How Classical Christian Education Transforms Minds | David Goodwin — Transcript

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1. 0:00Thank you, David, for being one of our
2. 0:02wonderful speakers here at the Educator
3. 0:03Summit Transformational Learning
4. 0:05Educating Minds, Hearts, and Souls.
5. 0:08We're so excited that you were here. So,
6. 0:09I would love to know from your
7. 0:10perspective, so far from the conference,
8. 0:12but also from your background of
9. 0:13classical education, how do we actually
10. 0:16bring transformational learning to the
11. 0:18classroom? Well, you know, I think first
12. 0:21we have to look at Romans 12
13. 0:24uh 1 and 2, where it says to um
14. 0:28transform our minds. And I think that's
15. 0:32the call of scripture and the call of
16. 0:34every educator, which leads us towards,
17. 0:38of course, my um
18. 0:40my area that I like to talk about,
19. 0:42classical Christian education, which was
20. 0:44created by Christians over a 2,000-year
21. 0:47period for the purpose of transforming
22. 0:50minds. So, why specifically is classical
23. 0:53Christian education the best form of
24. 0:55education in your opinion? Some of us um
25. 0:58after studying it for a few years would
26. 1:00say it's really the only form of
27. 1:02education in the context of the West um
28. 1:06that it had been the way education was
29. 1:08practiced from the time of Christ until
30. 1:12um
31. 1:12what well into the 19th century. And all
32. 1:16of our founding fathers were educated in
33. 1:19the classical methods. So, we're we're
34. 1:22kind of um living in a very small period
35. 1:25of time where the progressives have uh
36. 1:28seized the narrative with regard to
37. 1:30education, and we're just trying to take
38. 1:32it back. The first step is for parents
39. 1:35to realize that God gives uh the parent
40. 1:39the responsibility of educating the
41. 1:41child. So, we have to look, I think um
42. 1:44at the different spheres that God gives
43. 1:47authority to, and that the the
44. 1:49government has certain authority uh that
45. 1:52it is given by God,
46. 1:54and the church has certain authority
47. 1:57that has been given by God. But in
48. 1:58Ephesians 6 we read um that you know,
49. 2:02fathers uh
50. 2:04don't provoke your children to anger,
51. 2:05but raise them in the fear and
52. 2:07admonition of the Lord. And I think that
53. 2:10um by starting there, by getting parents
54. 2:13engaged, I know as an educator who
55. 2:15worked in a
56. 2:16uh as a head of a classical Christian
57. 2:18school for 13 years
58. 2:20that uh sometimes it's hard to remember
59. 2:22that uh
60. 2:24the people who are given the charge for
61. 2:26this are the parents. And you you get in
62. 2:29the school environment, you start
63. 2:30thinking that that's uh something the
64. 2:32school is charged with doing. But we're
65. 2:34we're essentially outsourcers. Um if the
66. 2:37parents are engaged, and I think any
67. 2:39honest educator uh will tell you this,
68. 2:41is if the parents are engaged things
69. 2:44work a lot better. What are some key
70. 2:46distinguishers of classical education?
71. 2:49Because
72. 2:50sometimes I feel like that's a hard
73. 2:51concept for people to understand.
74. 2:52They're like, well, I got a really good
75. 2:54Christian education, and I had a
76. 2:56wonderful K through 8 Christian
77. 2:58education, and it was classical in
78. 3:00nature, but we weren't a classical
79. 3:01school. And so a lot of things I think
80. 3:03we had used that framework um cuz I grew
81. 3:06up Christian reformed, and so they do
82. 3:09teach in that method a little bit, but
83. 3:11it wasn't called classical. And so how
84. 3:13do you explain that to people and to
85. 3:14parents that are just now diving into
86. 3:16this? They want a new form of education
87. 3:19or something that'll actually train
88. 3:20their kids in truth and wisdom? Truth,
89. 3:24and particularly a knowledge of the
90. 3:25truth, that fundamental knowledge of the
91. 3:27truth is the uh building block that
92. 3:30begins classical education. And then
93. 3:33grammar, a system of symbols through
94. 3:35which we can learn by reading, logic, a
95. 3:38system of reason uh that's that's
96. 3:40actually quite complicated when you get
97. 3:42into it. And then rhetoric is an
98. 3:44interesting thing. I view rhetoric much
99. 3:46more broadly than just speaking or
100. 3:48writing well, but rhetoric is the art of
101. 3:50putting things together
102. 3:52and working in community to come up with
103. 3:55an understanding of truth. And so at
104. 3:58that fundamental level, classical
105. 3:59Christian education just starts in a
106. 4:02different place. Most schools don't
107. 4:04consciously think we're going to teach
108. 4:06kids how to learn.
