Trinitas Blog

Any organization that is serious about building and then guarding a particular culture is going to have a certain rubric for what kind of folks it invites to join the organization. Trinitas is that kind of organization. If Trinitas were a university, the admissions process would be labeled “highly selective” by the agencies that report on such things. Trinitas’s selectivity, though, is not based on GPA, test scores, or even IQ tests. Nor is it based on tax bracket, neighborhood, or make and model of the family’s transportation. Now, to be fair, students must be able to succeed academically, and families must be able to pay tuition in order to be enrolled at Trinitas, but those aren’t the first determiners for who is admitted and who isn’t. The first determiner is like-mindedness with the school, and this is assessed in the Trinitas Family Conference.

Choosing a school for your children is one of the most important decisions you will make. Only the home and church affect the upbringing and therefore the child's future as much as the school he or she attends. Think about it: from kindergarten through twelfth grade, a child spends more than 16,000 hours in school, and that doesn’t count homework, studying with school friends, or extra-curricular activities organized and managed by the school. Sleeping is the only other single activity that will consume as much of your child’s time during that season of life.

When Trinitas Christian School opened its doors in 1999, we were the only classical, Christ-centered school in Northwest Florida. In the quarter-century since then, this unique form of education has exploded all across the country and even more so in Northwest Florida with nearly a dozen classical schools in operation. Over the years, I have expended much energy trying to convince parents not only how but also why Trinitas Christian School is different from other schools. It is hard to gauge how many people I have persuaded. I am painfully aware at times, though, that I have persuaded at least a few people in the Pensacola area that Trinitas is different, and that they view that difference suspiciously as if they think we are conducting some kind of weird and isolated experiment here with this classical Christian stuff.

Last week we started a series about classical parents. The word we used to describe parents who choose classical Christian education for their children is dedicated. In the first installment, we said classical parents are dedicated in at least three distinct ways, and we explored the first way: classical parents are dedicated in the way they buck the system, or go against the grain of modern, progressive education. This week we begin to get to the heart of classical parents as we discuss how they are dedicated to participating in their children’s education.

People come and people go. That is a truth in any community. It is human nature, I suppose to some extent, for people to get interested in a thing, even convinced about a thing, then lose interest or become unconvinced over time. Maybe we just have a short (and shortening) attention span. Because it is enrollment season, though, and families are deciding whether or not their children ought to attend Trinitas next year, I am spending a few weeks focusing on some of the top reasons people give for losing interest in and leaving Trinitas. This is the third of four such installments, and I hope you find it helpful if you are trying to make an enrollment decision.

#1 The standards are too high!

#2 Trinitas is weak on math!

People come and people go. That is a truth in any community. It is human nature, I suppose to some extent, for people to get interested in a thing, even convinced about a thing, then lose interest or become unconvinced over time. Maybe we just have a short (and shortening) attention span. Because it is enrollment season, though, and families are deciding whether or not their children ought to attend Trinitas next year, I am spending the next few weeks focusing on some of the top reasons people give for losing interest in and leaving Trinitas. This is the second of four such installments, and I hope you find it helpful if you are trying to make an enrollment decision.

#1 The standards are too high!

Classical educators are sometimes questioned about why we teach Latin and Greek to 21st-century students, and so I have used this space from time to time to offer an apologia for teaching those classical languages. And more of that is exactly what I intend to do now. Someone will protest and say, “Why do we need this explained to us again?” It is always good to be reminded why we do good things.

Those with a utilitarian view of language often apply pressure on classical schools to teach something “useful”: Spanish, for instance; French, if you must; Chinese, if you can. Those are all lovely and useful languages. If we were a large, wealthy school with a “Foreign Language Department,” we would happily teach all of those languages as electives, but do you know what we would continue to require for all our classical students? Latin and Greek and lots of it.

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.