Where Are We Going?

The Christian way of life is never more than one generation from extinction. If our beliefs and traditions are not purposefully passed to our children, they die with us. That’s why education is essential. Education is the catapult with which we launch skilled builders and brave soldiers into the future to glorify God in all of life (1 Cor 10:31). The vision for Valor is to create an education community united in our common commitment to raise our children in the discipline of the Lord (Eph 6:4) instead of according to secular dogma. We want to be a community where doing things God’s way is normal.

That means we (and “we” here means our community of families and the school) train our children to serve God (Col 3:23–24), seek wisdom (Prov 2), and stand firm (1 Cor 16:13).

Serve God

We glorify God when we do what he commands. We want our students to fear God rather than man (Acts 5:29). We want to see them joyfully take dominion for God, working heartily as unto the Lord (Col 3:23–24) and thus extend Christ’s rule and reign on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).

Seek Wisdom

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7). Every subject we study at school is:

• from God because we’re studying his creation (Col 1:16–17).
• through God because he provides us with curiosity and ability to learn (Phil 2:13).
• to God because we are living sacrifices to God when he renews our minds (Rom 12:1–2).

We approach education with our students as a sacred quest for truth. We guide them to search for insight as for hidden treasure (Prov 2:1–5) so that they find Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col 2:3).

Stand Firm

Our culture wants to turn our children into cowards too afraid to be strong and courageous for Christ. We train our students not to be embarrassed to believe and obey everything written in God’s word (Luke 9:26, 2 Tim 1:8). If God says it, we believe and we love it. We teach them to gladly embrace and pronounce the Bible as the ultimate standard for all of life. That’s how they become steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord (1 Cor 15:58).

We’re partnering together to raise children prepared to rebuild a godly culture. We want God’s way of life to prosper and flourish in this wider Stillwater area. We have courage, conviction, and a joyful devotion to God (Neh 8:10) because Christ has died, and more than that, was raised to life (Rom 8:34). If God is for us, who can be against us (Rom 8:31)? With God on our side, our vision is to build a school community united by our common goal to raise children in the discipline of the Lord. God willing, we will graduate young men and women of valor who spread God’s glory from sea to shining sea.

God made mankind to rule. We became the rulers of earth when God gave us dominion over his creation (Psalm 8:6). The Bible tells us that God made us to rule in many different passages. In saving us, God made us co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17), inheritors of the world (Rom 4:13), and princes under the Prince of Peace. To be declared a child of God (John 1:12) means we join his household. And being in the household of the King of kings means you’re a part of ruling with him. Christ is the head, and we are his body (Eph 4:15–16).

Since our God-given calling is to rule, God-honoring schooling prepares students to rule well. That’s why Valor strives to equip students to walk in a manner worthy of their calling (Eph 4:1). To be prepared to rule, students need to receive a body of knowledge and a way of life. That’s why our mission is to educate and enculturate students in Christ.

What does it mean to “educate”?

When we say that our mission is to educate students, we mean that there is a body of knowledge we want them to understand and embrace. We don’t mean transferring bare facts from teacher to student. We teach students what is good, true, and beautiful according to God. We teach them to judge historical figures by the standard of God’s word, glory in biology as the work of a creative God, and exult in God through the beauty of good poetry and story-telling. We fill their minds with the glories of our endlessly glorious God and we equip them with the mental tools they need to keep learning and discovering for themselves.

What does it mean to “enculturate”?

When we say our mission is to enculturate students, we mean there is a way of life we want them to learn and enjoy. We’re developing a strong culture and training students to love it and follow it. Education isn’t complete until it gives students a whole way of life. If you train a child in the way he should go, when he’s old he will not depart from it (Prov 22:6). In other words, we want God’s ways to be normal to them. That means we are supporting area churches and the households who send children to school with us by making a school culture that:

• Reveres God and his word by prayer and thanksgiving.
• Deals with sin God’s way by confessing and asking for forgiveness without making any excuses.
• Honors our authorities by obeying right away, all the way, with a happy heart.
• Trains boys to be distinctly masculine and girls to be distinctly feminine, each according to God’s good design.
• Embraces the call to love neighbor by practicing courtesy and having good manners.
• Nourishes godly self-respect by dressing neatly.
• Cultivates discipline and punctuality by arriving on time.
• Ignites a passion and joy for learning about God by studying his creation.
• And much, much more.

