First, Classical Christian education seeks to educate children using the classic works - the great works of Christian theology, philosophy, language, science, and literature.

The progressive education of the public school system values most of all what is new and modern - whether new methods of learning math, new ways of learning to read, or new ways of understanding what and who makes up a family. And above all, it values a new morality. Where has this left our children? According to the latest “national report card” (October 2025) the literacy rate of American high school students is on a downward spiral.  Students and graduates cannot do enough basic addition and subtraction to make change in places where they work.  And according to the Pew Research Center’s 2025 survey, only 44% of Americans believe that there are “clear and absolute standards for what is right and wrong.” This is a disaster in the making.

But Classical Christian education is committed to the principle that learning is built on the foundation of the “tried and true” wisdom and absolute truths understood by the great men and women throughout history. It does not scrap the past as irrelevant but builds heavily on its foundation.
 
The Bible is, not surprisingly, is the preeminent foundational “classic”- since it is the infallible record of the revelation of God to man given over four millennia. And this is something which the earliest schools in America - Harvard, Yale, and Princeton - understood.

That the Bible is the most important classic is something of which the very founders of our country were absolutely sure.

John Adams, for example, stated that "the Bible contains the most profound philosophy, the most perfect morality, and the most refined policy that ever was conceived upon earth. He further wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Another founder, Dr. Benjamin Rush, colonial scientist and physician, and youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote this:  

“I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing criminals and take so little pains to prevent them.  We profess to be republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this divine book, above all others, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and all those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism.”

Now there are decidedly secular public schools that have tried to adopt the classical model. The problem, however, is that these schools attempt to follow a classical model while ignoring the greatest classic and most important text of all time - the Bible.

But Classical Christian education teaches the Bible as the foundation of all education.

Now this does not mean that Christian Classical Education does not study or read or interact with non-Christian classics. Since, as the Christian philosopher Arthur Homes correctly stated, “All truth is God’s truth,” we must acknowledge that by the common grace of God, there is truth to be learned from secular thinkers and writers as well as Christian.

In short, classical education seeks to learn from the great minds of the past - to glean the great principles from brilliant and noble men and women of past generations.

Again, this does not mean that Classical education seeks to avoid all works modern, or that it has no room for new discovery, or that it has no use for technology. C.S. Lewis said that one may read current books, but for each modern book one should read two older classics. That is because the classics have proved to stand the test of time. A modern book may make it to the New York Times bestseller list, but may be forgotten a few years later - because while it was trendy - it has no lasting value.

But this commitment to learn from the classics also means that Classical education will focus on the classical languages, like Latin and Greek, on which much of the English language is based. This actually helps students to better understand English grammar - as well as enabling students to read the classics in their original languages.

Second, Classical Christian education teaches children and young adults to be critical thinkers - to be able to think logically - and so to be life long learners. 

To that end, it is an educational system that understands that there is absolute truth - and one that has as it goal teaching children to discern what it is true and what is not.

The public school system - though I grant that there are some good teachers in it - has unfortunately and for the most part, not taught our children to actually think. It has instead raised a generation of feelers and reactors rather than thinkers.

The modern educated student often says, “I think such and such” but what they really mean is “I feel such and such.” For this reason, what they “conclude” may well have very little to do with what is actually true or valid. 

Part of the reason for this is that so many of our educators - and consequently, those they have educated - do not believe in absolute truth - except perhaps when it comes to mathematics principles or scientific theorems  - though some are questioning even these now. People speak of “my truth” as opposed to “your truth” when all there is actual truth, no matter how one feels about it.

The founding fathers of our country understood this. So in our founding document, The Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

He did not say that this is how he felt, but declared that these were absolute truths. That is what the word unalienable implies - absolutely true for all people for all time.

Of course, students in Classical Christian schools may make statements about what is absolutely true, when they are actually making statements about what they feel to be true, but the teachers in Classical Christian education will press the question. What are the reasons you think this is true? What are the facts? To what conclusion do these facts logically lead?

So how does Classical education teach students to think factually, logically, and biblically, and come to sound conclusions? It is through focusing on what is called the Trivium - three learning stages in adolescence.  

