Difficult or Good? – What I'm Reading

“As we educate our children and as we struggle to recover academic standards, we must take care not to equate ‘classical’ with ‘irrationally strict.’ I say this because my involvement in the classical Christian school movement has brought me into contact with more than one classical Christian school from Hell. Learning Latin can be difficult. Eating driveway gravel is always difficult. Some foolish educators think this puts learning Latin and eating gravel into the same genus. Classical education involves far more than pounding the students into an erudite paste. Genuine classical education has high standards, but the highest standards are for the schools, not the students. One of those standards is that children should be taught in such a way that they come to love their teachers and what they are learning.” (My Life for Yours, p. 129)

I included this (even though I am not a classical educator) because I believe it could be easily applied generally to all Christian education. Some Christian education is not a struggle, but those that strive for excellence need this type of reminder sometimes.  –Jeff Voegtlin