Classical Christian Education: Arrival or Process?
As we enter the season of Advent, we are reminded of all the blessings that come with the advent of Christ on earth. The word advent comes from the Latin noun adventus, meaning arrival. This word in turn is ultimately derived from the verb venio, meaning to come. My sixth through eighth grade Latin students just learned this verb last week as part of their studies in the fourth and final Latin verb conjugation. This was certainly an arrival of its own! They had finally learned all noun declensions and verb conjugations in Latin. They felt a great sense of accomplishment, and rightfully so. This was a significant achievement!
In education, we have the great privilege of getting to celebrate many significant “arrivals” with our students as they learn and grow: learning how to count to 100, mastering all fifty states and capitals, or persevering through the difficult but rewarding work of reading Dante’s Divine Comedy. These are admirable achievements, each in its own way, and worthy of commemoration. But as we reach each milestone, we are also reminded that our work is not finished—there is always more to learn, always room to grow further.
Just this past week, we discussed as a staff the concept of process. I had the privilege of hearing this topic treated by a speaker at the Society for Classical Learning conference this past summer. The speaker described how our own culture has catechized us to view instant results as the norm. Just think: we have instant information through internet searches, instant messaging through a variety of platforms, instant access to the next episode of whatever we’re binge watching on our streaming service of choice. We expect short wait times at restaurants and overnight delivery of our Amazon packages. If we don’t enjoy a video on YouTube within the first three seconds or so, we scroll past it.
These things collectively have trained us to devalue the slow process of gradual growth. If I don’t get what I want out of it immediately, then why bother? Why climb a mountain when I could drive to the top? Or paint a painting when I could print a photo? Or write a poem when ChatGPT could write one for me? Surely there are better ways to spend my time. But as the speaker at the conference observed, when we look at the way God works, His usual method is to use process, not immediate change. He could have created everything instantly, but He took six days instead. He could change us from sinners to perfected beings the moment we put our faith in Christ, but He uses a process of sanctification instead. The speaker said, “God does not spend every day hoping we will be perfect and then getting disappointed.” Instead, He chooses to shape us gradually into people who better reflect His character.
In classical Christian education, we recognize that we have been given much the same task: to help gradually shape our students into people who love learning and who love God and others. This requires patience and grace, and we ourselves must also undergo a process of change to develop these qualities. We plant seeds and we water them, and we may or may not get to see them grow immediately. But our expectation should not be instant results, but a journey whose ultimate arrival may lie far down the road.
At Pinnacle, we believe that it is not enough to impart knowledge to our students or even to add a Bible class on top of an otherwise self-contained curriculum. That is not what it means to be a Christian school. Rather, we embrace this process of growing our students by using tools like Scripture memory, catechism, singing hymns and reciting poetry together, studying the natural world, reading good stories, and learning how to call ourselves and others to greater virtue even in the midst of our imperfection. We find courage in the truth that all our smaller arrivals are ultimately pointing us towards a final goal: Christ. The presence of Christ in everything we study is the basis of the Christian in classical and Christian education.
It is Christ’s advent—his arrival—that we celebrate at Christmas. But for the believer, God did not simply come once in a miraculous incarnation only to leave again, nevermore to be found in the world. He remains present in the everyday, and that is exactly what should call us to continue learning. The education of children, the sanctification of each believer, and our growth as individuals are a process marked by many small arrivals on our way towards a final arrival in Christ.
Laurel McLaughlin
Upper School Teacher
