“Only true education [from the Latin, educare, meaning ‘to lead out’] . . . leads our students out of poverty and gives them riches, . . . from the prison of their own time and the blindness of their own opinions in the small bubble by granting them the society of the best and greatest minds of every age . . . Education is an eternal concern.”  – from the lecture “Noble and Free: The Powerful Purpose of Classical Education” by Thomas Caucutt.

At the risk of being sued by particular book publishers, I am not going to comment here on certain books that pass as “student literature” today.  You know the ones I’m talking about, little thin books, printed on cheap paper, that follow the adventures of a captain who wears underwear or a club of babysitters.  (O.k., maybe I just commented there).  A book like that might be a fast, funny read, but if you were to classify each of those, would you say they fall under “poverty” or under “riches”?

There is nothing neutral in education.  The literature we choose, the textbook we study, even the approach we take to math is either poverty or it is riches.  

After a few short twelve years (or beyond) “in school”, what would you rather have piled up for your child, or piled up within your child – poverty or riches?  

I don’t know about you, but I want to give my children riches.   The depth and drama in Aesop’s fable “The Tortoise and the Eagle” captivates not just the student’s imagination, but their soul.  The humor and twists and turns in C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce not only keeps the student turning pages, but incites a wonder about heaven.  

Our culture is bloated with poverty entertainment.  Just a quick scroll through the movies available through my streaming channels or the content on my Facebook feed is enough to sicken me with the destitute offerings of our culture.  It’s gross.  It’s disgusting.  It’s the bankruptcy of the soul.  

But a classical, Christian school is the polar opposite of that.  A classical, Christian education doesn’t waste time with deprivation and instead marinates in richness.   It’s the richness of a Biblical worldview shaping everything we do versus the poverty of a pseudo-neutral culture.  It’s the richness of teachers and staff who deeply care for your child.  It’s the richness of a place, an entire school culture, that believes that your child, a child of the King of Kings, deserves only the best.  

I don’t know about you, but I will trade poverty for riches every time.  

Holly Kalton
Head of School, Libertas Academy