Athanasius (4th century AD) is a true hero of the Faith.
Even though the Council of Nicaea had anathematized the deity-of-Christ-denying heresy known as Arianism in 325 AD, its influence lived on through infected Bishops. And as these false shepherds grew in prominence, they quickly realized that they needed to do all they could to silence one particular voice which was earnestly calling the Church to remain faithful to orthodoxy concerning the deity of Christ. If error was to endure, it had to conquer Athanasius. But the guy was relentless.
Although banished to caves in the desert, Athanasius wrote letters without end to pastors throughout the Empire, urging them to remain faithful to the true teaching of Scripture concerning the person of Christ — that he was not created by God, but was equal in essence (including in power and eternality) in all respects with the Father. This faithful church father was so impactful and so bold (and so hated by his opponents) that a slogan has been coined by historians that describes his approach — it was Athanasius contra mundum, or, “Athanasius against the world.”
His fervency paid off; at the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD the heresy of Arianism was confirmed for good. Well, except for JWs and Mormons. But that’s another post.
The point of the matter here is that Athanasius realized that he must dig his feet in and stand his ground against the strong current of worldly ideology because its errors would be catastrophic for the people of God. In his mind, it was him against the whole world.
And Classical Christian educators must have the same mind. It’s us against the world. It’s us against the strong and deceitful current of the postmodern world.
Back to My Definition
If you read the last post, you’ll remember that I offered my definition of CCE:
Classical education rejects modern and postmodern approaches to education by embracing and pursuing three classical roots: the existence of objective truth, the manifestations of order, and the teleology of goodness.
The part of this definition that I’m elaborating on here is, clearly, the rejecting other approaches to educating part.
The language of rejection here may seem harsh, but it is nonetheless accurate.
Were the classical model of education merely another suggested thing to try (like all the passing fads within the educational system), then we wouldn’t have need to articulate such strong philosophies for it. If this approach were just another flavor of modern public schooling, we wouldn’t have an army of parents willing to make large changes to their home dynamics (and economics) in order to accommodate the classical education they’ve prioritized for their children. It’s actually clear just from the sheer volume of interest in the movement that our society’s postmodern attempts at education need to be taken to the curb for removal, rather than taken to the shop for modification.
So, it’s CCE against the world.
Modernism came over to America from Europe around the turn of the 20th century and introduced empiricism, skepticism, perspectivism, nihilism, etc. into mainstream avenues of thought (i.e. into American universities). Each of these philosophical musings posits some form of truth-questioning or truth-avoiding, and so they all posed a deep threat to any semblance of education which sought to form truth into the minds of students. Adherents to these modern deliberately de-emphasized truth, and they became the professors, thinkers, and Education Board members of the 20th century.
Then following naturally in the footsteps of modernism has been postmodernism, along with its convoy of ideas such as structuralism, relativism, and intersectionality. Postmodern ideas about the world de-emphasize objectivity and stress subjective individuality. Worst of all, they leave the thinker without much of a sense of personal meaning, at least of meaning outside of the inherent obligation to suppress the contrarian beliefs and actions of the oppressor. Postmodernism shows up more and more today in the public school classroom – from student-directed learning, to cultural accommodation, to Critical Race Theory modules, to unthinkable elements of sex teaching to younger and younger children.
Having a century worth of drinking deep from the wells of modernism and postmodernism, the typical public school in America is not an entity which has hope of a quick reform. Perhaps without even realizing it, teachers, administrators, and governing board members (up to the federal level) have had their minds saturated with the educational techniques, psychologies, and philosophies of modernism and postmodernism. But as an alternative to the arduous and unlikely move to reform the current American school system is the dream to remake it by means of this thoroughly old but new approach known as the classical school.
Classical education, therefore, stands as a clear contender against modern schooling, and rejects the modern and postmodern philosophies which made the public school system what it is today.
But Some Turn Out OK…
But, hey! Some of us are products of public education, and we turned out ok. So why abandon ship?
Well, it may be true that some public school products aren’t liberal wackos, but it’s still the same kind of argument that a person would make for using asbestos as insulation because they knew a couple people back in the day who didn’t get cancer from it.
And what is more, do we really know how modern and postmodern educations have impacted our minds? Perhaps, if we had the humility and discernment to realize it, we would understand that those years in the religious schools of secularism (i.e. public schools) actually did negatively impact our thinking in ways we may not have noticed.
Here’s a little example from my personal experience.
I did 1st-6th grade in public schools. Most of that time was in a pretty conservative community in the South, in the late 80s and early 90s. I had teachers that were really great folks, from what I remember. But some of the most memorable things that I learned at school (things that come immediately to my mind today) were the following:
All the cheesy, narcissistic and pre-mainstreamed lyrics to a song called, “Proud.”
That, apparently, the most important things I needed to know in life (because we had all sorts of enrichments and acronyms for these things) was to not use drugs, not get drunk, not hurt the environment, not eat unhealthy snacks, not bully, and not make unwanted babies.
How absolutely boring Social Studies was.
That I had the bravest dad in the world who was the lone parent who cared enough to come attend sex education class with his kid. And how he had to correct the teacher about the right number of chromosomes that humans have.
But then when I landed in a liberal arts Christian school (which was really a Classical school before Classical was a big thing) for 7th grade, I was stunned at the following:
Mr. Paine’s history class was brain candy. Absolutely incredible.
I wasn’t as good at math as I had thought I was.
Grammar was really interesting, and I had to work hard to act like I didn’t like it to maintain my supposed coolness.
Music class which was actually academic was far far better than having circle time and doing programs.
To be honest, the kind of kids I went to school with weren’t hugely different between the public school and the Christian school. Kids are kids, generally. But it was the substance of material that I could tell was different. School went from a social activity to a brain activity. I was captivated by the content, even if I didn’t want to admit it.
So the moral of the story is that there really is an essential difference between public education and Classical Education. And it’s a difference which should be obviously attractive to Christians. A strong home and a strong church can support a child through a postmodern educational indoctrination, but sometimes they can’t. A wiser course is to send students to a school wherein the indoctrination will be Scripture, Truth, Gospel, Theology, History, Philology, Creation, Order, Morality, etc.
Therefore, Stand With CCE Against the World
CCE is thoroughly different from public education. Perhaps some of the tools are the same (paper, buildings, human voices, etc.), but the foundations and ends are radically opposite. Whereas public education is founded upon secular humanism, evolutionary cosmology, and relativistic epistemology, CCE is founded upon Christocentricity, Creation Order, and Divinely-Revealed Truth. And instead of aiming at healthy self-esteem and utilitarian societal integration of the student, CCE identifies the glory of God and the flourishing of his creatures as men and women in submission to his Christ as its highest end.
This all means that CCE is something worth fighting for. And that public education is something worth fighting against. Classical Christian schools cannot simply present themselves as a viable option for Christian families; they must rather identify themselves as rallying centers at which Christians must gather to do battle — battle for the hearts and minds of children, and battle against the ills of this world.