The Good Soil Report: The Lifelong Benefits of a Classical Christian Education

by Jennifer Martin

In 2018 and 2019, the Association of Classical Christian schools commissioned a study by the University of Notre Dame to see if there were any long term benefits of a distinctly classical Christian education. The questions were not created by ACCS or Notre Dame, but, instead, were based upon the Cardus Education Study that assessed adults ranging from the ages of 23-44 who attended various types of schools. The survey included questions about graduates’ spiritual lives, their overall outlook on life, their ability to think independently, and their ability to influence their culture. The results, compiled in the Good Soil report, show that students who receive a classical Christian education are more likely to be successful in these areas.

Why is this the case? David Goodwin, the author of the Good Soil report, says that it has to do with the type of culture created in a school:

“Jesus’ kingdom, like every kingdom or nation, has a culture. The primary function of paideia in the ancient world was the cultivation of culture in children. Paideia is often translated ‘education’, but the concept is much bigger, encompassing the steady cultivation of deep, rich lives where the Gospel can take root and flourish. Ephesians 6 uses this Greek word paideia when it commands fathers to raise their children in the paideia of the Lord.”

One might assume that every Christian school has a similar paideia, but the Good Soil report shows that this isn’t true. The “steady cultivation” that the ancients focused on when educating their children was virtue and wisdom, through the teaching of the mind, the soul, and the body by means of the liberal arts. The Church of the Middle Ages believed that studying the liberal arts led one to the highest subject: theology. While many modern Christian schools use the same educational methods that secular schools use, classical Christian schools believe a study in the liberal arts is the best way to cultivate learning. This distinct culture is evident throughout the school day in the various ways that the author Goodwin presents:

“The combination of a wide and deep reading in the classics and student engagement around Socratic discussion tables tells part of the story. So does a focus on respect, manners, and a serious academic pursuit. Logic trains students to think well; rhetoric integrates all knowledge and challenges students to think at an advanced level; Latin to understand more precisely.”

The Good Soil report demonstrates that this type of culture helps students become lifelong learners better than any other type of secular or Christian education. Not only this, but classically trained students are also better prepared for college without having to spend a myriad of school hours on practicing for college entrance exams. According to the chart below, students from classical Christian schools said that they felt more prepared for college than even their prep school peers.

By focusing on helping students live a virtuous life, we believe that they will also be prepared for college without having to sacrifice the former for the latter. We have always said at Anthem that our purpose is to teach students in a way that improves their lives well into adulthood rather than focusing merely on getting into college. The Good Soil report demonstrates that a classical education prepares students for both.

According to the study, students who attended classical Christian schools also have a more positive outlook on life and a clear sense of purpose. According to the chart below, classical Christian students display more gratitude, embrace suffering as part of God’s plan, and feel a strong sense of purpose in their lives.

These students are also less threatened by conflict and are more likely to build relationships with those who hold beliefs different than their own. Students who are challenged to think through a variety of worldviews, while strengthening their own, feel more confident in their faith. The study of logic, rhetoric, philosophy, literature, and history all help students develop this comfortability. They don’t see this learning as a threat to their walk with Christ, but rather, they see an opportunity to engage with those around them. Chart 7 shows how this comfortability allows classical Christian students to hold a greater sphere of influence in their communities. This is, perhaps, the most significant difference between classical Christian students and other students from the survey. Tangible ways of influence include speaking out against injustice in the community, volunteering in both Christian and secular organizations, and being a faithful member of the local church.

These are just a few examples of the positive impact a classical Christian education can have on students well after their school years. While we in no way believe that a child’s salvation rests upon where they attend school, we do believe wholeheartedly that school culture matters in the shaping of a child’s affections. We encourage you to read the rest of the Good Soil report below to see for yourself. We hope you will consider enrolling your child at Anthem so you can see firsthand how deep roots can help the Gospel thrive in your child’s life.

The Good Soil Report

What is the Catechism?

by Dr. Jessica Drexel

The Catechism Lesson by Jules-Alexis Meiner

Classical schools acknowledge and celebrate that children are whole people made up of body, mind, and soul. Academic classes cultivate the mind, athletic programs train the body, but how does a classical school care for the soul? A Classical Christian school has the unique challenge of wedding academic training with spiritual formation. While Christian principles shape high level elements of the school, like its mission, vision, and curriculum, Anthem’s Christianity is also a practical part of the school day in which teachers and students actively participate.

