The classical Christian culture of Abiding Savior Academy
A school’s culture plays a significant role in a student’s education. Does the culture nurture the development of the whole child – mind, body, and soul? Does the learning environment foster a love of learning, or is the school’s focus on standard assessment? Are students known and related to as individuals with unique interests, personalities, learning styles, and needs? Is the curriculum used edifying to society and ultimately to God? Is the school’s educational philosophy and teaching approach one designed to make a student a better worker one day or to develop life skills and character traits that will enhance all aspects of a life well-lived?Abiding Savior Academy is a distinctively classical Christian culture intent on glorifying God as we help our students develop into influential Christian leaders.
Our teachers, staff, and pastors endeavor to model Christ’s character as we support parents committed to raising children who know and love Jesus Christ. We have a responsibility to train our students in biblical truths that transcend subject matter and inform every facet of life. Not only do we seek to teach our students biblical knowledge, but in line with the extensive tradition of Classical Christian education, our students learn how God encompasses all knowledge: math, logic, literature, art, music, science, physical education, and history.
Classical Christian education utilizes the Trivium, which in Latin translates as “three roads.” These “three roads” are grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The grammar stage refers to the beginning of learning in which a student learns the foundational facts about a subject. Logic refers to the reasoning used to draw appropriate inferences among these facts. Rhetoric refers to an individual’s eloquent expression of the knowledge and understanding they have gained.
Modern classical Christian education recognizes that each component of the Trivium corresponds well with a child’s natural learning development. (Read the seminal essay by Dorothy Sayers here – The Lost Tools of Learning). As a result, Academy teachers at each stage of learning have created a classroom culture well suited to their students’ natural development. Learn more about the specific stages of learning on each of our Academic pages.
The culture of Abiding Savior Academy is one of caring not only for the whole child – mind, body, and soul – but also for the child’s whole family. We believe that education is a partnership between parents and school, and that a child thrives when parents and school are well-aligned.
Abiding Savior Academy is also committed to smaller class sizes (less than 20 students) to allow teachers to develop a meaningful relationship with each student and for each student to have the attention, time, and accountability that he or she needs to learn well.
The academic culture of the Academy places strong emphasis on language skill development. Language is the vehicle by which we learn, think, and communicate to others. A solid understanding of the English language – phonics, vocabulary, reading comprehension, parts of speech, sentence structure, argument formation – will benefit a student in all aspects of learning.
Our goal, and the reason for our distinctively classical Christian culture, is that our students will know our Creator by more fully understanding the world around them. We strive to develop within each student an ability to master new subjects and to express what they learn in a cohesive, articulate, and persuasive manner.
