EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY

In Plato’s Republic, Socrates describes education not as the imparting of information, but as the turning of the soul to “see the good” and to “ascend that ascent.” In other words, education is primarily a training  to perceive and then to desire the good (“the brightest thing”). To educate is to awaken, to lead, and to inspire. 

A distinctly classical education is one in which the inheritance of the ages is treasured and traditioned from one generation to the next. This inheritance, originating in the ancient world, is codified in the liberal arts tradition and enacted in the great conversation. The seven liberal arts: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music are the traditional arts for learning. The liberal arts are not disconnected subjects, but the arts which reveal the nature of reality, as well as the interconnectedness of all living things and all knowledge. The liberal arts liberate people through the cultivation of free-minded individuals and societies, capable of acting for the good. In the ancient world, the posture toward tradition and society was one of trust and duty. Education aims to train individuals to perceive and pursue what is true, good, and beautiful. 

Prior to a series of educational changes over the last 150 years, this traditional education was the standard education. Noah Webster in the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defined education as follows: “The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of manners. education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties”. Compare this robust vision of human formation with the reductionistic idea of simply gaining knowledge and skills for the workforce that is so common today. 

A Christian education is nothing short of partaking of the divine nature (2 Pet. 2:4), becoming one with Christ (Rom 6:5). Christ is the wisdom of God; the fulfillment and fullest expression of all human wisdom. The vision of Classical Christian education is that in teaching with all wisdom, we may present everyone mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). This wisdom is principally revealed in the cross, an upside-down wisdom in which the foolish, weak, low, and despised reveal the power of God. 

At Logos Academy, we are joining with other schools around the country and around the world in renewing this traditional form of education by helping students find their identity in Christ and receiving their inheritance from the generations that have gone before them. A proverb of the Yoruba people states: “Where you will sit when you are old shows where you stood in youth.” We want our children to be grounded in their history and identity. We are committed to equipping our students to live faithfully today, facing all the challenges before them with humility and courage, grounded in who they are as children of God and as inheritors of the wealth of the ages that have gone before us. Following in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., we are cultivating “intelligence plus character.”