The Classical Parent

In this Classical Christian Education Corner, we begin a series on the three R’s of education: Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic. We look at the first R through the five W’s and one H: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. We’ll take these out of standard order, answering the easier ones first.

Who should read? A quick answer to that question is: Everyone who is capable of it. Why should everyone who is capable of it read? One reason is that God has given us an awe-inspiring, diverse world to explore, and reading is a very good way to discover, understand, and grow in love for creation and its Creator. In short, reading makes one’s world, one’s mind, and one’s heart bigger. There is also the fact that reading, as a form of self-education, is advantageous in nearly any area—professional or personal. And, during this pandemic, we might especially appreciate the aphorism that “reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” Reading can provide adventure as well as solace. It can provide companionship in isolation. “We read,” said C.S. Lewis, “to know we are not alone.” There are, of course, many other reasons to read. Part of the fun of reading is discovering more reasons for reading.

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Our previous Classical Christian Education Corner took a historical/philosophical look at the virtue of perseverance. In the Christian tradition, one of the ways we become the new creations God intends and show our love for Him and others is by being diligent in our tasks. Perseverance has more recently become a hot topic in academic and popular psychology, with a different emphasis than the Christian version. U Penn psychology professor Angela Duckworth may be credited with some of the excitement. Duckworth was awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” and has a TED talk on the concept of “grit.” She defines grit as the ability to stick to long-term goals and the ability to keep going despite adversity. Her research has led her to conclude that grit, or we could call it perseverance, is more important in determining achievement than intelligence, talent, quality of instruction, family life, or income. Whether we are inclined to frame this virtue in the context of the demands of love or the desire for achievement, or both, we are still left with the question: How do we get better at persevering?

The classical answer is, of course, practice. This may seem less than helpful when you find yourself tempted to give up on something—it’s a little like someone just saying “Don’t give up” or “Persevere in persevering.” If we think about the problem from a few different angles, however, we may come up with some ideas to help put perseverance into practice.

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Many of us are feeling some fatigue. The Coronavirus has brought significant losses to many and has made nearly everything we do or would like to do more difficult or even impossible. When this CCE Corner is posted, we may not yet know who will be president in 2021. Even when we do know the results of the election, we may still feel fatigued by this long and tiring political season. Along with this, we face cultural upheaval which gives every indication of continuing. Speaking around the time of the birth of our nation, Samuel Adams observed: “The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance.” The same is true today, and so, as we begin the second quarter, we turn our focus to the virtue of perseverance.

The idea of perseverance may bring to mind images of an athlete training, a musician practicing, a farmer plowing his field, or soldiers courageously performing their duty, or it may bring to mind the simple childhood poem, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…” The verb “persevere” comes from the Latin “perseverare” which means “continue steadfastly, persist” so all of these images seem appropriate, but there is an even deeper meaning found within the classical Christian tradition. Christian writers often used a synonym for perseverance–“diligence”. The Latin root for diligence is “diligere” which means to respect or esteem, to love. It may sound strange, but perseverance or diligence is not merely staying the course or gutting it out, it is an expression of love.

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In our last CCEC, we said that a tenet of classical Christianity is that God’s perfect self-giving love perfects our human nature. His love restores our nature to its original design and enables us, through grace, to love God and our neighbor. We observed that practicing the virtue of compassion requires us to begin with prayer (even for our enemies) and with accepting God’s own gift of love. What might be some next steps for developing the virtue of compassion?

St. Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, thought about compassion as a virtue having two parts: an affective part (heartfelt sympathy) and an effective part (an act of the will to relieve another’s suffering). So how can we develop both of these?

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In our last CCE Corner, we talked briefly about the four Cardinal Virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice and the three Theological Virtues: faith, hope, and charity (love). Our virtue focus for the first quarter of the year is a virtue deriving from the Theological Virtue of charity: COMPASSION.

The word “compassion” comes from Latin “pati” (to suffer) and “com” (with). What does it look like to have compassion for, “to suffer with,” one another? Before we try to answer that question, it would be good to recognize the source of this virtue. While all virtue is the result of practice, we cannot even begin to exercise the Theological Virtue of love without the grace of God.

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Welcome back to our Classical Christian Education Corner! In the year ahead, watch for short pieces about classical Christian education, from the philosophical to the practical. We’ll include reflections on Scripture, poetry, philosophy, and literature, summaries of relevant books, articles, and podcasts, and “best practice” tips from fellow travelers on this journey toward “lives well-lived.”

In our first CCE Corner for the year, we begin with the topic of Virtue. Trinitas was formed with the purpose of preparing students for lives well-lived. But what is a life “well-lived”? A life with physical health? Pleasure? Friends? Wealth? Power? Honor? A very quick history lesson shows that a theme throughout classical and Christian thought is that whatever else you think is part of the good life, a life well-lived must be a life of virtue. Ancient philosophers identified four Cardinal Virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. “Cardinal” comes from the Latin word “cardo” which means “hinge.” The Cardinal Virtues are considered the primary virtues, the pivot on which the other virtues turn or depend. These four virtues were later incorporated into Christian moral teaching during the Middle Ages by thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, and three Theological Virtues were added: faith, hope, and charity (love).

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This summer would be a great time to catch any CCE Corner articles you might have missed during the year. For easy reference, here is a chronological list with links that will take you to each article. Lesson one would be a great place to start!

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Living intentionally and practicing habits of virtue are not things we leave behind during the summer. We hope you will continue to read together from The Book of Virtues and from other good books, especially The Good Book! Find a place to keep a list of virtues in sight (advertisers know how important this is) and be creative about ways to practice them. Here is our list of 10: Self-Discipline, Work, Perseverance, Faith/Trust, Compassion, Friendship, Courage, Loyalty, Responsibility, and Honesty.

May you be blessed this summer as you are a blessing!

We could end our discussion of what we’ve learned from helping to start a classical Christian school with ten lessons. Ten is probably more than enough. But, as we mentioned last time, we have a bonus lesson that goes back to what impressed us about classical education in the first place. We’ve left the first part of the lesson blank on purpose. It’s for you to fill in later.

Lesson 11. ___________________: being prayerfully intentional

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When we introduced our CCE Corner earlier this year, we began by sharing some lessons we have learned through starting a Christian classical school. We had made our way through lesson 9, when all our attention was abruptly turned in another direction by the COVID-19 pandemic. Quarantine may seem a strange time for a lesson about friendship, but perhaps it provides a good opportunity to step back and think about our relationships.

Lesson 10. Make Hallelujah friends: finding joy in Christian classical community

Our previous CCE Corner about the joy of worship was titled, “We Were Made for This.” We could use that title again. After God created Adam, he said it was not good for man to be alone. He created Eve from Adam’s side to be his friend. In a dialogue on Spiritual Friendship, the medieval monk, Aelred of Rievaulx, observes, “How beautiful it is that the second human being was taken from the side of the first, so that nature might teach that human beings are equal and, as it were, collateral, and that there is in human affairs neither a superior nor an inferior, a characteristic of true friendship. Hence, nature from the very beginning implanted the desire for friendship and charity in the heart of man, a desire which an inner sense of affection soon increased with a taste of sweetness.” In other words, we were made for friendship.

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