The Verse about Good Grades
One of the great comforts of Scripture are the verses that aren't in Scripture. For instance, I consider it a blessing that the Holy Ghost did not see fit to inspire the verse about getting good grades.
"Woe unto that child which getteth a C+, for it would be better that a millstone were tied around his neck . . . ."
Thankfully, we are called to excellence generally, and not to A-plusses in Social Studies specifically. God has made us all with different minds and different interests, and the simple fact of a C-grade, or even of an F (gasp), does not necessarily mean anything is wrong. (Often it does, as in the case of chronic Looking-Out-the-Window Syndrome -- a separate issue.) Human minds are different. House-rules are different. Our standards of excellence and hard work should be rooted in biblical truth -- but those standards have quite a lot of valid, reasonable, and varied out-workings.
Aim for the Ivies -- but remember that community college, or no college at all, is no crime. Encourage fast-lane jobs -- but remember that trade-work, home-making, and community service are equally noble, often far more so.
"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" (Ps. 24:1). Join me in being mighty thankful that, despite God's high and beautiful standards for us, he has little interest in the content of our report cards.
Matching Gift Challenge
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We’re excited to announce our first matching-grant initiative of The Augustine Campaign! A generous donor has offered $30,000 if we can raise $30,000 by the last day of this semester, December 17!
If your family or someone you know has been considering a one-time donation to the school, now is the perfect time to make that gift. Double your donation and support Denver’s only classical, Christian school serving preschool through high-school students!
Gifts can be made online or by check, delivered to the front office or mailed to:
The Augustine Campaign: Matching Gift Challenge Attn: Nate Ahern 480 S. Kipling St. Lakewood, CO 80226
Monthly donations made between now and December 17 count toward the matching gift challenge. The monies raised go toward The Augustine Campaign initiatives: general fund, tuition assistance, and classroom supplies.
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” – 1 Peter 4:10
Grace and peace, The ACA Board & Administration
P. S.: Does your employer match your donations to non-profits? Now’s a great time to find out!
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The Augustine Campaign
Augustine Classical Academy launched The Augustine Campaign on October 15, a focused effort to raise $600,000 over the next three years. In its first year, the campaign’s goal is to raise $175,000 to support the general fund, establish a robust tuition assistance program, and drive enrollment.
Why now? We’re at an exciting time in ACA’s life: With geographic stability, an exceptional staff, high-quality curriculum, and a clear vision for excellence, ACA is ready for the next step—which includes raising funds to catalyze growth. (Read more about why we fundraise.)
The Augustine Campaign comprises three important parts, each of which serves an important role:
Character Builders support the work of the school through recurring, monthly gifts. After a one-time set-up online, gifts—in an amount you designate—are charged to your credit card of choice once a month until you make a change. The benefits of this program are significant: Regular gifts enable us to budget wisely and save us from costly mailings and other fundraising expenses.
While we encourage all families to consider a monthly gift, we ask that you also share this opportunity to support your children’s school with your family and friends. (Don't forget to include the link to our Giving Page!)
Legacy Builders bless the school with major gifts in excess of $1,000 annually. Do you know someone who might consider supporting the distinctive, high-quality education available at ACA in this way? If so, please contact the Board of Directors at board@augustineclassical.org to discuss ways we can connect with these individuals.
Community Builders help extend ACA’s reach in the Denver area. We would love the opportunity to share our mission with your church’s leadership or family ministry team, your neighborhood or professional association, or any other group interested in helping families raising up a generation of bright, gracious leaders. Email board@augustineclassical.org to start the conversation!
As we launch this campaign—which is, of course, an act of faith—we remember that we serve a God of abundance, who gave nothing less than Himself for our good. Please join us in praying that God will do great things for His glory with all the gifts ACA receives.
Grace and peace
The ACA Board & Administration
A Night Sky Full of Promise
There are a few things you just don't want your kid coming home from school and telling you.
"Hey, Mom, we got to read a story about gang rape today. And then they cut her up into pieces!"
That would be one of them. If your child said that, you'd be right to jump on the phone with the school head and demand to know what was up. Filthy literature in a Christian curriculum? What happened to my child's innocence? Are the classical pagans worth studying? Even the ladies from "The Music Man" sang about how bad Chaucer and Rabelais were.
True. Except there's a slight difficulty: the gang rape story story is from the Bible (Judges 19:1-30), and the Bible is a book we call infallible. It's God's perfect word. What should we do? No wonder we don't find this doozy in The Jesus Storybook Bible. And how are we supposed to deal with the remaining big chunks of grit and sin in the Old Testament?
