Trinitas Blog

At a recent Annual Parent Meeting, Trinitas father and board member, Pastor Jon Mark Olesky, reminded us of the timely importance of Christian parents educating their children to engage their world. This is the first of three posts containing his comments.

“I don’t want to bring kids into this evil culture” is something I have heard more than once. Well-meaning Christians have long questioned the wisdom of bringing children into a fallen world. And while this hesitation might seem prudent, God doesn’t hesitate to command husband and wife, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28; 9:1). The earth is, no longer a utopian Eden, but a post-Eden wilderness, what the New Testament calls “Babylon” (Rev 17:5, 1 Pet 5:13-14). This Babylonian context isn’t foreign to children raised in covenant homes. The historical nation of Babylon was where the Jewish exiles were sent. Of those exiles, the most notable were four Jewish “youths… Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah” (or their Babylonian names) “Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego” (Dan 1:1-7).

As a father of five, I am greatly concerned with the cultivation of virtue in the hearts of my children. Frequent thought and active parenting has been invested in training my children in honesty, diligence, self-control, and respect. The lack of these virtues is tough to disguise. When children are disrespectful and lazy, succumbing to every desire of their flesh, they create what my mother would refer to as “a scene.” Yet behind the more common virtues, lies one that receives precious little airtime – Piety.

The pursuit of wisdom consists of basic things: reading boni libris, competing with a charitable heart on the field, turning in commonplace books, parsing Latin and Greek, working out complex Calculus problems, reciting poetry, memorizing Scripture, crafting essays, exercising your vocal cords in choir, and submitting your best art (even if you don’t think you’re much of an artist). Well, maybe it is better to say that these are the concrete ways you will pursue those lofty aims advocated by Aristotle, namely phronesis and techne. Both of them are arts aimed at the cultivation of the soul, phronesis meaning moral virtue, and techne meaning skilled virtue. Morals and skills. Or to use Paul’s language, “by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).

The Association of Classical and Christian Schools (ACCS) is the only accrediting body in the country that caters exclusively to classical Christian schools like Trinitas. Although the organization has over three hundred member schools, only a small fraction of those schools have met the rigorous standards required to become accredited. Trinitas has been associated with the ACCS since the school's founding over twenty years ago and has been an accredited member for over half that time.

Of course, a school doesn't have to be accredited to be a good school - there are many smaller classical Christian schools that offer an excellent education - but accreditation with the ACCS does assure parents that the school is committed to the highest standards of excellence in its pursuit of classical and Christ-centered education.

Mathematics is one subject that is commonly taught in many classical Christian schools just as it is in other American schools. By adopting Calculus for Everyone: Understanding the Mathematics of Change by Dr. Mitch Stokes, Trinitas will be demonstrating to our students the importance of mathematics in the broader western culture, and in particular, to philosophy.

            Thank you so much for that kind introduction. Before we begin, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to the administration and to all the senior class parents for providing me the opportunity to speak to these graduating seniors before you all tonight. And I would be terribly amiss if I did not congratulate you, seniors, on the many accomplishments that have brought you to this very place on this momentous evening. My purpose this evening is two-fold and somewhat paradoxical in nature. On the one hand, my job is to remind you that all of this evening is about you. On the other hand, my job is to remind you that none of this is about you, at all. Like I said, somewhat paradoxical. But there is a method to this madness, and I hope to demonstrate as much over the course of the next few minutes. There are many things I could say to you this evening; in truth, there are many things that ought to be said to you this evening, but that’s what all these good people are for. Lord knows I’ll need the backup. Yes, there are many paths we could tread, but I thought it best to stick to one rather familiar to you, and to me as well. Our progression this evening will follow a sort of timeline: First, we’ll revisit the past, taking great pains to put a very fine point on just what it is that you have been doing here at Trinitas for the past 6, 8, 10—and for some of you—13 years of your life; next, we’ll pause and ponder the precise precipice upon which you are perched, at present; and finally, we’ll look to the future, daring, even, to prescribe what must be next. So, let’s roll back the clock.

In his book Norms & Nobility, lifelong scholar and educator David Hicks asserts that right thinking ought to lead to right acting. The idea is that a proper education should lead one to think rightly about the world and everything in it, and that such thinking should be followed by actions that are in accord with it. Proverbs 23:7 comes to mind, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” The passage refers to a miser or one who has an evil eye, but the principle also extends to the kind of people who are generous and don’t have evil eyes. It is just the way people work.

We live in an age wherein people are known by the ideologies to which they subscribe. I expect it has always been that way to some extent. People readily label other people. Labeling helps keep people sorted into neat categories so we know what we ought to think of them without bothering to get to know them. Racism is one of the first products of this labeling and sorting, but the sorting goes on ad infinitum and includes ideologies. It is the mark of an unthinking and unloving people. Possibly, it may merely appear more prevalent or more rancorous today simply because we have more and more sophisticated tools in this age with which to distinguish ourselves from those whose ideologies differ from ours. We frequently speak of our own country, for example, as one becoming more and more “polarized,” especially regarding politics.