripture teaches that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). This means that the fear of the Lord is not the final goal of education, it’s the foundation of education. It’s where we start. Someone once said, “The label on the bottle does not dictate the contents of the bottle.” In the same way, a Christian school is not one which calls itself that, or even one in which all the students are regenerate. A Christian school is one in which the schooling itself is being done in a biblical fashion.