Our mission is to teach students a body of knowledge that holds together in Christ (Col 1:17) and train students in a way of life that honors Christ (Phil 1:27); to educate and enculturate students in Christ. In doing so, we partner with parents to bring up their children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Valor uses the classical tradition in our Christian education and enculturation. What is classical education? It includes both educational content and a specific educational method.

Content

Classical education aims to revive and pass on the heritage of Western Civilization left to us by the ancients and curated by our forefathers in the faith. That means we read the great works of Western literature to form in our students a deep appreciation for the history of their civilization. Just because something is ancient does not mean it is good. Therefore, we teach our students to discern good and evil with the Bible as the light unto their path (Psalm 119:105).

Method

Classical education equips students with the tools of learning, the seven liberal arts. Students are trained to memorize correctly, read closely, think critically, write clearly, and speak compellingly. Our teachers guide students to create ideas with their own minds, not just memorize information for a test. Thus students are equipped to love God with all their mind (Matt 22:37).

The liberal arts

Let’s understand what we mean by the term “liberal arts.” An “art” is a discipline which produces something, as opposed to a “science” which is a body of knowledge. The fine arts produce music, paintings, and sculptures. The mechanical arts produce sturdy bridges, dry homes, and automatic watches. So what do the liberal arts produce? Knowledge. The liberal arts produce knowledge within the person using them. And not just the knowledge of bare truths—the deep wisdom that embraces goodness, truth, and beauty everywhere it is found as a gift from their Father in heaven (James 1:17). They are called “liberal” (from the latin liber meaning “free”) because their use creates free-thinking people.

So what are the seven liberal arts? They are divided into the trivium and the quadrivium.

The trivium

The three arts of the trivium teach students how to think with words, both in their mind and on the page. The result of learning the arts of the trivium should be students in whom the word of Christ dwells richly (Col 3:16) and so is expressed beautifully.

• Grammar teaches students the basic parts of each subject. Language grammar teaches students to read, the parts of speech, and punctuation. The grammar of history teaches students the timeline of events and people in the period studied.
• Logic teaches students how the parts of each subject relate. Logic in language teaches students to evaluate the validity of arguments and craft their own. The logic of history teaches students how history holds together in a coherent story and to assess the faults and virtues of each individual.
• Rhetoric teaches students to communicate their thinking effectively. This includes the skill of writing clearly and speaking compellingly.

The quadrivium

The four arts of the quadrivium teach students how to think with numbers in space and time. The result of learning the arts of the quadrivium should be students who praise God for his harmonious, intricate creation because they understand it deeply (Psalm 19:1).

• Arithmetic teaches students to think in numbers, including how numbers operate on one another (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc.).
• Geometry teaches students about numbers in space (area, volume, circumference, etc.).
• Music teaches students about numbers in time (whole-note vs. quarter-note, tempo, harmony etc.).
• Astronomy (or what we might call “physics”) teaches students about numbers in space and time (planetary orbits, lunar distance, etc.).

Classical education aims to give students the tools to think in words and numbers so that they are equipped to obey God by taking dominion of his world.

Thoroughly Christian

There is no truly classical education that isn’t thoroughly Christian. “Classical” is not a synonym for “rigorous.” Nor does it simply mean an education in the classic literature of the Western world. Classical education retrieves the seven liberal arts reformed by our forefathers in the faith during the medieval era. Those Christian scholars created an educational system from the seven liberal arts whose purpose was to teach subsequent generations to see Christ as preeminent in all things (Col 1:18) and that all things hold together in Christ (Col 1:17). Its goal was to create, perpetuate, and expand Christian culture so that the gospel which saves sinners would also transform civilizations.

Some have attempted to create a “classical” education void of Christ. By doing so, they wrest the seven liberal arts from their Christian purpose and use it to advance secularism. That’s not really classical education because the whole point of the classical tradition was teaching students to know and love Christ in all of life. The content and method of a classical education were developed by Christians for Christians to pass on a body of knowledge and a way of life so that the coming generations would know and worship God for his great works (Ps 78:6).