A New School Year

A new school year marks excitement for some, seeing old classmates and the prospect of establishing friendship with new classmates. For others, it is a time of anxiety due to the fear of entering a new environment. We are to pray about everything and worry about nothing, trusting in God to intervene in quiet, wholesome ways. But the Bible is not only insightful regarding living but also for learning. God wants us to be wise, which is the right use of knowledge. The objective of wisdom is virtue; thus the ultimate goal of learning is virtue. Virtue used to be the goal of education, being in the motto of US universities over 150 years old, and the center of classical education since the Greco-Roman age. However, classical education has been replaced by progressive education, displacing virtue from schools. With vice taking virtue’s seat in our education system, it is no surprise that our schools are plagued with bullying, gun violence, gangs, political correctness, teen pregnancy, provocative dress, loss of classroom discipline and rebellious attitudes. A return to classical education and its emphasis on virtue will restore the balance.

The Appreciation Of Virtue. Acquiring virtue is priceless;there is more to education than teaching a person how to make a living, but also teaching how to live. Virtue gives an appreciation of beauty, not only the beauty of art and a symphony, but also the beauty of self-sacrifice, compassion and heroism.

The Appropriation Of Virtue. When education is virtue based, then the student develops a passion for virtues as a whole. Those virtue passions will help direct their choice of vocation. Virtue is a higher motivation that transcends money. When we are virtue driven, the culture is strengthened, but when the educational system is virtue negligent, the culture is weakened.

The Advancement Of Virtue. Classical Christian education is virtue driven. It is scholarly, based in time-tested disciplines of grammar, logic, rhetoric and the classics. The excellence of those programs promotes the virtue sorely needed to be returned to society.