The Classical Christian Paideia

One of the most important words in the lexicon of classical Christian education is paideia.

Davies Owens explains paideia this way:

Ultimately, classical education is more than cognitive tools, a conveyance of information, and the application of time-tested methods. A classical education uses these methods to form what our children love. It shapes their hearts through their joyful discovery of the true, the good, and the beautiful, leading to a flourishing life.

The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:4 refers to this formation as “paideia,” commonly translated as “training” or “disciplining.” This time-proven model strives to form the whole person. It does so by penetrating and directing a student’s deepest longings and loves.

The Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) website further explains that before the mid-eighteenth century, Christian paideia was the purpose of nearly all Western education. And they note that this was based, in part, on the Ephesians 6 command for fathers to raise their children in “the paideia of the Lord.” A classical Christian paideia, they continue,

seeks an inner transformation of the student. It cultivates the students’ habits of thought and action in order to view the world with certain foundational truths and thereby align their desires with God’s ideal. Classical Christian education’s objective, then, is to shape the virtues and reason so that they will be in line with God’s will. In other words, our objective is to cultivate a Christian paideia in students.

College preparation is not an end in itself, but can often result because most colleges are built on a Western model that reveres language and reasoning. CCE graduates are eager to learn and have excellent faculties in language and reasoning. Thus, college is a natural outworking of CCE. But, the chief end of education is to prepare students to worship and glorify God.

If you’re a Providence parent, you are committed to providing a classical Christian paideia for your children. You sacrifice to do so. You only get one shot at training up your children to worship and glorify God.

Here are a handful of practical steps parents can take to maximize their investment in the classical Christian paideia:

Learn more. Read, listen, and soak up all you can in order to understand what sets classical Christian education apart. (I always recommend BaseCamp Live as a great start.)

Live out the classical Christian paideia yourself. Children learn by example, and God has built them so that the example of their parents is the single most impactful force in their lives.

Align your home. Actively seek to make your home a base of operations for the classical Christian paideia to double the impact of what goes on at school every day.

Limit your child’s access to a smartphone. There are few things I know of that do more to lure young people away from worshiping and glorifying God than smartphones. Every parent should place carefully thought-out, intentional limits on their children’s use of smartphones. (Please see Protect Young Eyes and The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch for more help in this area.)

There is certainly more that parents can do, but these are at least a start. Most of all, I encourage you to stay the course, Providence parents. Let’s continue partnering together to pursue the high ideals of a classical Christian paideia, and with God’s help, we will see the fruits of God’s grace in your children’s lives for years to come.ence parents. Let’s continue partnering together to pursue the high ideals of a classical Christian paideia, and with God’s help, we will see the fruits of God’s grace in your children’s lives for years to come.