In response to a recent question about Dominion’s approach to spelling, I offered the following response.

At many schools, spelling and vocabulary tests are already a thing of the past. Some educators consider them a useless relic because spell-check has changed our culture’s approach to spelling. Dominion views spelling quite differently. We think words matter, especially since God has revealed himself to us in language–as the Word (Jesus Christ) and in the Word (the Bible). Consequently, we expect our students (and teachers) to use words and language well, to God’s glory.

Our school continues to value both spelling and vocabulary instruction and assessment, and we do so for several “educational” reasons. First, we believe spelling plays a developmental role in education. It’s a crucial part of a logocentric (word-centered) approach to education. Reading and writing (and, by extension, thinking) all depend on the effective use of words and language, and spelling plays a central role on the language-learning team. Students who learn to use language well are able to think more clearly and approach their own education more reflectively.

Second, from a practical perspective, good spelling makes for better self-presentation, better research, and better presentations. Moreover, in our test-centric society, where college admissions, employment, and more depend on effective written communication away from a spell-checker, spelling is a skill we ignore at our peril.

Lastly, learning to spell correctly (and correct misspellings) positively affects character. It cultivates attention to detail, conscientiousness, and pride in one’s work. In short, it’s one more way we encourage our learning community to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength.

We view education as much more than what happens in the classroom. In leading children toward wise living, we’d like to leave little to chance as we make the most of every opportunity to teach.

Science has become a big deal in US education. Educational Cassandras prophesy the demise of the American superpower if we don’t cultivate more scientists. My suspicion is that these folks are not really after scientists, who would help us to understand the created world and improve the lives of human beings. Instead, they are after the means to increase the US’s GDP (and perhaps affect some other economic indicators along the way). In short, it’s about supremacy more than science.

Science, after all, is really about understanding. The word comes from the Latin scientia, or “knowledge,” and the practice that yields knowledge of the natural world is observation. In fact, observation is the foundation of science. The Christian practitioner of science, or scientist, should take observation a step further–to wonder. The things we observe, however mundane they might seem at first, should rouse in us a wonder that such things proceeded from God’s hand. And in education, the teacher’s chief work is to demonstrate wonder and to guide his students in practicing wonder.

Dr. Gary Greenberg has provided a kind of test case for this, in his photography of sand. That’s right–sand. The absolutely ordinary stuff we dash through on our way to the ocean, the stuff we pile into temporary castles, the stuff we find in the tub for weeks after a trip to the beach. As you can see from the picture above (and others in the linked article), sand is anything but ordinary.

How do we “wonder” at such photos? We can begin with oohs and aahs, but we dare not stop there. What does it say about our world–its beauty and complexity–if something as “common” as sand bears this level of care? What does it say about our God, who paves our beaches with this stuff? We can go further into wonder if we consider God’s promise to Abraham: “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17). God’s immediate meaning is multitude, as Abraham knows; but can seeing what sand looks like, magnified 250 times, increase our wonder at the richness of God’s promise? It should.

Critics of liberal arts education sometimes bemoan the “absence” of science in schools like Dominion. But science is not absent at all. We observe, we wonder, we journey toward greater understanding, and end with worship of the God who made all, and made it so wonderful.

(h/t: Circe’s Forma blog)

Dominion invites new families to apply for admission beginning February 21, 2012. We anticipate another year of solid growth, as well as some full classes, and we review applications in the order received, so please consider the calendar below as you ask whether Dominion would be a good educational fit for your family.

Reenrollment applications due: March 1, 2012

New applications accepted: February 21, 2012

We hope you and yours enjoy a merry Christmas, as well as Christmastide, the season from Christmas Day to Epiphany (January 6). Our classes resume January 3rd.

Our Fathers, Football, and Philosophy meeting last night considered the place of athletics in the Christian life and, specifically, in the Christian school. I’ve collected a couple of the relevant quotes that we discussed below.