The answer is that, as Christians, we must deal with those chunks. But as a school, we must let you, as parents, deal with them first. ACA is in the business of teaching God's whole counsels unapologetically, but it is not in the business of preempting your parental discretion and responsibility in key issues. There is no part of the Bible that we are ashamed to read in school, but there are further discussions and deeper questions for parental authority only, particularly in the younger years. Sometimes, the best answer is that you will explain more when they are older. But the worst answer is to indefinitely ignore parts of the Bible because they are yucky, or because they have blood.
"All Scripture is breathed out by God . . . ." (2 Timothy 3:17) All, not some. The uplifting parts, and the dark parts. At ACA, we embrace this truth wholeheartedly. But we also understand that kids are still kids. So when it comes to selecting passages for students to memorize, we prioritize. We do not avoid, or over-emphasize, but we are strategic. All Scripture is breathed out by God, and some of its stories are good to teach early on. Some of them not till later.
We also realize the glorious truth that Scripture is food even when we don't understand it. While we're committed to not assigning students a passage out of context, like "My wounds stink and fester" (Psalm 38:5a), or "Chelub the brother of Shuah begat Mehir, which was the father of Eshton" (1 Chron. 4:11), we still acknowledge that our students' understanding will always be imperfect. Yet the passages cannot fail to be life-giving. We are confident that, as they work God's Word into their bones, he will work it out in them someday for his glory.
Our fundamental hope is that our children will learn to love the gospel, and over time, begin to grasp the simple and astonishing story-arc of the whole Bible: that like Abraham, we are old and weak under a night sky full of promise; that we are sinners in need of forgiveness, that the infinite-personal God became frail flesh, died, and rose for our sakes, and that he is coming again with glory to rule over a new Kingdom of Peace on earth.
Grace and Peace,
Nate Ahern
Time Flat Wasted
If there were a winner for the most frequent comment made by the general public about education, it might be this:
"I got my degree in X, but I haven't once used it since."
And then we nod and bemoan what's wrong with education to bring so many people to that pass, though we never really pinpoint the cause.
There's a cause, all right, and it's unfortunate, but not in the way we might think.
The problem with a statement like this is that it turns education into an object. Education is meant to be used (and used up). A degree is pursued as a means only. What can it give me? When life gives me a lemon, I squeeze it dead. We want to shape and manipulate our education, for the express purpose of monetarily benefiting from it, and if we aren't able to do that, it's basically time flat wasted.
But an education is supposed to shape us. It is supposed to transform us into givers, thinkers, and influencers-of-culture. Far from being a limited set of necessary tools for a limited set of necessary evils, education -- including our specific professional degrees -- gives what is intangible, but what is also universally powerful. And that is an ability to be thankful for our rich heritage of knowledge, perceptive of what needs to be done in the world, well-equipped for those tasks, and brave to jump in the trenches and do them.
Trivium: Rhetoric
Over the past few weeks, we've had a closer look at the classical trivium. Yesterday, you may have seen Kaylyn Wilson's overview here, and I've also mentioned some specifics of the Grammar Stage here and of the Logic Stage here. What could possibly come next?
Why, just so. The Rhetoric Stage.
The Rhetoric Stage is the capstone of the trivium. It is the telos of all prior years of study since Preschool, the goal, the crown and glory of the whole classical-ed show. Until this stage is reached, the Grammar and Logic stages are only incomplete preparation -- valuable in their own right, but weakened and compromised without unification. Rhetoric is a queen with her crown, the picture of unity, strength, and power.
Rhetoric brings true beauty to knowledge. And so rhetoric is wisdom adorned. Far from the byword it is today -- "That's just a buncha rhetoric . . ." -- this stage fixes all knowledge to the standard of God's beauty, and it speaks like he speaks. It writes like he writes, creates like he creates, and loves like he loves. Unless that universal model of beauty is learned, what might happen to knowledge? To a disconnected Grammar and Logic?
Many things, from the silly to the tragic. Sans beauty, brilliantly-educated minds give soporific speeches via monotone PowerPoint. Those that conceived the great cathedrals are gone, and "the architecture of servitude and boredom" (as Russell Kirk once said) produce industrial slums. The "suicide art" of Jackson Pollock and the irreverent and nihilistic "Piss Christ" of Andres Serrano are hailed as masterpieces. The ruling elite see the stunning magic of the infant human form as inventory to be chopped up and sold to the highest bidder. And if there is no beauty, no standard for loveliness, who are we to object? Let our children use their classically-educated minds to find their own truth.
But the earth is full of God's glory, and it is crying unending praise to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. What is all our knowledge and logic without the living Word? What is beauty without the Glory of Christ? What is love without incarnate Love? We lay all our learning at His feet -- from Grammar to Logic to Rhetoric and beyond -- in recognition that He is the author and finisher of all.
