Trinitas Blog

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.

We continue our classical parents series this week, discussing how parents who choose a classical Christian education for their children are dedicated. The first week we established that classical parents have to be dedicated to going against the status quo in education because cCe is so different from the education most of us are most familiar with. Last week parent participation was the topic. Classical parents are dedicated to participating in their children’s education, and they are invited and encouraged to do just that in cCe schools. This week we will close out the series for now by discussing the most important of three ways classical parents are dedicated: they are dedicated to the role of the Scriptures in the education of their children.

Classical Christian schools can come across as pretty odd to most folks. While Latin can still be found in other private and public schools, not many schools teach six years of it. (I know of one classical Christian school that teaches eleven years of Latin.) And good books can certainly be found in other private and public schools, but not very many will read Homer, Virgil, Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, and Nietzsche. Memory is part of learning no matter what kind of school one attends, but not many schools will memorize hundreds of lines of prose, poetry, and Scripture every year. So yes, classical Christian schools can come across as odd even if only because of differences like these.

I often find myself urging Christian parents to consider Deuteronomy 6:4-9 as a guiding principle for how they educate their children. One common objection to this assertion goes like this: We send our children to non-Christian schools so they can be salt and light to the lost children and teachers. If that’s what you think, I suggest what you’re doing is more like sending your lambs to slaughter.

The classical school approach offers a fundamentally different vision of education that families fed up with a factory approach to learning find compelling.

We are living during an age in the West, perhaps in the whole world, wherein the prevailing view of all things could best be described as utilitarian. Modern Americans, in particular, have a way of reducing most everything down to its usefulness, its efficiency, and of course, its cost. Jobs go to the lowest bidder. We buy where we get the best deal. Our books are paperback no matter the genre, dime store romance or classic. Our buildings are metal, whether serving as an auto body shop or a church. After a few years of this kind of thinking, everything begins to look the same.

Having stated that Trinitas is distinctly different in how and what we teach, let us now consider why we teach. We say that a Trinitas education is not only classical but also Christ-centered. What we mean by Christ-centered is that we teach all subjects as an integrated whole with the Scriptures at the center. We do this because we aim to help students develop a biblical worldview. We teach that there is no knowledge or understanding or wisdom apart from God.

Last week, we began to answer the question “What should you look for in a Christian school?” with a discussion of how we teach. But there is more to the distinctly-different Trinitas education including what we teach.

It is our aim at Trinitas to indoctrinate students in their western heritage by teaching them classical content rooted in the western tradition.