A Pathway to Flourishing
As parents, when it comes to the education our children receive, we have a plethora of options to choose from here in the Tampa Bay area. From public to private, faith based to non-sectarian, our region offers an array of educational styles and methods, ranging from traditional to progressive. Simply put, we don’t suffer from a lack of educational options.
In a region full of educational choices, parents often ask me to succinctly explain our educational distinctives as a school. Rightfully so, as parents, we want to know the advantages of attending a classical Christian school, we want to know the value proposition a school such as ours offers students and families.
So, what makes Paideia distinct? What do we offer that is truly unique from all the other schools in our area? To answer this important question, we need to travel down a well-worn path, the same path that Galileo, Martin Luther, John Adams, Albert Einstein and many other great minds traveled upon.
It’s a path that leads us back to the roots of our classical Christian education, to a seed that was first planted by the early Greeks. This seed, in the form of education, was known as Paideia (It’s why we chose our name as a school). It was an educational system that focused on developing and producing well-rounded, fully educated citizens with a keen eye for cultivating wisdom and virtue.
Today, this educational seed is known as a liberal arts education and it continues to be a pathway aimed at cultivating and nourishing the human soul on truth, goodness and beauty as it corresponds to God and His world. For us, much like the ancients and great teachers of the past, we understand the liberal arts to be more than subjects to study and master, but sure and effective ways of forming wisdom, eloquence and virtue in the soul of our students.
As a school, we have the privilege of carrying on this long and great tradition of education. What started with the Greek and Roman civilizations has continued to grow and evolve into a compelling and robust form of education for today’s student.
Part of what makes a classical Christian education so powerful is that it has a clear unifying principle – Jesus. He is our standard for truth, goodness and beauty and is the one that makes true knowledge possible, holding it all together (John 1:1-18). Having this understanding and foundation brings order to all that we teach and learn. It allows us to emphasize the inter-relationship of knowledge because all truth is God’s truth and there are no disconnected facts.
Abraham Kuyper captured this truth well when he wrote, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, mine!”
In light of this reality, all knowledge becomes like a spider-web rather than a chest of drawers. Every field of knowledge, every subject, is related to each other, and points back to Christ because He is Lord of all. He is the center of our “learning web” and holds all things together as we study history, memorize math facts and imitate beautiful works of art.
Even more, a classical Christian education does not separate the sacred from the secular in the classroom. Instead, we integrate our faith into every subject we teach, which in turn, allows us to cultivate into the hearts, minds and souls of our students a God-dominated imagination.
In the end, our students have the privilege of traveling along the well-worn pathway of classical Christian education, carefully gazing upon all that is good, true and beautiful, so that their minds are equipped, their souls tuned, and their loves shaped to the glory of God. It’s an educational journey that places them on a pathway for life-long learning and flourishing.
