Classical Christian Education goes beyond academic training.
It is a process that involves the whole person and all of their day-to-day activities. Therefore, Barry County Christian School values the multidimensional training process of home, church and school. We encourage families to remain active in their church and to seek to create a home environment that compliments what is taught in the Bible. Families entering Barry County Christian School should recognize the importance of being in agreement with this philosophy by looking for ways to strengthen the home, church, and school influences in their lives.
We Use a Biblical Framework to Understand Everything.
This is more than adding a Bible verse to the curriculum. When history, science, math, philosophy, art, and other subjects are integrated around the truth that God is the Creator of all that exists. Therefore, all knowledge is interrelated and points back to Him. Theology is the queen of the sciences, with all subjects understood through the revealed Word of God and natural/human history and philosophy.
Having a Moral Imagination
Our ideas of right and wrong are shaped by stories, images, and memories, not merely by a list of rules. Instead of evaluating human actions by constantly comparing them to our list of dos and don’ts, we go faster to a group of images and stories which we think of as good, wholesome, beautiful, or else bad, rotten, ugly. Instead of a list of individual taboos, or “thou-shalt-nots,” the moral imagination sees bigger-picture goodness. The Bible itself uses a significant number of stories, histories, and songs.
What is classical Christian education?
Education that Inspires Depth and Wisdom
Classical Christian education (CCE) is a time-tested educational system which establishes a biblical worldview (called Paideia), incorporates methods based on natural phases of student development, cultivates the seven Christian Virtues, trains student reasoning through the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric), and interacts with the historical Great Books.
We Consider Great Books, Art, and Stories.
Students engage great books and art containing rich stories that shape both the soul, literary understanding, and moral imagination. A rich and nuanced command of language plays an unsung role in understanding God’s Word, and in understanding our fellow man.
And, a thorough immersion in the study of history using original sources helps students step outside their own times and places and consider the world from very different vantage points. Going ad fontes, to the source in Latin, means we read original sources and avoid textbooks for history and literature.