The classical Christian education model of medieval Europe migrated to the American Colonies after the Protestant Reformation, and the majority of our Founding Fathers received this type of education. However, around the turn of the 20th Century, European Enlightenment thinking was applied to the challenges of educating a growing immigrant population, and the classical Christian education model was eliminated from public schools.
The nature of man is such that he will continue to search for meaning, but for most Americans, the historically proven classical Christian education method has been removed from their reach. One tragedy of this turn of events is that the majority of Americans don’t even know what they are missing, and history generally teaches ignorance leads to a repetition of past mistakes. Another even graver tragedy for our culture lies in the fact that the classical Christian education regularly generated national leaders. Will we soon find our nation in bondage because we have abandoned the tried and true principles of the past? Thankfully, a renewal movement is beginning within the Christian home schooling community as a few brave families venture into classical Christian home schooling which is, to them, a new frontier, but in fact, is as old as antiquity.
#1 by Jacob Lee - November 5th, 2007 at 00:38
I am an Orthodox Christian and home schooling seems to be very popular in Orthodox Circles. I think some people are drawn to Home Schooling because there is no education system the meets their values.
JL
#2 by Diane - November 12th, 2007 at 16:56
Hi Jacob,
Thanks for the info…in my region of Indiana, there are more Catholics and Protestants than Orthodox Christians, so I am so glad to hear that you are embracing home schooling, too! It would be really hard to share our values as parents if our kids were gone all day long!
#3 by Saint Photini School - April 28th, 2008 at 16:47
Classical homeschooling offers a wonderful opportunity for the whole family to engage in a meaningful educational process that yields excellent results. We came late to the classical homeschooling movement but our Orthodox Christian Classical home school site offers links and downloads for other Orthodox Classical homeschool families.