What Do You Want?
An Address to the Lower School Parents of Sager Classical Academy (August 15, 2024)
I’ve spent the past twelve back to school years as a classical Christian educator. I’ve also spent the last ten years as a parent of a classical Christian student (in fact, three classical Christian students). Each year I sit, as you are sitting, wondering what the school year holds in store for my children. I sit wondering what this evening will teach me? What will it tell me about the year? Will I be inspired? Instructed? Maybe I’ll be worried, confused, or bored? I imagine all these feelings and more are represented in this room tonight. So, how does one stand in front of such a room and speak a meaningful word, words of reassurance, hope, and joy?
The typical approach is to start with what we as school leaders know, and then communicate to you this knowledge. Some of that will certainly happen later. But I don’t plan to start with what we know. I plan to start with an altogether more important question: what do you want?
In his excellent book, You Are What You Love, James K. A. Smith writes the following in his preface and the beginning of chapter 1:
If you are passionate about seeking justice, renewing culture, and taking up your vocation to unfurl all of creation’s potential, you need to invest in the formation of your imagination. You need to curate your heart. You need to worship well. Because you are what you love. And you worship what you love. And you might not love what you think. Which raises an important question. Let’s dare to ask it. What do you want? That’s the question. It is the first, last, and most fundamental question of Christian discipleship. ~James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love (xii-1)
Smith makes a bold, but I think correct, claim in this selection: what we want reveals what we love, and what we love defines who we are. So, as you sit here tonight, I ask you this important question: what do you want?
You probably want your child to make friends; to learn to read, write, and do math better; to get a Christian education. You probably want some order to the schedule after a summer vacation. You probably want me to keep this talk short. But I hope, after everything else you might want, or think you want, that what you truly, ultimately want for your child, is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And if this is what we want for our children, we can’t afford to ignore how every aspect of their life (including education) will guide them towards or away from this goal.
Because education is discipleship into a way of life. Let me say this again: education is discipleship into a way of life. Not just Christian education, mind you. All education is discipleship into a way of life. The question we must ask when we send our children to school is not if they will be discipled, but into what way of life will they be discipled. SCA is a classical Christian school–and over time, I (and our deans and teachers) will provide numerous opportunities for you to hear more about what that means–but as a classical Christian school, let me suggest to you five foundational elements that inform all that we do–not surprisingly, these form our five-part vision as a school.
First, we are Christian. Everything that comes to exist comes from the creative activity of the loving, Triune God. Therefore, education must form students into persons who can see everything in relation to the God who created it. Art, literature, mathematics, sciences, and all the rest should draw our attention back to God. For since all created things come from God, we cannot rightly or fully know something until we know it in relation to God.
Second, we are classical–and we are classical because we are Christian. The Christian tradition, early in the history of the church, recognized in classical education many valuable qualities and adopted it as their own. Time and again, the early church made clear that since all truth is God’s truth, any truth (even an educational model) rightly belonged to God and was a gift to the church. So the Christians made use of classical education and made it their own, and the church has handed this beautiful education down to us today. What is classical, though? We need more time than I have tonight. But let me start the conversation. Some focus on the method (memorization in early grades, asking questions in middle grades, and talking and honing rhetoric in high school). Others focus on content (Great Books, classical languages–Greek and Latin–logic, and more). Finally, some focus on the arts (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy–known as the liberating arts because they set us free) that teach students the learning skills necessary to learn anything on their own so they can become lifelong learners. All these have merit. But what really defines classical education is its emphasis on formation–it focuses on what makes a flourishing human person, more than any focus on method or content.
Third, we are hospitable. The way of Jesus, the way into which we seek to disciple our students, is characterized by the Great Commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To love our neighbor demands hospitality. We welcome students as human persons created in the image of God and who are therefore worthy of dignity, respect, and honor. We teach them to treat others likewise. This is the essence of hospitality–seeing Christ in each individual and treating them with Christian love.
Fourth, we educate towards formation. We teach students not only what they need to know, but also, according to Jesus, what they ought to want. We train them in the way of Jesus to love what is worth loving, to rightly order their affections, such that they love God, their neighbor, and the things of this world in the appropriate ways. Moreover, as human beings we are embodied–we are enfleshed souls–meaning both body and soul matter. Therefore, education at SCA forms the loves and orders the affections of the students through their head, their heart, and their hands.
Fifth, we aim for joy-filled education characterized by the fruit of the Spirit–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The order of words does not always matter, but I have always thought that the order matters here. Self-control comes last because it is the hardest to fake. Love comes first because it is the well-spring from which all the other fruit gets its nourishment. Aim for love, practice Christian charity, and it erupts into joy. And a place filled with love and joy becomes characterized by all the rest of the fruit.
So, in quick review. We are 1) Christian, 2) classical, 3) hospitable, 4) formative, and 5) joy-filled because of an emphasis on Christian love. These are the five markers of our vision at SCA, which flow out of our mission: the mission of SCA is to guide our students to investigate truth, pursue goodness, and cultivate beauty in all areas of life. We believe that education is founded on and directed by Jesus Christ, and that learning should be joy-filled, life-long, and driven by our faith.
Driven by our faith. This leads me to one last point. Classical education is often described as the cultivation of wisdom and virtue. Classical education also nourishes the soul on the good, the true, and the beautiful. Classical education is formative. But classical Christian education is driven by our faith, which means wisdom and virtue must be defined in Christian ways. Here, I think 2 Peter 1 gives us a vision that I hope will inform and breathe life into our school year.
Second Peter 1:3-11 says:
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Notice, Peter is fully aligned with an education in virtue. In fact, he goes so far as to tell us to supplement our faith with virtue, by putting our faith into practice by the practice of virtue. Similarly, Peter speaks of supplementing our virtue with knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. The goal, in short, is godliness. I think this passage helps us understand that for Peter, virtue bears fruit through the exercise and practice of Christian love.
So we return to the beginning. What do you want? What do you want for your child this year at SCA? Peter tells us that we should want godliness expressed through Christian love, for in this way (v. 11 tells us) “there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” That’s what we want for your child, and it is the foundation upon which everything else we do this year will be built. We’re excited that you have decided to partner with us on that journey.
The Classical Thistle 