At Trinity, we believe education is not mainly about what you know, rather, education is about what you love. In short, education is about virtue. A virtuous student not only knows many things, but uses his or her knowledge in wise and winsome ways. Singing (especially singing together), directs our loves and grows virtue in the hearts of students towards what is good, true, and beautiful. Here are three ways singing moves our students towards Godly virtue at Trinity.
- Singing calls our minds and bodies to engage with beauty and truth.
We live in an age of passive consumerism. The TV teaches us to sit back, don’t think too hard, and simply be entertained. Singing is the opposite. Our mouths, vocal cords, and lungs leap into action when we sing. Instead of merely listening, we participate with the beauty of the music and the truth of the lyrics. Our minds and bodies grow familiar with beautiful truth and our hearts incline towards virtue.
- We remember great truths through singing.
Virtue requires the remembrance of truth. The quick recall and ready wisdom to apply to any situation. Thankfully, God made humans with the ability to remember thousands of facts. Singing is a powerful way to ensure that truth sticks in our memories for many years. We see this in action every day at Trinity, students remembering reams of information through the medium of singing. Ask any third grader this year about the Mediterranean Sea and you will not hear a jumble of dry facts, rather you will hear a pleasant song with all the important facts organized into neat sections. In the quest for virtue, singing provides one of the best ways to remember truth. - God commands us to sing his praises.
In the Psalms, King David implores the people of God to sing His praises over and over. Psalm 47 alone contains six separate commands to sing! Using our voices to praise God is a fundamental act of worship for the Christian. At Trinity, we place a high value on singing for this reason alone. Yes, the virtuous student sings to engage mind and body. Yes, the virtuous student sings to remember truth in a powerful way. There is no virtue however, unless we obey the word of God. Based on scripture, we believe that every student must be engaged in worship through singing.
The Lord your God is in your midst, “ a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." Zephaniah 3:17
Jonathan Fant
K-12 Music Teacher