Thou shalt learn the classics
It's back to basics at some of Virginia's private Christian schools

by Heather B. Hayes
for Virginia Business
February 2007

Bob and Denise Maddox have solid educational backgrounds when it comes to helping their children with homework. Both hold engineering degrees and work in high-tech jobs, and Denise is bilingual.

Yet ever since the couple enrolled Evan, 11, and Melanie, 9, in Veritas Classical Christian School in Richmond, Denise has worried that the day will come when her children will ask a school-related question that she can't answer.

That's because Veritas, like other Classical Christian schools, adheres to the Trivium, the ancient foundation of Western education, characterized by three primary subjects: grammar, logic and rhetoric. On a practical level, the methodology requires intensive study of Latin and Greek, emphasizes the reading of great literature and primary source material, and encourages the development of critical thinking skills through lessons in theology, philosophy, literature, history, formal logic and the sciences.

"I'm one of those parents who doesn't want my kid to know more than I do," says Denise. "With the curriculum they're studying, though, that's very much a danger."

As a defensive measure, Denise is engaging in study on her own. She read "The Scarlet Letter" over the summer and joined a Veritas parents' book club where selections include "Paradise Lost" by John Milton, "Fear and Trembling" by Soren Kierkegaard and "Notes from Underground" by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Not that Maddox is complaining. She is one of a growing number of parents sold on Classical Christian education, a school model that was jump-started in the early 1990s when Douglas Wilson wrote the book "Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning."

There are now 186 Classical Christian schools across the country, including 10 in Virginia, according to the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, an accrediting organization in Moscow, Idaho. Patch Blakey, the association's executive director, says that, on average, membership continues to grow nationally by 10 schools a year.

"I would say that what we're offering is definitely in high demand," says John Heaton, headmaster at New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg. New Covenant started in 1991 with just a few students and borrowed space. Now, it has more than 300 students and is preparing to build additional classrooms on its 50-acre campus so it can accommodate up to 425 students. Faith Christian School in Roanoke, established in 1997 with 47 middle and high school students, added a grammar school in fall 2004 and expects to move to its own campus this fall. Veritas, currently a K-8 school, plans a high school soon.

The appeal of this education is two-fold, say school officials. Academic rigor is one factor driving demand, but many parents are just as attracted by the fact that the educational model presents every subject in the context of a Christian worldview. Although schools accept students of most religious affiliations, they do require parents to sign a statement of Christian faith during the admissions process.

The spiritual aspects of a Classical Christian school, explains Dean Luckenbaugh, founder and president of Veritas, involve more than a Bible class and weekly attendance at chapel. "Our faith is not departmental; it's pervasive," he says.

Classical Christian education has its critics. They're found mainly among educators who contend that the academics are too extreme for children, says Samuel P. Cox, headmaster at Faith Christian School. Demanding coursework is not unique to Classical Christian schools, he says; after all, a tough curriculum has long been the hallmark of private schools.

What is unique about the approach is adherence to the Trivium, a method designed to "cut with the grain" of how children learn, explains Carol Brown, headmaster of Ad Fontes Academy in Centreville, a K-12 school with 134 students. "It's the way children were taught for centuries in Western societies," she says. Students at the grammar level, for example, are especially adept at memorization, so teachers utilize rote methods like rhythmic verse, singing and drama to help them absorb a tremendous amount of information, including basic Latin, math facts and ancient history.

"Children learn what you present to them," says Brown. "If children can memorize the crazy character names in their video games, they can certainly learn about Odysseus and Telemachus."

By middle school, when children develop the capacity for abstract thought and the ability to draw conclusions from facts, Classical Christian schools begin teaching formal logic. Students learn how to develop sound reasoning skills, construct valid arguments and detect and counter logical fallacies. "The goal of our school is not to produce 'regurgitators' who can spit out a lot of content, but independent learners and thinkers," explains Craig Bouvier, interim headmaster at Veritas.

By high school, students are starting to formulate their own views, so the coursework shifts. Students are taught how to present their views and how to defend those views, orally and in writing, with persuasion and eloquence. Seniors at many schools are even expected to write - and defend - a thesis on a debatable topic.

"When students transfer in here at the higher grades, they are amazed that we are actually interested in hearing what they think about a certain topic," says Brown.

Another hallmark of the Classical Christian school is its use of primary sources instead of textbooks. These sources include the Bible and works by Homer, Aristotle, Shakespeare and Saint Augustine. "In our history classes, students don't read about the Magna Carta, they read the actual Magna Carta," says Heaton.

Cox is quick to point out that not all Classical Christian schools are alike. Some are church-affiliated, such as Appomattox Christian Academy, which is tied to the local Anglican Church. Others are non-denominational. And while they all adhere to the Trivium, each has its own take on how - and when - to teach certain subjects.

One challenge for larger Classical Christian schools is attrition at the higher grades, despite the fact that tuition at these schools is often less than half the cost of competing private schools. Upper school students at New Covenant, for example, pay $5,595 a year, compared with $15,590 at nearby Virginia Episcopal School. Ad Fontes charges $7,700 per student in grades nine through 12, compared with $22,935 for high school students at the Flint Hill School in nearby Oakton.

Officials attribute the relatively small class sizes in the upper grades to "growing pains" and the desire of some students for a more traditional high school educational or social environment. Classical Christian schools generally don't field competitive football teams or host senior proms. In fact, students are more likely to spend after-school hours involved in Latin competition or community service activities.

And academic electives beyond classical subjects are often limited. While Summit Christian Academy in Yorktown and Faith Christian School offer Spanish at the high-school level, other schools can't spare the academic time or resources to provide study in foreign languages beyond Latin and Greek. Advanced Placement courses are available at some schools but usually only in basic subjects such as U.S. history, English and calculus.

Still, students who attend their high school years at Classical Christian schools perform well on college preparation exams. The 51 students who graduated from New Covenant since 2001, for example, scored an average of 1270 on their SAT exams (300 above the national average) and seven were chosen as National Merit Scholarship finalists.

Graduates of Faith Christian School have averaged above 1300 on their SAT scores and all of them have been accepted into their first choice of colleges, including New York University, the University of North Carolina and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Graduates of Ad Fontes Academy, meanwhile, have gone on to the Air Force Academy, Boston University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Peter Joslyn, a 2002 graduate of New Covenant who transferred from a local parochial school in the ninth grade, says that classical education gave him the skills he needed to succeed at college. In fact, when he began studying ancient Greek at Wabash College in Indiana, he was struck by how advanced his composition and expression skills were. He ended up tutoring many of his classmates in writing - officially and non-officially - for four years.

As a result of his collegiate experience, 22-year-old Joslyn has come full circle. This fall he became the newest faculty member at New Covenant, teaching high school-level Greek, Latin, English and philosophy courses. "I decided that I wanted to provide that benefit to others."