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.

Education founded on humanism or relativism or anything apart from the God of the universe is like a house built on sand—it simply cannot stand. Because we teach all subjects as an integrated whole with the Scriptures at the center, we have a standard by which we can measure all things. Because we believe in the absolute truth of Scripture, we can discern between truth, beauty, and goodness on the one hand and the counterfeit offered by the world on the other. Not only does this way of thinking give us the freedom and the filter to read men such as Rousseau and Hitler, but it spills over into our every action and causes us to desire a culture of truth, beauty, and goodness around us.

This is exactly the culture we seek to create at Trinitas, a culture based on grace and charity toward one another as we live in community together, breathing each other’s air and bearing each other’s burdens. It plays out every day in these classrooms and in these halls. It spills out onto the playground and the athletic fields. You see it in students encouraging one another to lift their voices in song during morning meeting; in spontaneous Psalm-singing in the halls between classes; in a boy helping his classmate pick up her spilled Latin card box; in a sixth-grade girl helping a kindergartner microwave his lunch; and in the captain of the volleyball team telling a player not to worry about a shot she missed. Now you, yourselves, know how these scenes I’ve just mentioned might have been different in a government school, but I dare not draw a direct comparison—this is the part that should be self-explanatory. So when you consider what happens here as compared to what might happen elsewhere, it becomes obvious that the why we teach creates a culture at Trinitas that is distinctly different, distinctly Christ-centered. And this difference comes not from any good in us, but by the grace of God as we seek to honor Him in what we are doing here.

So there you have it: Trinitas is distinctly different in our classical pedagogy, in our classical content, and in our Christ-centered instruction; and all of these things contribute to our distinctly different Christ-centered culture. But we don’t set out to be different so that we can have something to say on our billboards and yard signs. Nor do we set out to be different just so that we can maintain peace in this building or order in the classroom; though, those things are valuable too. We set out to be different because as Christians God has called us to something different.

We cultivate that very Christian, that very different culture here, not so that we can keep it all locked up in this building, but so that we can release it into the world like salt and light or like flowers that, though they may be hidden, bring a sweet aroma wherever they are placed. Our hope is that this place would turn inside out at the end of every school day and that this distinctly different, distinctly Christian culture would spill out into the world, making it a sweeter place to be. What should you look for in a Christian school? Pedagogy, content, and culture that don’t just win the school for Christ, but win the world for Christ.