Trinitas Blog

My wife and I have attended an unusual number of weddings over the past few months. Far from being a burden, I consider our attendance at these glorious events a blessing. After the most recent wedding, I remarked to my family that every wedding like that one strikes a blow for the kingdom of God. Whatever do I mean by that? And what does this have to do with classical Christian education or Trinitas Christian School?

A couple weeks ago I made Trinitas families aware of a few openings we still have for students in the grammar school and asked them to invite families similar to theirs who share their beliefs and values about Christian education to come check out Trinitas. Most of them don’t have an hour and a half to tell their friends about the school, though, so I thought an elevator speech might prove helpful.

A Trinitas board member sent me an interesting article recently, entitled “When Knights Surrender Their Swords, Beasts Will Devour Maidens.” The author, Paul Bois, has written hundreds of articles expositing the Christian perspective on a host of political and social issues. I haven’t read them all, but this one had a solid message.

The subject of the article was this Weinstein fellow who is in so much hot water recently for taking advantage of young women in the movie business. I have little to add to that conversation, but I do want to comment on Bois’s theme. Reduced to its essence, his assertion is that this sort of thing is happening in our society because we allow it.

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.

“I wasted time and now doth time waste me.” This is the lament of Shakespeare’s King Richard II. He was an idle and indecisive king whose crown was stolen from him because he wasted his past, and as he speaks these words he anticipates living out the rest of his days in prison or exile.  Another of Shakespeare’s great figures, Hamlet, is also famous for wasting time. After the ghost of his father appears and burdens him with the urgent task of vengeance, Hamlet spends the next four acts of the play finding excuses not to go through with it, because he fears what the future might hold.

If you are Christian Educator, you are an idealist by nature. In your mind, students should have a passionate/ burning desire to learn. You want your classes abuzz with vibrant discussion and thought provoking dialogue. You expect your students to be fully prepared coming into every class. Even more, as the teacher, you hope that they come with questions that challenge you and push you to become a better communicator of truth.

At least this was my mindset entering into a teaching career. But after a few years of teaching, I was completely disabused of my idealist tendencies. None of my expectations panned out. I found that students were often frustrated with the learning process. My classes were not vibrant centers for discussion and thought provoking dialogue. Students (the majority of them) were not prepared for class. And as for being challenged by my students, I found myself more jaded as a teacher than spurred on.

The parent of a senior shared this story with me this week. The scene – after school; the student has something in a plastic bag.

Parent: “Whatcha got?”

Student: “Oh. That’s my… robe and……… helmet.” (Cap and gown)

Parent: “Classically trained, indeed.”

My father-in-law once told me that the saints of God will be the only ones singing in heaven. "What about the angels?" I asked. Without losing stride, he replied that nowhere does the Bible say that angels sing. They declare, they praise, they worship; he said, but they don't sing.

Now I've not checked all the references to determine whether or not my father-in-law's claim is true, but even so there is something important about his observation: the human voice is a unique instrument among God's creatures, and it is most uniquely played in the singing of songs.