In schools which distinguish themselves as classical and Christian, there are several things which set them apart. Among them are a curriculum focused on the trivium and quadrivium, learning Latin, discussing the great works, and growing in understanding of math and science, among other distinctives.
More importantly, though, than the academic rigor of classical Christian schools, though, is the focus on a preparation for a life lived in service to God and others. That is a process in which we as classical Christian educators’ partner with parents to guide our students to shape their affections and to order their habits correctly so they may fully understand what it means to live for and serve our Savior.
An analogy may be helpful - we are looking to shape, to cultivate, the affections of our students and their habits as a potter or sculpter does to clay or marble.
Famously, Augustine of Hippo wrote in his seminal work City of God about this very concept:
And thus beauty, which is indeed God’s handiwork, but only a temporal, carnal, and lower kind of good, is not fitly loved in preference to God, the eternal, spiritual, and unchangeable good. . . . For though it be good, it may be loved with an evil as well as with a good love: it is loved rightly when it is loved ordinately; evilly, when inordinately. . . . But if the Creator is truly loved, that is, if He Himself is loved and not another thing in His stead, He cannot be evilly loved; for love itself is to be ordinately loved, because we do well to love that which, when we love it, makes us live well and virtuously. So that it seems to me that it is a brief but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love.
In classical Christian schools, then, the shaping of affections and the ordering of loves is crucial to any school’s mission statement. For what purpose does a school exist if not to carry out a specific mission?
From there, the culture created and preserved in a school should have the broader goal of guiding and leading students in a way that points them heavenward.
How do we go about this task in a world that relies on immediate answers, gratification, and the work of social media influencers all competing for the attention and affection of our students?
Therein lies the hard work and joy of the classical Christian world. We purposefully and methodically look at each aspect of our culture, our curricula, and our programs to ensure they follow the mission of the school and are tools to help our students properly shape their affections and order their loves.
We talk often about the transcendent concepts of things that are good, true, and beautiful. We instruct our students with a desire for them to have a sense of wonder and to take joy in the process of their preparation amidst the rigor of their studies.
Those words, though, are more than terms we toss about glibly.
They are the results of a process of overtly pointing our students to things that are truly good and beautiful – those things, to paraphrase Augustine, that are of God. The created world reflects Him and, therefore, we should see in it the very things He called good.
To shape one’s affections, we ensure they have examples of their teachers who seek to live a life marked by virtue and service. In lessons and conversations, in classes and on athletic fields, we deliberately point our students to partake in the thoughts and actions that magnify and worship our Savior by showing them where they can order their loves.
What an honor and privilege to partner with parents and families to shape and to order the affections and loves of our students to impact this world for Jesus Christ.