Private Christian school Classical University Model School SC Lake Wylie  York  Rock Hill  Clover  York County   29710  29745  29732  29715

What's wisdom and virtue got to do with it?

LPA hosts CiRCE classical ed workshop

    The choice people have to make in education is the same one continually called for in the Old and New Testaments: choose this day whom you will serve. This was the opening message for the recent CiRCE Institute's classical Christian education workshop, held at LPA. Fifty-three teachers and parents attended the workshop, which drew regional participants from Columbia to Concord.

   According to presenter Andrew Kern, the title, "Cultivating Wisdom and Virtue," is a topic the modern education system neither understands nor values. 

Alumna Alanna Ennis (top left) and LPA instructors Karis and Chris Miller respond during group discussions.

   Setting the stage for the day, Kern read through Romans chapter eight to illustrate the choice: all we

have as human beings is on one of two paths: flesh or spirit. It's the "law of sin that leads to death" or the "law of spirit that leads to life."  

   According to Kern, when people reach for the fleshly choice in teaching, learning, and assessing, it leads to anxiety -- and away from God's blessings.

    He asserted that for the goal of truly Christian education, "every truth and every lesson worth knowing can be found in the incarnate Christ Jesus," and that

all decisions on curriculum, teaching methods, and the like need to be subject to Him. Otherwise, it's merely a secular education with Christian trappings.

The workshop addressed four areas:

• The classical Christian distinctives
• Teaching as God teaches: The Word made flesh
• Teaching from a state of rest
• Meaningful assessment