Crossville Christian School

Most parents probably have a fairly accurate mental picture of a "Christian school": a private school, not bound by secular political correctness, where language, science, and history are taught from a Christian worldview. Just as a catchphrase, the term "classical education" may not mean much to most non-educators. On the other hand, most adults today recognize the classical style when it's described to them, usually with a comment like, "Oh, yes, I had a teacher like that --- Mrs. Johnson. That was 20 years ago, but I still remember tons from her class. She really taught us to think!"

In brief, a classical education teaches children, through styles appropriate to their development, how to think and how to learn, not just what to know.

Until the 1920's, most American public schools were essentially classical schools (although this term was not used at the time). Elementary education, while hopefully instilling an appreciation for our Western literary and cultural heritage, aimed to create lifelong learners of all children, so that even someone with only a 6th grade education could continue using those intellectual tools in whatever his or her future pursuits. High schools aimed at preparing young people for college, law, medicine, or seminary.

In the first decades of the last century, the public education system began to move towards a different standard. Pressed for time, money, and resources, most school systems did little to reward creativity in their teachers. Teachers began to emphasize rote recall of facts so their students would "test well" (thus ensuring the teacher's retention.) A student who recited facts in the approved manner would be commended with an "A"; a student who did not follow the dictated form would be penalized with a lower grade, even if his or her understanding was superior. (Sound like Pavlov's dog experiments? Not so astonishingly, this educational paradigm has roots in Darwinism and is called "the behavioral model.") High school became less of a proving ground for college and more a place where teens would "meet their psychological needs."

The classical mode, used at CCS, recognizes that children of different ages learn differently and is successful because it uses a child's developmental stages to its advantage. It comprises three phases ("the Trivium"):

1. Grammar (early childhood through elementary school years) emphasizes the structure of things: what the parts are called, how they are put together, and how they work. Since younger children enjoy chanting and reciting, these tools are used to teach the basic structure and function of words, numbers, scientific principles, etc.
2. Logic (middle school years) emphasize the use of things. Principles of language, math, and science learned in the first stage are now applied towards problem solving: algebra problems, riddles, science experiments, etc. This age group enjoys challenges, puzzles, and questioning.
3. Rhetoric (high school years) emphasizes the clear expression of things. Naturally this includes essays, speech and debate, but also carefully written science lab reports and detailed justification of math problems, at an age when young people long for self-expression.