Recitation Harvest
Our first Recitation is coming up on Thursday morning, October 15th, and I'd like to share with you briefly why I'm eager for this special event.
Recitation is fruit. It's a time of harvest. Our children have been serving hard time in the classroom working information into their minds, and now they get to work it out. They've been planting, watering, and growing seeds, and now they get to pick the fruit and hand it to you. And what gardener hasn't felt supreme satisfaction at harvest time? During Recitation, our children are rewarding us, but they are also rewarding themselves.
Of course, this is not their only harvest, not by a long shot. There are many more rows to hoe, much more knowledge and wisdom to gather. But this is still a time of celebration, and one that should not be minimized.
With this in mind, I encourage you all to come and see your children shine. And I encourage you to spread the joy and invite extended family and friends. This outpouring is so important for our kids. Recently in our Twitter feed, you may have read Brian Douglas' article about how "we ought not treat education like a simple input-output situation . . . [because] focusing on order becomes hazardous when it overtakes the joy of experiencing God’s grace." This is spot-on, and it's one of the reasons we want to spread the love and affirmation thick at times like this. Let's show our children that cold hard work is not the end of the story, and that we are mighty proud of their accomplishments and of the young men and women they are growing up to be. This is grace, this is the gospel, and our children need it desperately.
Trivium: The Logic Stage
Last week, I mentioned one of the beauties of the Grammar Stage, which is the ability young kids have to devour information. So we let them. We give it to them. We pack them full of good things.
Once they reach the Logic Phase (5th - 8th grades), however, they're ready for more. They've naturally, by God's good design, begun to question things and to consider, much more intelligently, what's right and what's wrong. And usually, they think that they are right, and everyone else is wrong, and they don't mind telling you why. You could also call the Logic Phase the "Catch-You-Out-and-Smirk-About-It" phase.
While this developmental stage can be quite annoying, it's also normal, and very important. Children at this stage have just begun to debate issues, and to say what they think, and if they do not know the rules involved, things can get troublesome, and disastrous later on. They need tools to know how to think, and how to structure their thoughts. They need to know why a belief is wrong, not just the fact that it's wrong. And they need to know where love fits into the equation.
So how does this work for us at home? Just like we load on the information for our Grammar-Phase students, we load on the arguments for our Logic-Phasers. We don't discourage them from arguing; we encourage them, but using the right tools. And one of the first tools of argument for kids to learn is to obey authority right away without delay. We are all under authority (even parents), and this truth is the foundation to all logic exercises. There is no argument, just obedience. Otherwise, we are teaching them anarchist autonomy. Another tool is to learn to question and criticize at times that are not connected to obedience or rebellion. For instance, it isn't a good time for your son Bobby "The Bullhead" to suddenly get interested in arguments for or against corporal discipline in the home at just the moment when he's gotten caught telling a whopper. It is a good time to discuss those issues with him when you're watching the news together, and a story is aired about school violence.
But perhaps the most important tool of logic, behind them all, to learn is how certain arguments aren't meant to be "won." The point is to win hearts and souls. Or in other words, to learn that there is a deeper right than being right. Which is great preparation for the beauty of the final Trivium phase: Rhetoric.
On Getting Fat (the right way)
One of the best ways for us to fail at anything is to treat it as a savior. We well-evolved Homo sapiens like to invest ourselves, body and soul, in the latest fad diets; every four years, we think that if the American people would just vote right, for that guy, we'd fix our nation's problems; and perhaps most often, we look for the perfect school for our kids. Insert child into building, dust off hands, and wait for a morally-upright Ivy-leaguer to pop out 12 years later. He'll probably be President some day. Perfect school, perfect kid. Nothing else I need to do.
Except not. Or put another way, nothing Homo sapient about it.
Classical Christian education did not die on the cross for our sins, and we shouldn't act like it has. Make no mistake, of course -- classical Christian education, of all the current educational models, is among the most brilliant, rich, time-tested, and culturally relevant. But a vending machine it ain't.
So what is the key to a successful school? A successful student? An interested, independent self-learner? As I mentioned at our recent Parent Info Night, the keys are twofold. First, there must be a reliance on Christ in all things, at school and in the home; and second, learning and excellence must be modeled in the home.
I'd like to briefly touch on what this second part looks like. In other words, how do we show our kids how? By jumping in, getting our hands dirty, and just doing it. Like this:
Develop copiousness. This is an overflow of knowledge (like a Thanksgiving cornucopia, which spills out gourds, squash, and fruit). Over a lifetime, you feed your mind just as regularly as you feed your body -- and soon, that knowledge (now wisdom) can't help but brim over. In other words, it's getting fat -- the right way.
