Going Deeper
At Spring Hill Christian Academy, we seek to educate the whole person by instilling in children a wonder and curiosity about learning. This is done by following the natural stages of development by first filling the mind with facts and information, then providing the tools of logic which give the structure to organize and analyze information, and finishes by equipping students to form and express their own thoughts in a truthful yet winsome way.
All truth is God's truth because He made all things. Therefore all knowledge & wisdom finds it's source in God. As Christians, we approach the education of children as a primary task of faith given to us by God in Deuteronomy 6. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. These commands I give to you are to be written on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk (to them) about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lied down and when you get up.
As parents, our primary calling is to teach our children who God is & who they are in light of what God says about us. As educators, we are "in loco parentis" which means when you turn your children over to our care, we are acting in your stead and we are responsible first before God and then to you - the parents to make sure that we teach and train your children in truth, beauty, and goodness.
Over the past several decades, both parents and educators have come to realize that something is amiss in our educational system and they yearned for something more. This desire for more found it's answer not in something new but something old, ancient even, Classical Education. Modern Education focuses on teaching subjects or what to think but actually fails to teach students how to think.
They learn about so many things, much they should not know, but never actually learn how to learn. Classical Education has given us the greatest minds, artists, poets, inventors, scientists, theologians, philosophers, etc. because it creates thinkers and then invites them into what Mortimer Adler calls the "Great Conversation". Classical education seeks to develop life-long learners who are independent thinkers and can successful enter, navigate, and even change the world for good.
Classical Education is language focused which mirrors God who is The Word, so learning is accomplished primarily through written and spoken words. On the other hand, technology is very visually driven which not only develops different habits of thought it has been shown to actually wire the brain in a completely different way.
Language-based learning is much harder work as it requires the brain to actively understand and translate symbols into ideas and even images but visual-focused learning is passive and primarily receptive. There are many studies that now link screen-based media and digital communication to many neurological, academic, and social developmental issues. Likewise, studies now show that "un-plugged learning" is necessary for a child's brain to fully develop.
At SHC, we are not anti-technology; we just believe the child's brain and physical abilities need to be developed before they depend on technology as their source for learning and information. What this means practically is that computer-assisted learning at SHC begins in Middle School and we also have a no-cell phone policy. Students may have cellphones at school for emergencies but they are not to be on them during school hours; we seek to purposefully prioritize being present, face to face interactions, and developing inter-personal conversational skills.
