Winter 2018
Some years ago, Regents School of Charlottesville set a promotional video to the song by David Archuleta called “Glorious.” I was inspired by the words. The song metaphorically refers to believers as “a symphony” made of many players who, together, make beautiful the work of our Savior, the conductor.
As great as the song is, I will say that “worldview” reveals itself in one small way if you’re a quibbler. So, I will quibble. Archuleta’s faith is Mormonism, and the song was written for a Mormon film. In the song, each of us is a musician in God’s orchestra. For any religious belief that tends to hold a more works-based worldview, the song makes the most sense—we’re doing the “creating” (so the lyrics say). For trinitarian Christians, each believer would be better described as an instrument, with the Holy Spirit as the musician playing the song, and withthe orchestra conducted by Christ to glorify God the Father—a quibble, I know. I don’t want to diminish the beauty or value of the song. Rather, I want to point out how subtly worldview can influence our thoughts. In this particular song, if we are instruments, then from this quibble comes a helpful word-picture.
When my daughter bought her first concert violin, I learned something. She bought an instrument handmade by a master over a century ago. But that wasn’t enough. She then had it “tuned” by a master in a city 400 miles away. “Can’t you find someone here to tune it?” I asked. I learned that even the greatest instrument with the most natural quality needs to be tuned by a master. The bridge was modified, specific strings were chosen, tuning pegs were tweaked, and work was done on the inner instrument. The result was stunning.
I’m often asked how classical Christian education works with the grain of the child, and why it is necessary. After all, there are many good Christian kids who didn’t get a classical Christian education! The question to ask: Was my daughter’s concert violin such a beautiful instrument because of the master who made it in Indianapolis in 1912? Or, because it was tuned by a tuning master in Salt Lake City in 2014? Yes, to both. God creates our children, and gives them to parents to tune them. That’s where classical Christian education comes alongside.
To express Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, children need to direct their imagination. As we shape and hone your child’s imagination, we do so with great care. We do this with good stories—stories that reshape the metaphorical sounding-board to reverberate with beauty. We do this with recitation and structure as a master repeatedly plucks the strings until they vibrate in tune. We use the greatest tools the Christian West can provide to hone each instrument to the glory of God. And, we use methods that were learned by generations of educators from an earlier, more refined age. The school’s role is to fine tune your children so they are ready to be played in the providential symphony of Jesus Christ. Given the gravity of this calling, we ask for your prayers in raising up a generation to conduct itself as worshipers, tuned to love the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
–David Goodwin, President, ACCS
