As the founding board of Paideia Christian Academy has developed our particular vision and philosophy of education, we have found it helpful to order that philosophy under three distinct headings; Christ-centered, Classical, and Collaborative.
CHRIST-CENTERED
In all its levels, programs, and teaching, Paideia Christian Academy seeks to:
A. Teach all subjects as parts of an integrated whole, held together in Christ, and as vital components of fulfilling the Greatest Commandment. [Col. 1:15-20; Matt. 22:37-40]
We seek to show how all subjects reflect the mind of God, and so integrate with one another; history with philosophy, philosophy with mathematics, mathematics with music. All things find their ultimate point of creation and integration in Christ, and are under His authority. If all things are not created by a loving and sustaining God, all subjects become meaningless and disconnected data points.
Furthermore, all areas of human study can be categorized under the headings either of learning to love God with more of our heart, soul, and mind, or of learning to better love our neighbors as ourselves. Therefore our goal is to teach all subjects as parts of an integrated whole, held together in Christ, and vital to fulfilling the Greatest Commandment.
B. Encourage every child to begin and develop a personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. [Matt. 28:18-20; Matt. 19:13-15]
It is an error to think that human beings can be brought to true morality through moral instruction or education alone. As Christian parents, we recognize that we are called to bring our children up in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord”, while recognizing that saving faith is a gift of God that cannot be earned by human works. In light of this, our aim is for every teacher and staff member to consistently model a child-like faith, and point children to the only One who can transform their hearts.
C. Model and build up the body of Christ, which is the church. [Eph. 4:1-16]
Every Christian has been given unique talents, abilities, and means in order to be a vital part of, and build up, the church. While a school is not a direct component of a church, but rather acts as an extension of the family, we desire to model and encourage connection to a healthy body of believers. Our children not only belong to us, they belong to Christ, and if they belong to Christ, they belong to his body. As children see many different reflections of God’s mind, embodied in teachers who are also part of the body, they will see that there is no area of learning or life which can be separated from God’s active working in the world.
As children regularly learn alongside peers, they will learn to more accurately assess their strengths and weaknesses, while learning to recognize the ways they can uniquely serve the body, and the ways in which others’ strengths can help them. They will learn to forgive and to resolve conflict with other children who are brothers and sisters in Christ. As they grow in these ways, we trust they will be shaped to be mature members of Christ’s kingdom on earth.
CLASSICAL
Classical education is in the midst of a broad resurgence in America, and so you may have read competing definitions of what it means. The following is our humble attempt to define what we most value in a distinctively Classical approach to Christian education.
In all its levels, programs, and teaching, Paideia Christian Academy seeks to:
A. Educate the whole child in virtue, a facility in the liberal arts, and a participation in the Great Conversation through study of timeless literature. [Prov. 1:7; Phil. 4:8; 2 Cor. 10:4-5]
We believe that true education is to form the virtue of a child, through shaping what he loves. As John Amos Comenius, a 15th century philosopher, put it, the three aims of Christian maturity are, “To know oneself (and with oneself all things); To rule oneself; and to direct oneself to God.” These are encapsulated under the three headings of knowledge, virtue, and piety.
As children are grounded in virtue, they can proceed to grow in knowledge through the seven liberal arts; the trivium (three ways), and quadrivium (four ways). These are time-tested roads, leading to wisdom, and traveled by Christians for thousands of years. Included in this are the skills of Logic and Rhetoric; using the processes of our minds well, and communicating truth persuasively and beautifully. These arts are to be used in the pursuit of higher aims, to craft philosophy (love of wisdom), and theology (knowledge of God).
Alongside the liberal arts, children will learn to participate in what some have called “the Great Conversation” through the exploration of timeless literature. While old does not always equal excellence, we recognize the value in great works that have stood the test of time and have much to teach us. As Christians, we aim to engage all knowledge through the lens of Scripture, praising what is true, good, and beautiful, and challenging what is false and harmful.
Through these central values, we aim to develop virtue, reason, and eloquence, leading to a love of wisdom, a knowledge of God and His world, and an ability to bring God’s truth to bear in every realm of human study and endeavor.
B. Encourage every student to develop a love for learning and live up to his academic potential. [Prov. 15:5; I Cor. 11:1]
Education is to be embodied and living. We don’t ultimately learn by transferring lifeless data, we learn when somebody embodies the knowledge for us. We are to imitate our spiritual teachers as they imitate Christ. We truly learn when we are in the presence of someone who loves what they are teaching, and they impart that love to us. These living examples for our children should come from Scripture, from church history, and from those who teach them in their own lives, and these embodiments shape children to love wisdom and be connected to the body of Christ.