“We are citizens of the earthly city to the extent that we love the earthly city as an end in itself; we are citizens of the heavenly city to the extent that we make use of the earthly city—including its astonishing arts and cultural attainments—as a way of loving God.” (St. Augustine, City of God)

“I never watch a game passively. I’m never just observing. Not only do I always have the remote ready to change the channel when a commercial comes on, I seek to draw Chad’s attention to any evidence of humility or unselfishness I observe, as well as any expression of arrogance or selfishness. I will celebrate the former and ridicule the latter. For, more than anything, I want my son to celebrate and pursue true greatness in the eyes of God.” (C. J. Mahaney, Game Day for the Glory of God)

“Playing sports holds great potential for growth in godliness for our [children], but only if we as fathers lead [our children] theologically and strategically.” (C. J. Mahaney)

We considered the ideas of truth, goodness, and beauty where sports are concerned. How does truth appear in sports? Beauty? Goodness?

Goodness gave us an obvious area to explore: sportsmanship. That term can be defined affirmatively (this is good sportsmanship) or negatively (this is not good sportsmanship. For practice, we looked at two video examples of player celebration, both following a player’s sacking of the opposing quarterback. Here are links to the videos:

1. Stephen Tulloch sacks Tim Tebow  |  2. Aldon Smith sacks A.J. Feely

Key questions: How do these celebrations, both of a similar event, differ? Is one “good” and the other “not good”? Why?

Other examples:

Top 10 Examples of Bad Sportsmanship  |  Top 10 Examples of Good Sportsmanship

As parents and friends, we need to be willing to watch sports actively, and to recognize that “watching actively” means more than shouting encouragement at the screen. We need to seek out examples of goodness–and truth and beauty–to illustrate those concepts for the world around us, especially for our children. That’s what Augustine means by using the city of man to love God.

Now is the time to put this into practice. The BCS season is upon us, and for the basketball fans among us, March Madness is mere months away. Purpose to watch sports carefully and wisely, pointing out the ways God is glorified (whether the player realizes it or not) or dishonored by what you see. In addition, as your children have opportunity to play sports, encourage them to approach the sport with this truth in mind–that God should be glorified in whatever we put our hand to (1 Corinthians 10:31).

As we begin to consider sports programs for Dominion, we want to keep in mind these things. We want to pursue sports in light of our mission; not merely because schools ought to have sports. I believe classical schools need sports, that they might not really offer a classical education without sports. However, I think a classical and Christian school like ours must remember (and remember, and remember) that nothing neutral exists.

Nothing is neutral. Parents are to instruct their children to live as believing Christians when they rise up, when they lie down, and when they walk along the way. And certainly when they run the bases. (Douglas Wilson, Future Men)

When it comes to reading, most of us don’t think much about it. We open a book (or click a link) and scan the words for the surface meaning. We read casually, in other words, as spectators. We know how to read, from the perspective of mechanics, and we tend to stop there most of the time. At Dominion, we hope to train our students to read with wisdom and understanding, not just with skill. One key to our success is modeling that kind of reading ourselves, as teachers and as parents.

While there are times for casual or light reading–everyone needs a good beach read, right?–as human beings, we need to know how to read seriously, in a disciplined way. There’s a time for the latest boilerplate mystery, and a time for The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers. Similarly, sometimes a light devotional is worthwhile, but if we never open On the Incarnation, or Confessions, or Mere Christianity, we cost ourselves something valuable. Christians are people of the Book, after all, and we follow a God who reveals himself in the Word and in words. Learning to read anything well enables us to read the Bible’s various literature well.

The problem is, most of our schooling deals with reading mechanics, and reading for meaning takes a back seat when the test is looming. (I remember teaching college literature courses, and most students had learned to read just for answers, not meaning.) Learning to read deeply involves some training, yes, but it also requires some discipline in reading. In unpacking that idea, Bruce Ashford writes at Between the Times:

There are three types of people in our country. There are, first of all, those who do not read. An AP-Ipsos poll recently revealed that 25% of Americans do not read books, while other polls have put the number higher, at around 50%. It is not that these Americans cannot read or that they do not accumulate knowledge. (No country’s citizens—and I mean none—bring more depth and import to subjects such as celebrity clothes, hair and makeup, and the intricacies of the Pitt-Jolie marriage than the citizens of the USA.) It is just that their knowledge is not gained from books. Second, there are those who read but do so aimlessly, choosing on a whim what to read and when to do so. Third, there are those who plan to read and who read with a plan.

Upon entering seminary fourteen years ago, I was a “serial reader” but not a particularly judicious or disciplined reader. By “serial reader,” I mean that I read lots of books. But I gave no serious thought to which books I ought to read, and I read plenty of books that were not worth the time spent.