Read good books. Usually, good books are the ones we don't want to read, because they're hard to get into. But stick with it. Peruse book lists you trust, or use the book lists on Augustine's website, and work your way through them.
Read lots of books. David Noebel, founder of Summit Ministries in Manitou Springs, has said that it's important to read a book a week. Of course, that's not even close to possible for many of us, but it's still worth pursuing. And just like muscular exercise, the more you read, the faster you get.
Read the Bible. Being steeped in Scripture is important for our sanctification, but also because Scripture is the most influential set of writings in history -- for literature, poetry, history, philosophy, culture, and theology.
Read aloud. Despite what it might seem, your kids will love this. They also need this. Many of the ancients would have been perplexed by our modern practice of reading silently. Words are inherently meant to be spoken -- and stories are brought into full richness and personality for children when they hear Mom and Pop tell them.
Listen to good music. Immerse yourselves, and your children, in the classical-music tradition. Pour on the folk songs, blues, jazz, and other genres you like. There's no lack of variety and richness. But there are standards to be set. What is God like? What is his world like? Mindless boom-box drivel, or Top-40 hits glorifying sex, greed, and death? Our kids are listening.
Sing. (Yikes.) Let me rephrase that: Sing out of tune. It may take some getting used to, and some pride-swallowing, but what better way to build family culture than to sing as a family? Everybody loves it when someone else is singing -- so why not be that someone-else for your kids? Hymns, folk-songs, and praise -- just let 'er rip.
Write. While "of the making of books there is no end" (Eccl. 12:12), the world could use a lot more of the right kinds of reading material. So keep a journal. Start a blog. Write little stories for your kids. Send letters to the editor. It isn't dumb -- but of course it isn't glamorous. We are people of the Book, and like the Holy Spirit, we should also write about what is good and true.
Memorize things. Scripture, poetry, and good quotes are the best choices. This habit, over a lifetime, will become a joy and consolation to you, in both the difficult and beautiful moments of life. It is never a waste of time; exactly the opposite. Plus, we make our kids do it.
Plod. You've just read a seemingly impractical set of to-do's. "Nice -- but yeah right." No problem, this is life. Plod. Take your time. Nobody is judging, nobody is watching. Go nice and slow, a few minutes a day snatched here and there. Get comfy with feeling inadequate and not understanding books and ideas. Our children feel the same way in school. But over time, when we look back, we're a fair piece down the road from where we started. We are growing, and we are thankful.
Grace and Peace, Nate Ahern
Trivium: The Grammar Stage at Home
One of the beauties of the Grammar Stage of the Trivium is that you can essentially upload information onto your kids' hard drive. Select a file, choose a destination folder, and click OK. Their super-powered child-brain will process all relevant data with remarkable ease.
Now lest someone claim that Augustine Classical Academy believes that children are cyborgs, let me officially say that this is a metaphor. Children are definitely human, delightfully so, but we still admire how they can soak up information like a machine. (See, now I'm mixing a metaphor.)
What does this mean for us as parents? Because God created young children in this stage with a special taste for information, we should give it to them. Better phrased, we should serve it up for them by the forklift-pallet. No holding back. On a daily basis, we should be giving them stories, stories, and more stories. We should give them music, audiobooks, coloring books, castle cut-outs, dates, flags, capitals, countries, presidents, constellation charts, historical character sketches, myths and legends, math facts, bug collections, ant farms, stamp collections, and flower presses. This is their brain-food, and they need lots of it to survive.
But there's an important key. We can't overthink it.
Here's how. First, while routines are important for kids, a proper education in the Grammar Phase, particularly at home, is an immersion. Anytime, anywhere, for however long or short a period. The Information-Feasts are organic, part of the natural aroma of your home. More often than not, music is playing in the background -- so what if nobody is "listening"? Your dinner table is constantly a mess because of all the coloring, crafts, and model-building. Books are everywhere, and falling apart, because your kids are constantly reading them. Your home and your activities are not always organized, not by a long shot -- but they are always rich and constant.
Second, don't worry about explaining everything to kids at this stage. While good, honest questions should be answered as best we can, we shouldn't take it upon ourselves to explain too much. For instance, when we teach our 5-year-olds about Columbus, we might chant, "In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." But it wouldn't be very smart to begin a lecture on Columbus' mistreatment of the Native Americans and how his legacy has influenced race relations today. Perhaps a valid point, but not for the poor kid, not now. You've only confused him, and now he can't remember the rhyme.
"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Well, young children are, and the Grammar Phase is a wonderful period. Done right, with shared educational strategies between school and home, our students will be well-equipped for their next tool-in-the-belt, their next Stage: reason.