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Classical Christ-Centered Education

Christian Heritage School is a classical Christ-centered school.  Classical Christ-centered education at its core is the effective integration of faith and learning.  Broadly speaking, classical Christ-centered education is “…the cultivation of wisdom and virtue by nourishing the soul on Truth, goodness, and beauty so that the student in Christ is better able to know, glorify, and enjoy God.”

By Christ-centered, we mean that:

  1. CHS teaches all subjects as part of an integrated whole with Christ at the center, thereby acknowledging the supremacy of God and His investiture of Himself in all knowledge.  In other words, Truth (see John 14:6) is at the center of the educational process, and all instruction comes from and focuses on God as the “all-knowing Knower of all things."

  2. CHS educates each child according to his/her God-given way (bent) by presenting materials to be learned in a manner consistent with the student’s stage of development.

  3. CHS seeks to cooperate with God as He moves students from knowledge to understanding to wisdom and to help students see how God has infused these components into all they learn.

  4. Because God is infinite, learning about Him and His creation is a lifelong process in which we must all participate and for which we must all be equipped.

  5. A thoroughly biblical worldview establishes and informs each aspect of our educational endeavor.

By classical, we mean that:

  1. There is an inter-relationship of all subjects.  No subject truly stands alone, but has touch points with all others.

  2. Students learn in different ways as they mature, and there is a style of learning best suited to each stage of students’ maturation.  In its instructional programs, CHS seeks to apply that style appropriately at each stage.

  3. Every subject at every level has fundamental information that can be known (grammar), a logical ordering and structure of that information (dialectic), and ways of applying and giving meaning and expression to that information (rhetoric).

  4. CHS teaches students how to learn by providing them with tools that enable them to attack subjects appropriately at any level.  This further foments a desire and love for learning.

  5. CHS emphasizes and seeks to preserve and pass to successive generations the richness of our Western cultural heritage.

The classical Christ-centered curriculum finds its bedrock in the treatment of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom in the Scriptures—especially in Proverbs—with Proverbs 2:6 being a key foundational passage.  Divided into three components of learning (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric), the classical Christ-centered curriculum best complements the three stages of cognitive development (poll-parrot, pert, and poetic).  By incorporating grammar (the fundamental data that one can know about subjects, or knowledge), dialectic (a logical ordering and structure of what one knows, or understanding), and rhetoric (ways of giving meaning to, applying, and expressing what one knows and understands, or wisdom) within the curriculum, our students receive and achieve more than a collection of information – they are equipped with skills that will make them lifetime learners.

Through its classical Christ-centered curriculum, CHS seeks to equip every student to fulfill his/her God-given potential in all subjects, to develop critical thinking skills within each student through didactic instruction and Socratic dialogue, and to teach each student to communicate eloquently, persuasively, and effectively.  Because of our fundamental desire to integrate faith and learning, our teachers are free to evaluate and adapt curriculum materials so that they accurately express God’s truth.  In doing so, teachers seek to inspire biblical scholarship and independent thinking in their students, with the ultimate goal of interpreting the subject matter in the light of a biblical worldview.

To learn more about classical Christ-centered education, we recommend the following resources: