The Classical School as an Extension of the Covenant Community – Space for Charity in Relationships
God has revealed himself through the structure of a covenant, resulting in a community. The covenant is a legal bond but it is all the more a web of relationships. God as a Person relates to us as persons and calls us into covenantal relationships. In the Holy Scriptures we discover God relating to Adam and Eve. He speaks to Abraham and David. The Son of God incarnates and relates to his fellow human beings. His disciples enjoy the fellowship of the Spirit and they form the communion of saints.
This web of relationships is space for charity. Adam and Eve sin against the covenantal law spelling the end of their relationship with God. But God surprises them and us with charity in the form of truth and justice mixed with grace and mercy. God makes a way for the relationships of the covenant to continue. Sarah laughs in disbelief. God does not wink at her sin but he continues with his plan to provide her with a son. Abraham sires a son sinfully. God confronts the sin then provides the promised son. God promises David a son who would sit on his throne forever and in the fullness of time God delivers Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the Son of David.
As a Classical Christian School, St. Stephen’s Academy must make space for charity in relationships on every level. The climate of the classroom must be warmed by charity. Students are not merely sitting in their desks as individuals absorbing an education and performing toward their personal success. They are a community of students interrelating for the good of each other. Even in an academic setting we must practice the Apostle Paul’s instruction: “Put the interests of others before your own.” A student who learns and performs at a faster pace than his fellow student must at times slow down to help the slower student. This is not a hindrance to this quicker student’s education, but an enhancement. In every sphere for which we are preparing a student to engage as an adult, the skill and virtue of putting the interests of the others before his own is invaluable – as important as his classically honed skills of thinking. In other words “classical” and “Christian” need not be mutually exclusive.
Our students must be taught in the school setting to interact lovingly with each other. This begins with etiquette but it certainly does not end with etiquette. St. Stephen’s Academy reinforces what a child is learning at home and at church: how to interrelate lovingly. As Jesus said, “By this the world will know that you are my disciples – that you love one another.”
Space for charity in relationships impacts our methods of education. There is plenty of space in classical method for the interrelating of students. A classroom where students sit motionlessly and quietly is not always the best environment for learning. At times such behavior is necessary and productive. But lively discussion, recitation and physical movement are necessary to a classical method of education. Interaction between students promotes learning.
Teachers must lovingly relate to students. At St. Stephen’s Academy we require that students respect teachers and we take time to teach respectful behavior. This is an important part of the entire education. Without this investment of instructional time, the quality and quantity of the majority of time dedicated to academics would disappear. At the same time the classroom and especially the teacher-student relationship should not be sterile, void of love. A master teacher knows how to focus on teaching and to challenge students to excel. But a master teacher has also discovered the proper pace of academics inserting brief teaching moments that build covenant relationships. In these moments, students discover that their teacher is a real person, following Christ and expressing his love. In these moments the teacher becomes a role model for charity in relationships.
Teachers at St. Stephen’s Academy must also show charity to colleagues. The entire climate of the finest of schools can become tense as teachers fail to culture loving relationships. Everyone who enters the school site can feel the tension. Teaching, by its very nature is giving. Teachers freely dispense knowledge. When teachers become controllers, then violence is done to the very nature and definition of the vocation. The stereotype of the teacher who declares his classroom to be his domain where he is the “Grand Poopaw” is founded in reality. For this teacher, no one – fellow teachers, administrators or parents – can inform, influence, or question what happens and how it happens. This teacher possesses autonomous control. Such a teacher does violence to an academic setting. Worse yet: This teacher destroys covenant relationships.
Principals and Administrators must make space for charity in the classical school. A significant part of these roles is to promote a climate of charity. Such a climate enhances and sharpens learning. A principal who knows his teachers and students, interacting with them lovingly is a master principal. In this climate of charity he disciplines toward observable and heartfelt order. An Administrator who knows the families of the school and remembers daily that he serves them, is a catalyst for covenant relationships.
At St. Stephen’s Academy as we deliver academic excellence, we do so making space for charity in relationships. We believe that the covenant of God informs all spheres of life including our school dedicated to teaching children how to think. The words of the Apostle Paul “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol” may very well be applied to the school as it is to a marriage or a church. With the school in mind, the person bereft of love could very well know much but be worthless and irritating. The person could be a school director, principal, teacher or student. God calls all of us in the school to promote charity in our relationships. To do so is part of academic excellence. It is a biblical worldview informing a classical education.