How does a parent cultivate honor in a child? How does a teacher cultivate a love of learning in a student? How does a school cultivate godly virtues in its pupils? What does “cultivating” even mean? Cultivating shares a root with culture and acculturate and agriculture and faculty. The root word cult comes from the past participle of the Latin word colere, which means “to tend; to guard; to till; to cultivate” and developed into the Latin cultus, which means “care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence.”
Clearly, in order to cultivate virtue in students, teachers, working in conjunction with parents, are tending and growing and caring for students in a way that teaches them to love what is good, true, and beautiful. It is teaching them to love the standard - the standard set by the Triune God, by parents, and by the school.
Cultivating virtue in high school students in some ways looks very much the same as cultivating virtue in the early grammar age students. Layer upon layer it is learned and assimilated into thoughts and actions as it is modeled and expected and trained and disciplined. But what tools do we use to teach virtues? By far, the great stories are the best teachers of virtue. Think of the great stories in the Bible, think of the parables of Jesus, think of the epics of ancient and medieval literature and the works of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.
Some may question why I ask my high school students to read C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Surely this is too adolescent for them. Surely the material isn’t challenging. Surely, there are better books for a high school student to be reading. Why read Narnia? During a time in their lives when they are curious about the forbidden fruits (drugs, alcohol, dating), they meet Digory, the young man whose curiosity gets the best of him and he brings great evil into the new land of Narnia. They must wrestle with the question: what do I do with my own curiosity? When is it OK to act on my curiosity and when is it sinful?
At a time in their lives when high school students wrestle with what it means to honor their parents and love their neighbor, they meet the four Pevensie children who become queens and kings of Narnia after allowing Aslan to do a great work in each of their hearts. At a time in their lives when they wrestle with being bold in their faith, they meet Reepicheep the mouse who is mightier than any dragon and faithful to reach Aslan’s country no matter the cost. At a time in their lives when they are struggling with bad attitudes, laziness, and self-centeredness, they meet the stinky boy cousin, Eustace, who turns into a dragon but learns what it means to be a knight through the patience and kindness of those around him. At a time in their lives when they are wrestling with what to pursue after high school, they meet Prince Caspian, a courageous boy prince who has to rise to the challenge of leading his people to victory over an evil tyrant.
The power of story to shape our loves is potent. Great stories instill in us a longing to mimic virtuous characters, to see our own faults rightly, and to confess our sins and shortcomings to the only wise God who is able to shape and mold us to look more and more like the greatest human who ever lived, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. If Jesus used parables (stories) to teach us much about this world and our role in it, then as parents and educators steeped in His story, His Word, the Bible, maybe we should diligently expose our children to all the great stories as well. Maybe this is how we cultivate virtue in our students and eventually reshape our culture to reflect our Creator.