In How to Read Slowly, author James Sire writes something similar:

Reading well is a broadly human craft and can be practiced by any person with basic intelligence. … [Many people] have practiced reading but never looked at it as a craft, something that can be isolated, studied and learned. You have wanted to read primarily to know. Your goal has been utilitarian. Surely one important function of reading is education, learning something we don’t already know.

So how does one move from serial reader to disciplined reader? Ashford’s series give some insight into that process, as does Sire’s book. The first step is planning some disciplined reading, and disciplining both your choice of reading material and your way of reading it. For example, choosing to read Pride and Prejudice is a good step step, but if you read it no more carefully than you’d read a modern romance novel–well, I won’t say you’ve wasted your time, but you could have spent it far better.

Not sure where to begin? I would be happy to make some recommendations for close reading based on your interests. If “close reading” sounds like what you do when you can’t find your glasses, take a look at these guidelines for close reading. Not sure about how to mark books you’re reading (and yes, marking is important!)? Mortimer Adler’s classic reading guide, How to Read a Book, included advice for marking books.

The following story appeared in my Inklings a few weeks ago. I apologize for the repeat, but a lot has happened since I posted.

I have been encouraged to see your engagement over the last week, as Dominion received more nominations for the board than ever before. (You will hear more about the nominations and election in the coming weeks.) To me, that means we have an association that’s deeply committed Dominion’s future. I hope you’ll consider taking that commitment one step further with the year-end matching gift challenge we received from a donor.

Whether you give $10 or $10,000 is immaterial. Any gift is a seed in the fertile soil of our school’s future. I believe it would be a tremendous testament for us to have 100% participation–participation by every person who appreciates Dominion’s vision and mission. Your support will help us provide for the future in the way the New College planners did.

One of my favorite stories about planning comes from New College, Oxford. Founded in 1379, “New” College is one of the oldest Oxford colleges. It has, like other colleges, a great dining hall with huge oak beams across the top, as large as two feet square, and forty-five feet long each. (You can see a photo of the hall here.)

A century ago, some enterprising entomologist found that the dining hall’s beams were full of beetles. The College Council received the news with some dismay, as beams this large were now very hard, if not impossible to come by.

One of the Junior Fellows stuck his neck out and suggested that there might be some worthy oaks on the College lands, spread throughout the country and managed by the College Forester. They called in the Forester and asked him if there were any oaks for possible use.

“Well, sirs, we was wonderin’ when you’d be asking,” was his reply.

Upon further inquiry the Council discovered that when the College was founded, a grove of oaks had been planted to replace the beams in the dining hall when they became beetly, because oak beams always become beetly in the end. This plan had been passed down from one Forester to the next for over five hundred years.

As I said then, the story has some apocryphal elements, but the facts are not disputed. New College did need to replace the beams in the hall. Their lands did boast significant oaks at a time when beams would have been hard to find. In researching the story further, I’ve learned that the truth is far better than the college having set aside a single grove of oaks for the college beams.

In 1859, the [college discovered that] the roof in Hall needed repairing, which was true.

In 1862, the senior fellow was visiting College estates on ‘progress’, i.e., an annual review of College property, which goes on to this day (performed by the Warden). Visiting forests in Akeley and Great Horwood, Buckinghamshire (forests which the College had owned since 1441), he had the largest oaks cut down and used to make new beams for the ceiling.

It is not the case that these oaks were kept for the express purpose of replacing the Hall ceiling. It is standard woodland management to grow stands of mixed broadleaf trees e.g., oaks, interplanted with hazel and ash. The hazel and ash are coppiced approximately every 20–25 years to yield poles. The oaks, however, are left to grow on and eventually, after 150 years or more, they yield large pieces for major construction work such as beams, knees etc.

The college did have the foresight to plant oaks for the college’s use. But they planted hundreds of oaks in numerous college forests. This ensured they would be ready to repair the roof, yes. It also ensured they would be ready if the hall burned down the year after the repair. It was a stunning act of provision that we should emulate. It may seem odd to think in terms of 500 years, when we’ve got just 5 years under our belt. But we dream of being a part of this community for many years to come. How we can provide (from the Latin, “see ahead, foresight”) for that future is a constant question for our board and for all of us.

