Help Us Name Our School

We need your help naming our school The school is to be Christ-centered and classical in nature. As you think about those goals and the fact that it is located in Little Rock, Arkansas, please submit any great ideas. Just post a comment here or email us at lrclassical@gmail.com.

Where We Are

As you are visiting our blog, you will notice that the previous posts are more focused on casting the vision of our school. We also want to use the school's blog to offer updates on the details of the school as they come together. Here's what has happened in the last six weeks...

• Founding Board members spent a day visiting Westminster Academy, a classical school in Memphis, TN. The staff and board of Westminster have been extremely helpful in the initial stages of founding a school in Little Rock.


• All Board members read The Lost Tools of Learning by Dorothy Sayers as well as Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson.


• The Board is currently working on the school's mission statement and goals, as well as by-laws.


• The Board is in the process of applying for 501(c)(3) status (non-profit tax deductible/charitable organization).


• The Board is meeting with many individuals throughout the community. We are amazed at the doors that God has opened and continues to open.

Continue to check in regularly as we post more exciting developments!

Reason Three for a Classical School

My final point regarding why a Christ-centered school benefits from employing the classical model centers around the very nature of knowledge itself. Namely, that all knowledge, indeed all history, math and science, ultimately everything happening everywhere in the entire Universe is centered in Jesus Christ. Consider Col. 1:16-18. "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

The Christian understands that there is a point to it all, that Truth is a person, and that at the center stage of all of the "space time continuum" is Golgotha and the crucifixion of Jesus. In Ephesians 1:10, Paul writes of God, "that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him." (NKJV)

The classical school does not view its mission as simply the dissemination of disconnected and independent facts. Rather, it understands the centrality of synthesis and unification, not only within subject matters, but across them. Can it be that "if it is true for you it is true for you and if it is true for me it is true for me" if we hold diametrically opposed concepts regarding the same subject? This is one of the most basic tenets of the post-modernist (and incidentally one of the easiest to refute), and the classical method does not settle for this inconsistent relativism. It would have the student search for universal, unifying truth. Here is where, again, if an education is to be Christ-centered, being classical is of value, because the well-trained classical mind might say with C.S. Lewis- “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” If a mind is looking to put it all together, Christ is at the center. The classical method inherently looks for the center, and in that sense, I believe it is looking for Christ.

Reason Two for a Classical School

The second point in some way springs from the first. We live in a world where 'new' and 'diverse' are buzzwords, instantly equated with superiority. And surely there are some interesting good ideas out there that perhaps we've never heard before; but have not some great thinkers and ideas come before the present age? Solomon enjoins us that "there is nothing new under the sun," and I believe that a classical approach, with its classical emphasis, is the best approach to help us benefit from truly the best ideas, instead of just the latest.

Scripture similarly commands us to consider the past, thus again demonstrating how a school that would be Christ-centered might also benefit by being classical. Jeremiah 6:16: "Thus says the LORD:"Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" Has there ever been a generation more ignorant than ours of the truths and foundations upon which it was built? Has there ever been a people so in danger of forgetting the great things that once were common knowledge? Deut. 32:7 may apply: "Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you." It has been said that those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it.

The classical method calls us not only to the history of events but also to the history of ideas. And ideas have consequences. We must emphasize that ultimately we hold to the truth of the Bible as that ancient thing that must be remembered before all others. Even in light of this truth, though, there are concepts not specifically mentioned in the Bible that we would benefit from recalling.

Reason One for a Classical School

First, a classical approach is specifically designed to teach the student to think. No doubt every school in America would at least claim that they are teaching their students to think, but in a classical approach this is central (see the 'The Lost Tools of Learning' by Dorothy Sayers in a previous post).

One of the many benefits of being a Christian is that we understand God to be the author of all reason and understanding and to have endowed men and women with such faculties that he intends for them to employ. Deut. 32:29 says "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" (KJV). No doubt there are things beyond reason, but in a typical day, it would seem that the Lord calls upon us to think!

As an aside, this is one of the things I love about 'reformed' theology, in that those who adhere to it understand themselves as "reformed and always reforming." One obviously needs a mind to do this, and we are also called upon to love God with all of our mind (Matt. 22:37). So, a classical approach towards education, rather than just giving you a thought to hold between your ears, is specifically designed to train up, strengthen and hone one's mental faculties. And this can then be utilized to the glory of God. Perhaps the analogy of teaching a man to fish versus simply giving him a fish applies. We live in a changing world, and we need to be mentally fit to consider whatever new idea will be introduced tomorrow.

So why bother?

When we begin to think about founding a classical school, as already stated, the glory of God needs to be foremost in our thoughts and designs. Indeed, ideally, the priority and design that God already has in His mind (and our discernment of the same) should preoccupy.

This begs the question, then, why is it that I believe that God is moving to form a classical Christ-centered school in Little Rock? Certainly there are many educational opportunities already available, all with their various strengths and weaknesses. My point here is certainly not to consider arguments for or against any of these other options, but only to discuss the inherent strengths in a classical Christ-centered education. Christ is pre-eminent in all things (the Scriptures teach us this), and so whether a school is classical or not is of little importance next to whether or not it is Christ-centered. However, there are aspects of the classical approach that I think are inherently complementary to a truly Christ-centered education. It is for these reasons, primarily, that I believe that God would have us move forward with this school. (please see subsequent posts)

The Lost Tools of Learning

Dorothy Sayers was a British writer during the early 1900’s, and a friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1947 she wrote an essay, The Lost Tools of Learning, describing what is now the foundation for the resurgence of classical education in the U.S. In the introduction of her essay, she makes the argument that the reason for the “great defect of our education today” is the emphasis on teaching students numerous subjects, instead of providing them with tools on how to learn. If a student memorizes and learns information for an exam, but is unable to transfer that knowledge to other facets of his life or even worse, cannot even remember what he learned after leaving school, the education system has failed.

Upon presenting the problems of the education system of her day, Sayer describes the medieval education system, which included the Trivium and Quadrivium. The Trivium consists of the three distinct learning stages: Grammar, Dialectic, and Rhetoric. These stages form the building blocks of learning, thus enabling the student to take what they have learned and to apply it to any new information presented to him. The Quadrivium follows the Trivium and is made up of specific subjects, including geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music. The focus of Sayers essay is the Trivium.

The first stage of the Trivium, Grammar or what Sayers terms as “poll-parrot,” is more than a reference to a subject within language arts. It addresses the foundation of subjects. Like a parrot that mimics what it hears, the Grammar stage is focused on memory. The ability to memorize comes easiest to children at a young age, which is why this is the first stage. For example, this is the ideal time to memorize math facts, history dates and major events and people, geography facts, and language basics.

The Grammar stage is then followed by the Dialectic, or “pert,” stage. This stage in a child’s development is when they start to become more argumentative or impertinent in nature. They are sorting out all the facts within their minds and beginning to construct rational arguments from the information they know. For example, “If A, then B.” This stage is also referred to as the “logic” stage.

After they sort through the logic of what they have learned, the child desires to express themselves in a thoughtful manner, which is the Rhetoric, or “poetic,” stage. Now the student will have an opportunity to utilize the skills he has obtained during the first two stages and to articulate and present logical arguments.

It may appear that classical education is not sufficient, because it does not offer the array of subjects that we see in our current education system. On the contrary, as Sayers concludes in her essay, the goal of classical education is beyond teaching a student how to do a specific task, but about providing students tools, so that they are able to learn anything on their own.

To read the entire Sayers essay, go to the following link:

http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html