The Latin-Centered Curriculum

[I hardly dare add to the CiRCE Institute's excellent outline of principles that undergird and guide classical - and specifically Christian classical - education. But I do want to share some of the ideas I presented in Arizona. I apologize to any readers I met at the conference who have been patiently waiting for a whole month for my promised post on this subject.]

Before you can choose curriculum, you must define your educational philosophy. This is not an easy matter, for it quickly launches us into deep waters: What do I believe about the human person? What is the goal (end, telos) of education? What means best meet that goal? Once you have these answers worked out, you can begin to shop the marketplace of ideas to see which philosophy's assumptions best match yours.

To that end, I'd like to offer some radical notions - "radical" here in the sense of "root" - about classical education. What are the assumptions that classical thinkers and educators, ancient and modern, share about reality? And how are those ideas brought to their fullness for Christian educators? These points are, by their nature, generalizations. Not every Greek or Roman philosopher would have agreed with them. But I believe that they represent the ideas that won - the ideas that have become part of our uniquely Western worldview.

A. Reality exists, and we can have knowledge of it.
a. All is not "maya" [illusion]; the physical and spiritual worlds have real existence.
b. Physical reality is knowable through the senses and reason.
c. Spiritual reality is discernable, at least to a limited extent, by natural reason.
d. Divine reality is knowable, albeit to a limited extent, through revelation.

B. Reality is ordered.
a. Reality is, on the whole, neither random nor chaotic.
b. Nevertheless, randomness may be part of the natural world.

C. The ordering of reality is hierarchical; it is a matter of degree and distinction.
a. Hierarchy, or "divine order," is a natural part of Creation, not a human invention - although human beings can and do pervert it.
b. Hierarchy implies relative valuation: good and bad; better and worse; stronger and weaker.
c. Hierarchy necessarily implies the existence of absolutes. Not just good and better, but best.

D. Hierarchical order exists in the intellectual, moral, and aesthetic realms.
a. We can say "good, better, and best" about thoughts and ideas, about willful intent and action, and about form.
b. Order in the intellectual realm points toward Truth.
c. Order in the moral realm points toward Goodness.
d. Order in the aesthetic realm points toward Beauty.
e. Truth, Goodness, and Beauty are intertwined, so that we may, by analogy, speak of the beauty of a virtuous act, or the truth of an art work.

E. Truth consists of thought ordered to correspond accurately to reality.

F. Goodness consists of intent and action ordered toward the well-being of persons (and, by extension, to all Creation).

G. Beauty consists of form ordered toward balance.

H. Education should orient the child toward order: ordered thought (Truth), ordered will (Goodness), and ordered form (Beauty).

I. Christians understand God to be both the source and the goal - " the Alpha and the Omega" - of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful.
a. Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, wherever they exist, have their source in God.
b. Human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, have been given a measure of creative power.
c. This creative power allows us to understand and "co-create" true, good, and beautiful thoughts, actions, and forms. In fact, we are positively commanded to do so.
d. Human conceptions and manifestations of truth, goodness, and beauty are derivative; they only have real meaning in relation to their ultimate source and model, God.

J. Christian education should orient the child first and foremost toward God as the source of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.

Needless to say, these are not the only principles one could name. But I hope that they provide a starting point for parents who are trying to understand what we mean when we talk about a classical, or classical Christian, worldview and how it informs classical education.

Drew Campbell is the author of The Latin-Centered Curriculum.