Engaging Minds Blog

Educational Philosophy

by Vicki Leong, TCS Academic Dean

A Christian education should be through the lens of an absolute. I believe there is an absolute God. So, I as a Christian and an educator, am rooted in the belief that the “aim of a Christian education is to prepare individuals to be wise and virtuous adults who are able to discern truth, choose what is good, and beautifully express the reason for their choices.” (Trinity Christian School, 2015). 

My educational philosophy originates back centuries ago to Socrates time, then Plato, Aristotle and to contemporaries Mortimer Adler’s Paideia Proposal and Dorothy Sayers. This conviction came to me around the year 2000 as a friend recommended me to read Susan Wise Bauer’s book, The Well-Trained Mind. I read her book and I experienced a light bulb moment and wanted to use this with my children. Providentially, another friend introduced me to a classical Christian school which followed the same model. It was there where I heard about the Trivium more in depth and the Poll-Parrot, Pert, and Poetic stages. Below is a comparison chart I made between Adler‘s Paideia Proposal and Classical Education. 

Children are naturally bent to learn in these different stages as they mature. Our responsibility as an educator is to provide a conducive environment that facilitates learning rather than impede it. We are able to control the tools of learning, and it is through the social and cultural interactions that take place in the classroom that the child begins to make sense of the world (Dunn, 2005). 

I base my belief in the strengths of this educational philosophy as a result of what I have witnessed in our graduates at Trinity Christian School and at St. Stephens Academy. Most of our graduates, I am personally acquainted with, are knowledgeable, articulate, able to organize their thoughts, formulate a strong opinion, and develop a defense while communicating it well with eloquence. Christian education is the process of educating the child through the lens of our loving and all-powerful God.