by TY FISCHER
I knew she loved me. (I had fallen for her a while back.)
I know the exact moment when I knew that Emily liked me. Having made a fool of myself for a time, I remember the night she called me and said, “Hey, want to go climb trees?” I was a terrible tree climber. My end of the subsequent conversation went something like, “Yup! … When?… Now?… See you in five minutes.” That ended up being one of the most important moments in my life. I know exactly when it happened. Other times, the most important moments pass by and we hardly know it. In what moment did I stop being a boy and become a man? Was it at a football game, during a church service, or out chopping wood with my dad? I really don’t know. This is a little more like Telemachos, Odysseus’s son, who spent a lot of time whining about the suitors devouring his house and leering at his mother until that day when he was ready to go looking for his dad. In the end, he stands next to his father fighting to save their family and kingdom.
Movements, along with individuals, have critical moments. I have been part of the movement called Classical Christian Education (CCE) for almost a quarter of a century. When I got into this movement, I believed that it was fun and that it could be important. Twenty-five years later, I am even more convinced that this movement has grown to play a seminal role in preparing young people to become hungry worshippers of Christ and serious men and women of substance. Will this moment, like so many other important moments, pass without our movement and our schools growing up? I pray to God that it does not and that instead we can learn to support each other and that we grow up to be what God is calling us to become: men and women, sons and daughters of the Great King ready to ride forward in faith, fearing no darkness. But where to start? I have something really simple that you can do to move this forward. Come to the Back Room and join the community. It is a “room” that is part of The Classical Difference that will give you the inside scoop on what ACCS is doing to grow classical Christian education and make it available to every Christian family in America. It is not a Back Room for the fainthearted, however. In it, you might find ideas and initiatives that warm your heart and call you to dig in and help. Find your way to the Back Room. This is where it starts.
TY FISCHER is head of school at Veritas Academy in Lancaster, PA, and ACCS’s Board Director for Strategic Growth. He has been a board member for ACCS since 2003 and has completed a number of curricular projects, the most notable being Veritas Press Omnibus Curriculum Project. He holds a B.A. in History from Grove City College and an M.Div. from Reformed Theological Seminary.
