We seek to educate through a tried and true tradition of liberal education. This is not mainstream education in any way, it aims at wisdom and not wealth, educating the whole person, body and soul, and cultivating excellence rather than conformity.
Classical Christian education teaches students how to think and how to live, to read and write and think logically and creatively. In a time where the mass majority of people are ruled by emotion and quickly persuaded by the flow of culture and what the media (and social media) is proclaiming, it is essential that we develop the minds, wills, and affections of our children to be able to know and discern what is true, good, and beautiful and to eloquently articulate to others what is right.
In Ephesians, Paul uses the word paideia when he addresses fathers and how they are to raise up their children: “and you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the [paideia] of the Lord.” The Greek word for the ancient concept of paideia has no exact English translation. The term is one of the more broadly used foreign words in the classical Christian education movement. It is often translated as “nurture and admonition,” or “discipline and instruction,” as seen in different translations of Ephesians 6:4. It is essentially the way a culture is formed and includes the entire upbringing and education that forms the soul of a person. Paideia shapes what a person loves and enjoys, and how they think and act. It does not refer only to the transfer of knowledge from teacher to student, but the transmission of culture from teacher to student. Ultimately, that is what education is- enculturation. It is teaching not only the facts and figures, but the values and morals of a culture. To the Christian, this means conveying the culture of the Church, the Paideia of God. We do not seek to convey the flawed sin-marked culture seen in many churches, and in our surrounding society but the true biblical culture seen in scripture.
This is the Paideia of God.