We desire every student to pursue excellence in learning and wisdom. While every student will have different giftings, all students should strive to produce their best in all areas of life.
C. Provide a joyful and orderly atmosphere conducive to the attainment of the above goals. [1 Cor. 14:33]
An essential understanding of Christian education is that it is first of all a shaping of a person’s virtue and what they love. This includes responding to children with loving patience, and having right expectations of them and providing corrective responses. When joy-filled self control and a love of learning is modeled by adults, it becomes easy for children to emulate.
When an orderly environment is not maintained, fairness and joy in learning quickly become impossible. Our expectation is for the teacher to be in control of the class at all times, and be able to develop personal connections to foster positive relationships with students. Our smaller class sizes accommodate this well.
The headmaster will have the ability to decide if a child’s behavior requires a particular disciplinary response, including the need for suspension or expulsion, in order to maintain an atmosphere conducive to learning. In all areas of correction, a partnership between parents and teachers is critical to respond appropriately to the underlying needs of the child. The school does not use corporal punishment of any kind.
COLLABORATIVE
Paideia Christian Academy is distinctively “collaborative.” Though this model is new to our community, it has a well-established track record of success across the country. The following provides a brief explanation of the collaborative model we intend to use, as well as the unique strengths this model provides..
This model goes by several names: “collaborative,” “hybrid,” and “University Model®.” As the names suggest, the model aims to combine the best attributes of homeschooling with the best attributes of traditional schooling, integrating them into one educational experience under one cohesive curriculum.
PCA will provide a comprehensive, classical curriculum. Students will learn in the classroom two or three days per week with professional, qualified teachers. This will be a full school day with the full range of subjects. Parents will teach lessons and oversee assignments on the alternate home days as laid out by the classroom teacher. In the Lower School (K-6), the fifth day will be a flex day – a day for catching up on coursework, attending enrichment activities, or simply spending time with family. For the Upper School (Grades 7-12) there will be three academy days and two home days. Upper school courses are taught like those found in a college setting with non-academy days being primarily dedicated to completing assigned independent coursework. This model allows education to be:
A. Parent and family centered [Deut. 6:5-7, Eph. 6:4]
Collaborative education seeks to maintain the biblical responsibility God has given to parents to be the primary educators of their children. This responsibility belongs to parents – not to the state, not to the church, and not to the school (Deuteronomy 6). Our model empowers fathers and mothers to take a direct leadership role in the education of their children, while still reaping the benefits of a structured school environment.
We hope to push students back to their families instead of drawing them into a busy slate of academy-focused activities. This allows the family to prioritize time together as well as involvement with their church and community. Families can choose areas of interest in which to participate, whether open-enrolling in a school to utilize athletic or music programs, selecting community offerings for leisure or educational pursuits, or finding private lessons or home school co-op opportunities. Likewise, parents may recognize specialized training that would appeal to their family specifically, such as speech therapy or learning a foreign language, and PCA would be happy to assist these families in finding external programs to supplement their studies.
B. Provided by gifted, passionate teachers, empowered to excel in their craft [I Tim. 5:1-2]
Parents who select PCA to assist in educating their family will benefit from a ready-made curriculum package and carefully-crafted lesson plans. The academy teachers choose each piece of curriculum according to PCA’s classical and Christian distinctives, and then write lesson plans for both the classroom and home days to take students through each subject at an appropriate pace over the course of the academic year. On the classroom days, students benefit from the rigor of the disciplined environment, a range of instruction methods, and social learning opportunities.
During the remainder of the week, parents co-teach, guiding their children to complete coursework prepared by the classroom teacher. This arrangement gives parents more time to enjoy and train their children, with freedom from choosing and planning curriculum and always being “on” as the teacher.
The beauty of this model is the ability to preserve the influence of parents and to provide valuable academic resources, and the skills of multiple teachers. Perhaps the greatest benefit is the gift of time: parents have more time to impart their own faith and values to their children. In this unique partnership, parents and the school work together toward a mutual goal: to produce followers of Christ who love the pursuit of wisdom, rule themselves well, and direct themselves toward God; growing in knowledge, in virtue, and in piety.
Paideia Christian Academy 