That’s what the catechism is for. Because Anthem is ecumenical, students, faculty, and staff will come from diverse faith backgrounds, and the catechism will help centralize the elements that all hold in common. In addition, it gives the entire community shared language about the faith, and this language connects Anthem’s twenty-first century school culture with the Christian church throughout history.

In practice, the catechism is part of the morning Matins and also part of the classroom. The catechism consists of a series of short oral questions and responses about the core beliefs of orthodox Christianity. The catechism thus lays the foundation for a back-and-forth conversation between teachers and students about their shared faith. The word “catechism” comes from the Greek term for “oral teaching,” so this type of practice is easy to adapt to grammar level learning, where students excel at memorizing pithy facts and nuggets of truth. Students also thrive with the interactive nature of the catechism because they take possession of the answers to questions like “who is God?” and “what is virtue?”

Long after students graduate from their grammar years, they will return to the questions they learned to ask in their childhood. Our prayer is that many students will hold fast to the wisdom found in the orthodox understanding of Christianity when they encounter the realities of life, and that hardship and hard choices will not be the first time they consider these fundamental questions.

Even if a student sets aside the answers found in the catechism, we hope he or she will still ask the questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? What is the good life, and what makes it good? Ultimately, these questions are at the heart of a classical education.

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Jessica Drexel is an advocate for classical education and a friend of Anthem Classical Academy. Dr. Drexel taugh in higher education for seven years, most recently at Baylor University, and she currently teaches senior thesis, literature, and composition, and Latin at a classical school in Waco, TX.

School Culture Spotlight: What are Matins?

by Jennifer Martin

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

From Gerard Manly Hopkins' “God’s Grandeur”

Over the next few weeks, we will provide specific highlights of our school, including school culture, curriculum, and other components of the school day.

In our mission statement, we say that we desire to cultivate “Christ-centered leaders who know truth, practice goodness, and recognize beauty.” One of the ways in which we desire to do this is by beginning our mornings with Christ and with each other through the form of Matins. This Middle English term, first notably used in the fourteenth century, means “a morning prayer.” In the fourteenth century, monks would congregate together before starting their day to pray, sing, and recite psalms.

We want our students to practice goodness by forming the habit of meeting with God every morning as well as with their fellow men. This places an emphasis not just on one’s relationship with Christ, but with our need for one another to lead a more fulfilling life in Christ. As Christians, there is no better way to instill this in children than by meeting together to be reminded of God’s beauty and His truth to His people. For this reason, our students will gather every morning as part of the school day (whether they are wide-eyed kindergartners or seasoned older students) to pray, sing a hymn, and recite scripture. We will focus on one passage of scripture (generally a psalm) and one hymn a week so students can know God’s truth and hide it in their hearts. For our older students, this provides them with an arsenal of God’s promises to combat creeping sins, doubts, or fears that will frequently come up in their lives. For our younger students, they will develop the habit and its importance while also looking up to our older students as models of Christ.

You may wonder why we do not call our time together “Morning Prayer” instead of Matins, particularly since Matins is not as familiar of a term for us in our modern Christian culture. Not only does the word Matins bring in hundreds of years of Christian historical tradition with which we desire to link ourselves, but it also has an interesting second definition. In literature, Matins usually refers to the morning songs of birds. This more lighthearted definition speaks to a very sweet component of our school. I love the idea of God’s presence brooding over our students’ morning prayers and songs, much like a mother bird broods over her babies until they are ready to leave the nest. Even in our school’s name, Anthem, we see a proclamation of a song. We encourage students to live by Colossians 3:16, which states to “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” This verse is beautifully played out in our “morning songs of birds.”

Parents and grandparents will be welcome to stay and attend Matins every morning with their children if they wish. We desire to develop a community where both our young and old, our wild and wise, can worship together. Matins will only last about ten minutes each morning, once we establish the routine with all of our students.

Pioneer with us so you can watch and hear the joy of God’s word being hidden in your students’ hearts every morning!

St. Benedict delivering his Rule to St. Maurus and other monks of his order

France, Monastery of St. Gilles, Nimes, 1129.