ACCS alumni live their faith
The Christian Life Profile looks at how the alumni’s Christianity translates into their life choices. As with Christian Commitment (p.12), Christian Life shows some common ground with evangelical and homeschools, though on different scales. If your desire is to foster a Christian life, clearly, students are better off in a conservative Christian school or homeschool environment overall. Given the biblical call in Ephesians for fathers to raise their children in the paideia of the Lord, this is our command as Christians.
Paideia, the ancient Greek word used in Ephesians 6, translates to at least seven words including fear, instruction, education, training, and admonition. Translators struggle to capture the concept of paideia in modern language. ACCS schools base their educational model on this older, biblical concept of paideia and its underlying principles. Conventional schools typically do not. This creates a very unique environment in ACCS schools where Christian paideia is infused throughout the method, content, and ethos of the schools. We believe this is reflected in the differences we see in our alumni when it comes to Christian living. Paideia is deeply rooted, and therefore acts like a time-released influence throughout a student’s life.
WITHIN THE HOME
When it comes to the home, the ACCS alumni surveyed have about the same aged children and about the same number of children overall as the median.
Blue bars are actual data. The red bars reflect the school’s effect, isolated from other family factors.
ACCS alumni and prep school alumni report marrying younger— about ten points below the median, but again, with a wide margin. ACCS alumni talk about God more, eat together more, and pray together more than any of the sectors.
More ACCS alumni report putting their children in a Christian school. We have no way of knowing if the school is classical. However, since ACCS alumni are outliers in the school types listed, it seems likely.