Benefit Two: Preparation for Life
In a previous post, I began a new series on the benefits of a Classical Christian education based on an article by Arcadia Education that highlighted nine primary benefits as the classical education movement is gaining recognition and steam in the United States and beyond.
This second article takes the list from Arcadia and goes out of order, as I want to address their seventh benefit – “Preparation for Life”. The Arcadia findings on this note that
“Classical schools prepare students for higher education, rewarding careers, and healthy life choices in an integrated, international fashion that extends from curricular content and teaching methods. There is no watering down for students who are perceived as incapable of succeeding, but rather, an elevating up with the deeply held conviction that all humans are capable of achieving great heights.”
This is not only a benefit of a classical education, as Arcadia rightly points out, but it is an essential aspect of a school that is both classical and Christian, as a great segment of this movement is at present. In schools that profess Christianity as their basis and classical as their methodology, we are preparing our students for life in the most foundational ways. We would reflect the prophet Micah (6:8) when he notes,
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Our goal, therefore, is not to prepare only for collegiate matriculation, but to prepare body, mind, and soul for a life that is marked by service to God out of obedience and faith to Him as our Creator and Savior.
Students who graduate from classical and Christian schools are not tested only on their college preparedness, but on their readiness to enter life in a world that rejects much of what we hold dear and believe.
We are seeking to ensure students thrive and flourish in their lives and in the calling God has for them, whether that be through college, career, family, church life, and the combination of any and all of those pursuits.
Noting the introduction to the great work by Kevin Clark and Ravi Jain titled The Liberal Arts Tradition, classical Christian schools seek
“truth for its own sake, not primarily for pragmatic uses. It [a liberal arts education] aims at wisdom, not wealth. It makes its graduates philosophers instead of millionaires. This is also true. But it’s not a fault. As [G.K.] Chesterton says, ‘Man’s most practical need is to be more than a pragmatist.’”
Do students from classical Christian schools go to college? Do they do well there? They certainly do. I would encourage the Good Soil Report from the Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS) and the University of Notre Dame that does some great work in explaining how prepared students at classical Christian schools are that choose to go to college or university based on the foundational training they received at home, in church, and through classical Christian schools.
Among our preparation goals is the attaining of wisdom. For a great summary of this, consider reading this article by Eric Cook, the president of the Society for Classical Learning (SCL). Cook’s thesis is that “If wisdom is not the purpose of the education most of us received and yet it is the essential purpose of a classical Christian education (CCE), we need to understand it more clearly.”
Many of our parents, teachers, donors, etc., may not (many may have!) received an education rooted in wisdom and the cultivation of virtue. What a true gift we are giving to this generation through this insistence on wisdom.
Finally, as we prepare our students for life, we are seeking to remove the additional stress and anxiety that accompanies so much of the college application cycle. Some interesting reading on this topic, from a purely secular point of view, comes from Jennifer Breheny Wallace’s new book, Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic – and What We Can Do About It.
Our students should be driven primarily by a desire to serve God out of love for Him and then to reflect His love to the world – this is truly the eternal perspective we provide as a preparation for life.