During the Middle Ages, an educational model called the “trivium” developed. The trivium had three parts: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. The primary concern of the trivium was to teach students how to learn.  Learning the truth is important. But learning how to learn the truth is equally important. If Christian schools don’t teach how to learn the truth, their students will discard the truth quickly and readily. But if schools teach children how to think, they will have the tools to make right judgments in the future, thus profoundly affecting their lives.

The Three Stages
 

The grammar aspect of the trivium can be defined as the particular facts of each subject. The grammar of math includes addition, subtraction, the multiplication tables, and the like. The grammar of geography includes
mountains, rivers, and continents. The grammar of history includes presidents, kings, dates, and great battles.
 

When students move to the logic period, they begin to sort out the facts learned in the grammar stage. They examine the relationships between the incidents of history. They learn how multiplication rules affect other parts of math and reasoning.
 

Once the students have sorted out the facts, the rhetoric stage teaches them to communicate well. It is not enough to blurt out the truth. I’m glad Christians have gotten involved in social and political issues. But sometimes believers communicate the truth badly. We shouldn’t be content with that. In the rhetoric stage the student learns how to present truth in a winsome, persuasive way.

 

CHILD DEVELOPMENT STAGES AS RELATED
TO THE TRIVIUM
“How the Trivium works”

 

What is a Classical Model of Education?

 

 

Classical Christian on Test Scores
 

The classical approach to education, which PCS has followed, embraces the cognitive model.  Simply put, this approach is geared toward enhancing a student’s ability to think and reflect and to make application of the worldview from which the information is garnered. The quote of a sister classical and Christian school says it well:

 

The true mark of a quality education is not simply a mind full of facts.  It is accumulated knowledge with a hunger for more, the faculty to reason soundly, the ability to express what has been learned, and most importantly the acquisition of the proper tools with which to continue the learning process throughout an entire lifetime. It is not enough to merely learn subjects, a student must learn how to think and how to learn. 

            (quoted from a brochure of an ACCS member school, The River Academy,  

            Wenatchee, WA)

 

Although our academic program is geared toward the cognitive approach (described in the above quote), we believe that SAT/ACT scores have a place in education.  But, we also believe that we should not put undue emphasis on them. Even though the scores in our school have been very good, we don't feel that these numbers should be he sole or perhaps even a primary indicator or measure of our curriculum and what we do. 

 

With our current culture’s affinity to accountability, it is easy to attach too heavy an emphasis on a competency based on the numbers and data from standardized tests.  If the goal of one's education is to score well on Stanford Achievement or ACT/SAT tests, those tests have thus become the curriculum of the school.

 

Our Mission Statement says that we are "striving to help students be all that God has called them to be."  Empirically, this is much bigger than the area of academics, and specifically, it is much greater than college entrance exam scores.

 

We serve a sovereign and omnipotent Lord that is in control of everything.  Our trust must be in Him - that His delivery of both gifts and opportunity are perfect and sufficient to meet all of our needs.  That is our prayer as a school and it should be a prayer for parents as we seek to please Him in all that we do.

 

These are our ACT test score ranges, for PCS graduates from 2006-2008:

 

29-32 - 6

25-28 - 28

21-24 - 16

17-20 - 14