7 Notable Schools: Educational Renewal across the Globe

I visited Ireland a few weeks ago and met with a group of homeschool parents just outside Dublin. As I was presenting on Charlotte Mason’s method of narration, it struck me that the principles and values of our educational renewal movement are not beholden to one single culture. Across the globe a Christian liberal arts education utilizing great texts with a sound pedagogy can flourish wherever it’s planted. Classical Christian education is not merely the domain of the US, but is taking root throughout the world. In this article I want to chronicle some of the exciting locations where some

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Practicing Peacefulness: Beginning the School Year in the Right Frame of Mind

With the start of school just around the corner, teachers are gearing up for another year. As usual, summer break has gone by too fast. And yet, at the same time, the attraction of new beginnings lures them back to the classroom. There is something about a fresh start that energizes, awakens, and inspires.  How can teachers approach this year in a way that is different from the past? Experienced teachers may have a good idea at this point what their growth goals are for the year. To be sure, taking inventory of one’s skill in the craft of teaching

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Funding the Mission: Values for Fundraising in Christian, Classical Schools

At Educational Renaissance, we seek to promote a rebirth of ancient wisdom for the modern era. We believe that education is so much more than getting good grades, receiving admission to prestigious universities, and fulfilling state requirements. To be sure, evaluation is productive, higher education is valuable, and scripture grants government an important role in maintaining an orderly society. But these goals taken individually fall short of beholding the grander purpose of education. What is this purpose? Education is about coming alongside students made in God’s image and helping them achieve their God-given potential. It begins with the question, “Who

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C.S. Lewis and Two Types of Education

Our educational renewal movement champions a return to the life-giving role great books play in forming lives of flourishing for our students and for society. We want our students to gain an appreciation for great literature and to be devoted to life-long learning. So if our goal is appreciation, should we do away with exams in order to really focus on appreciation? Don’t exams quench the thirst for literary art? In his 1944 essay, C.S. Lewis takes up questions like this with answers that might surprise us today. There are two types of education Lewis describes in his essay “The

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To Save a Civilization, Part 2: The Road to Rebuilding

In my previous article, I reflected on the nature of civilizations: how they emerge, what they are built upon, and why they fall. I specifically examined the story of the fall of the Roman Empire. While it is difficult for historians to identify a single point in time when the decline began, various cultural, moral, and economic factors interweaved to ripen the moment for Rome to fall. And fall it did, ushering in a two hundred year period known as the Dark Ages. While the Middle Ages themselves span a period of one thousand years, many of which were full

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Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 6: The Transcendence and Limitations of Artistry

In this series on apprenticeship in the arts we have laid out a vision for the role of the arts in a fully orbed classical Christian education. We began by situating artistry or craftsmanship within a neo-Aristotelian and distinctly Christian purpose of education: namely, the cultivation of moral, intellectual, and spiritual virtues. Then we explored the analogy between artistry and morality through the basis in habit development, including in our purview the revolution in neurobiology regarding the importance of myelin. We saw that some types of elite performance have more established pathways to excellence, allowing for deliberate practice, while moral

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2022 Summer Conference Edition

Welcome Summer Conference Attendees to Educational Renaissance The major classical Christian education conferences are now upon us. We begin with the Society for Classical Learning conference with the theme Recovering Beauty in Education June 15-18. This is quickly followed by the ACCS Repairing the Ruins conference June 22-25. Both conferences are in Dallas, and, if you are planning to attend in person, we would love to see you! UPDATE: We’re podcasting every day this week during the SCL Conference. Listen to our Reflections from the Pre-Conference: Here is a rundown of who is speaking when: Kolby Atchison, “Equipped to Learn:

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To Save a Civilization, Part 1: Conditions for a Decline

Why did Rome fall? In our present age, this question may yield insights that extend beyond historical inquiry. Rome, in the ancient world, was not simply another European city. It represented the pinnacle of western civilization and the magnetic core of order. Rome embodied itself as both the trustee of culture and the key to its future. When plagues spread and the economy struggled, no serious matter. One could count on the longevity of Rome to endure. You can imagine the horror, then, on that cold winter day when, Alaric, King of the Visigoths, crossed the Rhine and sacked “the

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What is a Learner?: Reading Charlotte Mason through Aristotle’s Four Causes

The goals and aims of our educational renewal movement center not on the quality of our curriculum or the quality of our teacher. Instead, the quality of learning is the true test of whether we are providing something of lasting value and worth. To that end, I have taken a look at the learner and applied Aristotle’s four causes to understand this pivotal aspect of quality education. In so doing, I have turned to Charlotte Mason’s Toward a Philosophy of Education to elucidate the fine points of the learner. The Four-fold Manner of Knowing an Object Among the most important

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Apprenticeship in the Arts, Part 5: Structuring the Academy for Christian Artistry

In the previous article we explored the need to counter the passion mindset of our current career counseling by replacing it with a craftsman mindset drawn from a proper understanding of apprenticeship in the arts. Apprenticing students in various forms of artistry (including the liberal arts) constitutes the role of the Academy that is most intimately connected to the professional working world. By making real these connections through actual relationships with the practitioners of arts (whether in athletics and sports, common and domestic arts, fine and performing arts, the professions and trades, or the liberal arts themselves) classical Christian schools

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