First there is the Grammar stage, which is roughly first to sixth grade. At this stage the child is asking, “What is this or what is that?” The focus is on memorization. Children have a remarkable ability to memorize at this stage. Historical facts, science and math tables, poems, and even languages.

Next is the Logic stage, which is normally 7th and 8th grade. At this stage, the child is asking, “Why is this like this? How does this work?  How do you know this?” So in this stage the principles of Logic are taught, including the Laws of thought, the way to construct valid arguments, and how to identify fallacies in reasoning.

Finally, there is the Rhetoric stage which corresponds to high school. In this stage, the focus in on teaching students to explain the truth, to speak persuasively to others. C.S. Lewis once said that you do not really understand something unless you can clearly explain it to others. So this part of Classical education completes the understanding process.

Ultimately this kind of education will make true thinkers of our children and future adult citizens.

Let’s take an example how Classical Christian Education would teach students to evaluate racism.

It would begin with teaching the basic principles of creation that God created two people from whom all of the population of the earth came. It would teach that every person is created in God’s image, and so is to be honored and respected as such.

It would then proceed to logic. Given the facts of creation, it would seek to reason through them. So it would discuss questions like, “Is it logical to assume that what is true of one person of a particular ethnicity or skin color must be true of all? If all human beings are created in the image of God - that they are “fearfully and wonderfully made by God - then is it justified to think than any ethnicity is superior to another? Is it logical to conclude that only certain ethnicities can be racist?

If treating another ethnic group with discrimination is morally wrong for one group, then is morally and logically right to attempt to correct the moral evil by reversing the discrimination?”  

In this way, students learn to evaluate themselves, and will learn to evaluate statements or arguments made by others - whether friends or the media - as to the truth or validity of those contentions.

Finally, Classical Christian education seeks to teach children and young adults to Glorify God in Jesus Christ, and to work for the good of others. 

Classical Christian education is unapologetically Christian. It holds that Jesus Christ is only one who  can make sinful men and women right with God - that He is as He claimed, “The way, the truth, and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). That is the most important truth that men and women come to understand.

In fact, I would state categorically that any education that leaves out the teaching of the truth about the One true God as revealed in Christ and the Bible is woefully inadequate, for Proverbs 9:10 declares that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” That necessarily means that failing to instruct children to acknowledge and honor the One True LORD of the universe leaves education decidedly incomplete.

One cannot teach history adequately if you do not seek to understand God’s guiding hand in all of it. One cannot understand science without acknowledging the Creator of the material world - the One who is the author of the Laws by which the universe is governed.  One cannot teach character without an understanding of the LORD as the One who has defined what it right and wrong. One cannot teach the principles of government - without understanding the purpose and responsibilities of government as it was ordained by God.

Again, this is why another of the founding fathers of this nation, Samuel Adams wrote, “Let divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their endeavors to renovate the age, by … educating their little boys and girls … and instructing them in the art of self-government, without which they never can act a wise part in the government of societies, great or small; in short, of leading them in the study and practice of the exalted virtues of the Christian system.”
 
And it is a truth for which Noah Webster, known as the “Father of American Education, and author of the 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language,” argued: “The Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. … No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” To this end, he also argued that “Education is useless without the Bible.”

He further argued in Value of the Bible and Excellence of the Christian Religion: For the Use of Families and Schools, published in 1834, “The Christian religion exalts the intellect and perfects the human character — The sublime views of God and of his works, which the scriptures exhibit, have a wonderful effect in strengthening the intellect and expanding its powers. … Equally effectual are the scriptures in refining our ideas, by representations of purity and holiness of God. The more we know of God, the more just will be our concepts of what is ennobling in our own conduct; and every step we take in imitation of his perfections is an advance in elevation of character. This purity of mind, and this elevation and expansion of intellect are the beginnings of that ever increasing holiness, and that boundless enlargement of knowledge, which are to complete the character...of the children of God in another world.”

These three distinctives, then, summarize what is both the purpose and plan of Classical Christian Education. And it is these distinctives that make Classical Christian Education superior.

Will you partner with Dayspring Classical Christian School in educating your children?