In this video, Scott Postma answers the question, What is a Classical Christian Education?
In a nutshell, Classical Christian education (CCE) stands in the historic tradition of the liberal arts with an aim toward human flourishing. It further stands in opposition to the modern progressivists’ pedagogy and slavish agenda of job training. Though CCE has been mildly dynamic, it has been a stable tradition, lasting in its approach for more than two millennia of Western civilization. Kepler Education takes the position that a CCE strives to glean the best of Western liberal education in every epoch.
1. The first characteristic of a CCE is the development and cultivation of a biblical worldview or Paideia
2. The second characteristic of a CCE is its focus on a liberal or humane education.
3. The third characteristic of CCE is a pedagogical method that follows the order of the medieval seven liberal arts, mainly as it relates to a child’s development but also as an approach to teaching all subject matter.
4. The fourth characteristic recognizes the pedagogical approach must be applied to something. In other words, CCE is more than a pedagogy, it is a pedagogy applied to a specific pool of knowledge, the best of what has been thought and written in the last two-and-a-half millennia of the Western tradition.
5. The fifth characteristic of CCE is the study of classical languages, including Greek and especially Latin.
6. The sixth element is teaching students with the goal of fostering virtue and wisdom instead of helping them merely accumulate disconnected facts.
7. The seventh characteristic has already been alluded to in relation to at least two other characteristics, namely in that students read primary sources and classical languages are essential; but it would be remiss not to emphasize the fact that CCE is language-focused learning rather than image-focused learning.