109. 4:08How to come to a knowledge of truth for
110. 4:11themselves. Theology is the queen of the
111. 4:13sciences, which is an old medieval
112. 4:16phrase that simply means um you can't
113. 4:20really know anything outside the context
114. 4:22of God's truth and who God is. So we
115. 4:25study
116. 4:26um Shakespeare with regard
117. 4:29to scripture and uh God's truth. We
118. 4:33study
119. 4:35um Kierkegaard or Kant, any of these uh
120. 4:38ancient books, we study science, we
121. 4:40study um
122. 4:42mathematics all with regard uh to how
123. 4:45theology informs them, which is quite
124. 4:48distinct from other Christian schools
125. 4:49which may add Christianity in some
126. 4:52respect like they have a Bible class or
127. 4:53a chapel.
128. 4:55Um we're integrating it all the time.
129. 4:56And then the the kind of the the fifth
130. 4:58piece uh if grammar, logic, rhetoric,
131. 5:01and theology are the the first four, the
132. 5:03fifth piece is um
133. 5:05really what Dorothy Sayers in her essay
134. 5:08is the crowning achievement of classical
135. 5:10education and that's synthesis. It helps
136. 5:13kids take all this knowledge that
137. 5:15they're getting, all this information,
138. 5:17put it together into what the ancient
139. 5:19Greeks called the cosmology or we might
140. 5:21call a worldview, but just sort of a
141. 5:24vision,
142. 5:25a big picture vision, and then conform
143. 5:28to it. And I think
144. 5:30if we talk about classical Christian
145. 5:32education,
146. 5:34probably the fundamental
147. 5:37uh answer to what it does
148. 5:39is it teaches truth or knowledge and it
149. 5:42trains students to conform to a
150. 5:44knowledge of the truth.
151. 5:45Which at some points in history might
152. 5:48have seemed a little angular. Like, what
153. 5:49do you mean conform to the truth?
154. 5:52It's basically virtue. So, if we know
155. 5:56that it is a higher good to love others
156. 5:59more than ourselves,
157. 6:01then then when we conform to that
158. 6:03knowledge,
159. 6:05then we are virtuous. And so, it's
160. 6:07really sounds oversimplified, but it has
161. 6:10been the project of classical education
162. 6:12for thousands of years. Last question I
163. 6:15have for you is if you have one piece of
164. 6:17advice to give educators on how they can
165. 6:20bring transformational learning to their
166. 6:21classroom practically in this day and
167. 6:23age, what last piece of wisdom do you
168. 6:25have for them? I would say the best
169. 6:27thing for a teacher to start with
170. 6:29is who do you want this child to become?
171. 6:32You're shaping the child, and that
172. 6:34expands your work greatly in the way you
173. 6:37teach. And I know that that's a little
174. 6:39intimidating, that some people think,
175. 6:41"Oh man, well what does that mean? How
176. 6:43do I cultivate virtue into kids?" Well,
177. 6:45that's habits, habit formation, good
178. 6:48good uh literature, stories. There's so
179. 6:51much to know about classical education
180. 6:53that in a nutshell what I would say is
181. 6:57the one piece of advice I would give is
182. 6:58go deep on pedagogy, learn what the
183. 7:01classical method is and how to do it,
184. 7:04and um
185. 7:05worry less about what you're going to
186. 7:07teach in the curriculum. Uh Dorothy
187. 7:09Sayers says that what we teach is grist
188. 7:12for the mill. The stuff you learn is
189. 7:15just so that you've got something to
190. 7:16grind up
191. 7:17and think about, right? So, that's my
192. 7:20last piece of advice. Amazing. Well,
193. 7:22thank you again so much for being one of
194. 7:23our Educators Summit speakers this year,
195. 7:25and we're so thankful for the work that
196. 7:26you are doing through ACCS.