In an extremely popular TED Talk, author and speaker Simon Sinek declares that organizations and leaders who wish to inspire action must know — and effectively communicate — not only what they do and how they do it, but also why they do it. The WHY ought to be the core of the organization and influence the how and the what.
At Redeemer, as with many schools, we spend much of our marketing talking about our distinctives from the perspective of how we do things differently. This is, in part, because our what is fairly self-evident: we are a school; we educate students. At the same time, parents usually have the most questions regarding how we go about educating students. So we talk about Latin, multi-letter phonograms, classic texts, Science Fair Projects, limited screen-time, number sense, etc.
Sharing our how is important, and we will continue doing so every chance we get. But our why is more foundational and, therefore, more significant. When my alarm goes off at 5:30am, I don’t stumble out of bed and wipe the sleep from my eyes because of Latin and multi-letter phonograms … however great they might be. It isn’t our how that motivates me (or any other member of our faculty and staff) day in and day out. Our motivation comes from our why. The answer to why is the driving force that dictates what we do and how we do it. Why is what gets us out of bed in the morning and keeps us going on the hard days.
With all of that in mind, I’m excited to share more about why we do what we do at Redeemer Classical School.
Increase truth, goodness, and beauty
Like most educators, a desire to build a better future is an important motivating factor. For us, a “better future” means one in which our society possesses more goodness, truth and beauty. In other words, we work at Redeemer because we want to increase the amount of truth, goodness, and beauty in the world in order to elevate our culture.
As such, we seek to hire faculty and staff members who embody truth, goodness, and beauty in their own lives. In so doing, we provide students with a living curriculum — living, breathing examples — of virtue in action. We also search out instructional content and classroom materials that display and promote these same virtues. And we have designed a curriculum that gives students ample exposure to truth, goodness, and beauty on a daily basis at every grade level.
All of these efforts in staffing, instruction, and curriculum are aimed at helping students be wise and virtuous in their own right. Just as their teachers provide a living curriculum for them, we want our students to be a living example for all those with whom they interact:
TRUTH. We want to nurture students to think critically, communicate winsomely, challenge error with grace, promote wisdom, and defend truth.
GOODNESS. We strive to develop students who love their neighbors, who believe in the dignity and worth of every single human being as a divine image-bearer, who respect others — even those with whom they disagree — and who seek the best for those around them.
BEAUTY. We want to instill a love for beauty and the ability to design, innovate, and create beautiful artifacts — whether they are paintings, music, ideas, speeches, essays, inventions, or something in-between.
Glorify God
But there is more that must be said. Truth, goodness, and beauty are not vague ideals of a well-ordered life, as some conceive of them to be. Rather, these virtues are a direct reflection of the creator and sustainer of all things: the God of the Bible. Truth, goodness, and beauty exist because God is true, good, and beautiful. They are knowable, because God has made himself known, both in the book of nature and the book of Scripture.
Therefore, in promoting truth, goodness, and beauty we are ultimately seeking to glorify God. Our Christian faculty and staff want God to be better known, revered, exalted, and loved in everything that we think, say, and do. Whether it is in the classroom, in the hallways, on stage, or on the athletic field, we strive to be faithful representatives of Jesus Christ so that everyone around us would see him in and through us. We hope our students have the same effect in the world.
Providing students with a classical Christian education is crucial, but only because it is the means by which we contribute to truth, goodness, and beauty in the world to the glory of God.
That’s what rouses us in the morning.
That’s why Redeemer Classical School.