My wife is attempting to train our children in the classical style. It has cost her a great amount of time in researching books, lists of books, curricula (which are also largely lists of books), and different ideas on what to cut and what to include.
Some say the focus is on character such as Charlotte Mason: An honorable child who can regulate himself, his passions, and his heart—this is the goal of education. Some say the focus is on the good, true, and beautiful such as Andrew Kern: A child who can balance the virtues needed to be a wise citizen. Some say the focus ought to be on Christianity such as Kevin Swanson: A child who has mastered the Bible and church history.
What kind of child are we trying to produce with our understanding of classical education? Or in other words, Why are our children reading the works of pagans such as Homer, Herodotus, Aristotle, and Julius Caesar, or Catholics such as Aquinas and Anselm?
A one-word answer is Excellence. Or another would be Permanent. There could be other simple summaries, but we desire our children to be formed by the “things which cannot be shaken.” Amy and I are looking at the world and looking at history and wondering—along with so many other parents: Why don’t we have any more J. S. Bach’s today? Where are the Rembrandt’s? Why don’t we have any Thomas Jefferson’s running for office? How can I raise a William Carey in my home?
If you took all four of those men and tried to find the similarity between them, what would you call it? What made such glorious paintings, architecture, mission work, and political wisdom come to the surface? Richard Weaver called it, “the metaphysical dream.” Perhaps there is a better name: Christian culture, or enduring culture, or classical culture. We see clearly that there is this common thread binding such men, and that is what we want for our children. It is the aim of our training. It is in my eyes as a father when I pray and start discussions and counsel toward future marriage.
We want to look very carefully at Augustine, Luther, Milton, Washington, Mendelssohn, and Lloyd-Jones, and then when we have found the great similarity in all these men, we want to squeeze it out, bottle it up, and bake it into the cake that is the lives of our children.
So we are planning that our children (and our first already has) read the 10,000 lines of Dante’s amazing Divine Comedy not because he is accurate at all points, but because he had that something that marks these other men—he saw life through the metaphysical dream. His writing was permanent, and it has already lived over 700 years. His pictures are fundamentally Biblical, Christian, and will last into Heaven. I hope they will make our children soulwinners like Charles Spurgeon whether they go into plumbing, office work, politics, or missions.
Homer’s use of language, his reflection on the nature of man, and his pictures—these traits, so difficult to defend in the modern world, are why we have our children read the Iliad and the Odyssey even though some of the actions or lines in these epics are sinful. We believe the positive qualities are permanent, or classical. We think that this is the string tying together the examples listed above.
The Greek philosophers before Christ were masters of abstract thought. This habit of mind is permanent. It is like building with marble rather than bricks made from cement, and so we want our children somehow to have this as well. We believe our children will get more out of Hebrews having read Plato.
Of course, we are Christians, so the Bible is read each day multiple times. If we only had one book, it would be the Best of Books, and we are confident that One would be enough. Yet these other tools hold the gates open more widely so that more and more of the Bible can get in the city. Permanent, classic, enduring works act as a pump to increase the flow of Scripture and Scriptural ideas so that the reservoir is full.
Our aim is to make Puritans who knew Scripture so well and yet could write and act so that their words deserved to be preserved. Our aim is to make good citizens who, if everyone else were like them, would make a Christian society. Our aim is to make men who deserve to be on the world stage, but are quite content to be hidden in a small village for the sake of the elect.
We are not claiming excellence or perfection, but merely that we aim for whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, and excellent in our choices of education.
That is what we mean by classical education, and on Mother’s Day, I thank God for a woman who inspired me to raise our children in this way. The world is dark and getting darker, but may our Father make our kids salt and light so that when He comes, He will find faith in this family.
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