Christian faith. The purpose is not just so we have a good answer when someone asks, but to bolster our own faith. What do we tell ourselves when we ask, “Why did God let this happen?”
Now I am finding that I need to use a different type of apologetics—one that defends classical Christian education. Perhaps you have as well. What do you tell someone who asks why you put your child in a school that emphasizes memorizing so much? What do you say when they ask, “What is the purpose of catechisms? How are you ever going to use that in your life?” What do you say when they ask, “Aren’t they ever using their imagination?” If you have been asked these questions, here are some answers for you.
The best imaginers of the past have all had one thing in common. They knew a great deal about many, many things. Think of Leonardo da Vinci or Benjamin Franklin, Dante Alighieri or Plato. In their minds, these people had memorized a storehouse of information that they could then apply to solving new problems and thinking in new ways. The memory holds the building blocks of the imagination. Without knowledge of what is, we cannot create anew.
God made our minds to be able to hold an incredible amount of information. What does he want us to do with that kind of power? In classical Christian education, we believe He wants us to create in imitation of Him. We also believe he wants us to use structure, like he does, to organize all the information we learn.
The grammar ages are the optimum time to train our prodigious memories. They need to be in shape to tackle all the information in this big world. During the grammar years, not only can we train their memories, but we can begin to give them the raw materials for a lifetime of creation and joy. Do our students create in the grammar years? Of course they do. They are beginning to use what they have learned, and the structures they have been taught, to build uniquely. Right now, they are busy stocking up on those raw materials, and then I think we will all be properly amazed by the Kingdom God allows them to create.
Jennifer Cable, Elementary Principal