Dr. Crain's Classical Comments

What follows is a talk I gave to Upper School students on January 16, 2008. While students come to our school many do not understand what CCCS is trying to accomplish. In short, we want to train students to serve God. We do that in two ways. The first is by training students using a Christian approach and the second is by training students using a classical approach. Last week I spoke of our Christian approach. This week I spoke of our classical approach.

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Sometimes students think that educators are out to get them rather than, well, educate them.   We all struggle with our own personal temptations but each vocation has its own peculiar temptations too.  What parent has not struggled with impatience as Johnny talks back for the 100th time?   What Super Bowl winner hasn't struggled with pride?  Students are particularly tempted to have misconceptions about their teachers and the educational process.� In order to address that and to give students an idea of what our grand goals at CCCS are I gave this address to upper school students in Chapel on January 9, 2008. Read More

You may have heard about the upcoming release of the movie, The Golden Compass. This movie is based on the first book in Philip Pullman’s series, His Dark Materials.

As Christians living in a society that has both good and bad, it is important that we train our children to discern the good and the bad. At our classes at CCCS we try to train students to be thoughtful Christians, which means that students must know what they believe and why and what others believe and why.

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The theologian Augustine (354-430) once heard someone ask a famous rhetorician what was essential to good speaking. The rhetorician responded, “Delivery! Delivery! Delivery!” As Christians we might ask, what is essential to godly living. While many answers would suffice, one answer surely would be “Thankfulness! Thankfulness! Thankfulness!”

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In the course of their studies here, especially in the upper grades, our students read non-Christian literature. It is literature that may be technically excellent but lacks a Christian worldview. For instance, in Ancient Literature, a 9th grade class, our students read Homer’s Odyssey. Homer was a great poet but he was a great pagan poet. So, why do our students read “bad” literature? Read More

Covenant Christian School exists to serve families by educating their children. When able, we also like to educate families on important cultural matters related to the raising of their children. One important issue facing families today is social networking.

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This short essay originally appeared in CCS's Communiqué, our monthly letter to parents, staff, and students.  If your copy got lost in delivery here is my lead article reprinted.

I have something to confess. My family and I are hot chocolate snobs. We didn’t intend on being hot chocolate snobs. It just sort of happened one day. I ran across a hot chocolate recipe and decided to give the heartwarming beverage a try. I was instantly hooked because I could taste the difference between the homemade version and Swiss Miss, just like most anyone can tell the difference between grandma’s apple pie and a gas station version. My children, having hardly ever tasted anything else but my special recipe, are ruined for life—hot chocolate aficionados, all of them. Read More

Today at CCS we celebrated by inducting several juniors and seniors into the National Honor Society. Students selected must excel in four areas: academics, leadership, service, and character. In my address I commended the students for using their talents for God's glory and I challenged everyone present to use their gifts to expand God's kingdom.

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At Covenant Christian School, we really do want to teach students to see God’s world through God’s eyes so that parents and their child(ren) can have enriching conversations when they sit and rise; when they walk and lie down (see my last post on this here).

Does this mean that we always have to mention the Lord in every sentence in order to have enriching conversations with our children? Not really. What it does mean is that every word we speak is informed by God’s Word.

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How far are you willing to go to raise your child in a Christian manner?

Reading Chaim Potok’s The Chosen challenged me to think about that question. In the novel Potok tells the story of an unlikely friendship between two boys, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders. Though both boys are Jewish they come from different, even antagonistic, Jewish traditions. Reuven’s father, David, is a Modern Orthodox Jew while Danny’s father, Isaac, is a Hasidic Rabbi.

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Latin is a dead language. Or, so it is said. But if Latin is dead then it speaks loudly from the grave. And I wonder if it is in the grave. Perhaps rumors of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. While Latin is no longer spoken, it is still widely studied and Latin classics are still printed. Moreover, when you realize the importance that Latin has played in the development of Western civilization—the civilization you are living in right now—you must confess that Latin may be old but is still vigorous in its old age, unlike some of us.

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This past Friday, August 18th, CCS had its annual convocation service. We begin each year with a convocation service to emphasize why human beings exist--to worship the Lord. In that service I set forth what God is calling us to do as a school, based on Isaiah 11:1-5.

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