Trinitas Blog

Well, it’s that time of year again. Thousands of people—no, millions of people—woke up on New Year’s Day and resolved either to stop a bad habit or to start a good one. Some probably resolved to do both. According to various sources on the ever accurate and reliable internet, some of the most common resolutions Americans make on any given New Year’s Day are to lose weight, get fit, quit smoking, get organized, spend more time with family, get out of debt, or learn something new.

A pretty famous guy once said that the goal of a good education is not to make one think right, but to make one act right. I’m paraphrasing, of course. I can’t recall the exact quote or the name of the fellow who uttered it, but the gist of it is hard to forget. Now, we all know that education does not save—only Jesus can do that—but education can and does form virtue in students when it is done well by parents and teachers; and virtuous students, after all, are students who act right. Last week I asserted that a good education teaches “a way of being.” Another way of saying it is to say that a good education forms virtue in students so that they not only think right, but they also act right. And what better way to form virtue than by reading old books?

Perhaps we should ponder the meaning of the word “education” before we try to discern what a good education is. The word is derived from the Latin infinitive educāre or educere or a combination of the two. Either way, the word carries the meaning “to lead” or even “to lead out.” Understood this way, it is easy to see that any good education must lead the learner to something. Anything that claims to be education but is passive in its application, perhaps allowing the learner to find his own way, isn’t exactly education. To be educated then is to necessarily be led out of ignorance and into a particular knowledge, a particular way of understanding that produces wisdom. Such is a proper classical Christian education.

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

At Trinitas, we ask students to complete a minimum of 160 hours of service during their high school years. This amounts to forty hours each year—more is okay, less is not an option. In fact, to say that we “ask” students to complete 160 servant hours is an understatement; rather, it is a requirement of graduation. Completing 150 servant hours instead of the 160 disqualifies even the would-be valedictorian from graduating—the same as failing Traditio or failing to write and defend a senior thesis would keep one from graduating.

When Janice and I visited Trinitas Christian School at the invitation of Justice Ken Bell (father of three Trinitas alums) fourteen years ago, it wasn’t because we were looking for classical education. We were looking for Christian education to be sure, but we didn’t even know enough about classical education to ask a good question about it. Seeing was believing for us that day though, and one tour of the school during a normal day of classes convinced us that this classical education was worth a try.

So let’s imagine we’ve been recruited to play a game. We didn’t volunteer, we were recruited. Saying no wasn’t an option. In this game we get dropped off in a strange alternate reality where we understand nothing. The people are speaking our language, but they’re using a lot of words and phrases and references we don’t understand. They only laugh at us when we ask questions, but mostly they ignore us. There are a dozen of us so we have some comfort in our numbers, but none of us understands how to get along in this strange place. Before we were dropped off in this alternate reality, we were told that to win the game, to get back home, we must make it to the Good City, and to be careful along the way. We were given no map and no further instruction.

Excerpt 3 of 3 of Headmaster Gilley's address at Parent Orientation

Click for Excerpt 1 of 3.
Click for Excerpt 2 of 3.

We start by giving children a safe place to grow and mature and flourish in the warm glow of the Gospel so that they might prosper in a virtuous childhood, growing confident and bold in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, learning to laugh loud, boisterous belly laughs, and to revel in the joy of being sons and daughters of the King.