Born on this date in 1874, Winston Churchill worked his way up through the military and the government to become Prime Minister twice, during Britain’s most trying times. He was also a bit of a Renaissance man, who was an accomplished painter, bricklayer, writer, and historian. His History of the English-Speaking Peoples helped earn him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.

Churchill was an educated man, but he found school difficult. Still, he understood that education is inescapable–it neither begins nor ends with schooling–as the following quote makes plain.

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”

Far from an indictment of school, where Churchill excelled in some subjects, Churchill’s statement is a reminder to parents that we cannot assume school(s) will take care of our children’s education. We must plan to ensure that they will be able to learn whatever, wherever, and whenever they encounter new ideas.

That’s why classical and Christian schools like Dominion emphasize the tools of learning as much or more than content. We believe having the right tools will ensure that education happens long after schooling has ended.

“Why waste time on handwriting? After all, most people communicate electronically these days.”

I’ve had that conversation a time or two in my tenure at Dominion. I expect to have it again. I’ll admit that making a case for handwriting proves more and more difficult. The prevalence of texting and email seem to have pushed handwriting to the fringe of human experience. And students in most schools learn to form letters but stop at printing; instruction in cursive handwriting has fallen out of the curriculum.

Dominion will continue to teach handwriting–which we call “penmanship”–for several reasons. First, our philosophy of education emphasizes the mastery of language, including written language. Hand-writing letters, words, and phrases strengthens memorization and understanding. Second, cultivating legible, even neat, handwriting requires discipline and patience, both of which are key human (not to mention Christian) virtues. It requires care, as well, the kind of care we’d like to see our students apply to their school work. Finally, as adults, students will have to write more than they think. Being able to produce a legible script will matter more than they think it will; in fact, our own handwriting matters more than we think it does, shaping the perceptions of those who read it.

Handwriting instruction seems quaint, a relic not worth dusting off–even in a classical school. It calls to mind the child with his slate, tracing letters then making them on his own under the watchful eye of a dour school-marm. The practice of learning letters, forming them, and practicing their formation used to be a central part of grammar-school education. Handwriting has proven a casualty of the advent of the information age, and the increasing exaltation of “usefulness” as a value.

We call it penmanship for a reason. That suffix implies a craft, the work of a skilled artisan, something that has worth and matters. It still matters to our school. Surprisingly, recent research suggests our emphasis is a good idea. ”Writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate,” writes Gwendolyn Bounds in The Wall Street Journal. “The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development.” To a school that hopes to cultivate eloquence in its graduates, teaching penmanship suddenly makes a lot of sense.

What about you? How important is handwriting to you?

Next Monday night, our last FFP this year, we’ll continue our November discussion about athletics and Christian life. I’m not sure the Chargers vs. Jaguars will provide much excitement, but hopefully our discussion will. Meeting is at the Headmaster’s House–email for directions.

Below are the questions we discussed in November, and a couple that shook loose during that time.
1. Our pursuit of wisdom should include our entire life. If you’re a sports fan (remember, that’s short for ‘fanatic’), are you a “wise, discerning fan”? How would you define that term?

To get the discussion going, I read the following quote from C.J. Mahaney:

“I never watch a game passively. I’m never just observing. Not only do I always have the remote ready to change the channel when a commercial comes on, I seek to draw [my son's] attention to any evidence of humility or unselfishness I observe, as well as any expression of arrogance or selfishness. I will celebrate the former and ridicule the latter. For, more than anything, I want my son to celebrate and pursue true greatness in the eyes of God.” (from the Afterword to Game Day for the Glory of God, by Stephen Altrogge)

2. Good character is what philosophers have historically called “virtue.” Parents and coaches often say that playing sports builds character. Unfortunately, we see abundant and egregious examples of bad character (i.e., vice) where sports are concerned. Why? What kinds of sports experiences build virtue?

3. What is the proper place of sports in our lives? How does that contrast with the place sports occupy in our culture?

4. In what ways do (or can) sports demonstrate truth, goodness, and beauty?

5. In seeking a biblical approach to sports, we can certainly apply 1 Corinthians 10:31 (“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God”). Let’s consider how we can glorify God in three specific arenas:
a. watching sports;
b. playing pickup sports; and
c. playing organized sports.

6. Schools develop sports programs for a variety of reasons. Are there good and bad (or wise and foolish) reasons to have sports?

Some other resources you might want to consider before then: