Trinitas Blog

Our junior and senior classes have just returned from twelve days in Greece and Italy. Some schools would call it a junior-senior trip; we call it the Classical Heritage Tour. On a Trinitas aesthetics trip the main mission is to discover beauty that we can’t discover at home. For twenty years, these trips were to New York City and Washington DC on alternating years, but now, for the first time, Trinitas students were able to travel abroad and experience the music, dance, art, architecture, and food that has been foundational to their classical education.

The most recent Trinitas Father & Son Camping Trip was one for the books. This annual event was attended by over one hundred young men and their fathers and one serious rain storm. Even while the weather forecast worsened in the days leading up to the storm, Trinitas parents were reminded by visiting speaker Keith McCurdy that difficulties and challenges are essential to the growth and development of sturdy young men.

What a joy it is to see the sunrise over the Escambia River on my way to school each morning! These first glimpses of the sun dispelling the darkness remind me of the resurrection and the new life we have in Christ. I am especially thankful to have the Trinitas community with whom to celebrate that Good News.

During the past few weeks, I have been highlighting some reasons families have left Trinitas, which seems like a dangerous undertaking. I’m not trying to scare people away, of course. My reason for doing this short series is that I want to communicate who Trinitas is to families who want the sort of education we’re offering. One way to do that is by thrusting into the spotlight some of the school’s characteristics that have been breaking points for families in the past. This is the last installment.

#1 The standards are too high!

#2 Trinitas is weak on math!

#3 All that classical stuff is useless in the real world!

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!

As the tryptophan subsides, can we take a moment to reflect on what is perhaps the greatest of purely American holidays? Thanksgiving is a holiday born of good intention in that it is noble to set aside a whole day to give thanks to God for His provision for us. As Christians, we would do well to remember that we should be thankful every day and should live lives of thanksgiving before God, for every breath we take comes to us as a providence of our good and loving God.

“It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.” J.R.R. Tolkien

If anyone understood the idea of fortitude, it was Tolkien. We all thrill at the moments when Gandolf, Boromir, Éowyn, and Merry face adversaries so fierce and terrible that victory seems impossible. Those mighty battles that keep us turning pages long into the night impress on us the valor of fortitude in a way that only story can accomplish. Although we will very likely never have to face real Orcs, dark wizards, and giant spiders, our own seasons of darkness and trouble that we will encounter are undoubtedly made bearable or unbearable according to the measure of fortitude that we have. It is a virtue cultivated in us by our parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and others in our lives. The great stories that we read at Trinitas are just one way that we endeavor to instill virtue in the hearts of our young men and women.

When asked which is the “great commandment?” Jesus tells those gathered to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then he says the second, which is like it, is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Astonishing the hearers, Jesus confirms that all the law and the prophets can be summed up in those two commandments (Matt 22:36-40).