HIGH SPIRITS: Geneva in Orlando
Aitken, Jonathan
H I g H s P I R I t s Geneva in Orlando by Jonathan Aitken Florida—but not if you are pioneers in classical Christian education. In 16th-century Geneva, John Calvin started a religious and...
...John Calvin would have approved of the weekend’s biblical theme, which had the title “Trees Walking...
...If you think these purposes seem old-fashioned in 21st-century America, you would be wrong—at least in Orlando, where a recently founded Geneva School is flourishing...
...This teaching goes deeper than many of the instant conversion experiences you hear preached about in evangelical circles...
...There are many interesting angles to the (After the darkness—light...
...Founded in 1993, Geneva grounds its 450 ning an expansion that will take its enrollment to pupils in the foundations of Christian doctrine and 1,000 students...
...Their goal (rarely defined) is often said to be the “personal relationship with Christ” that Keller indicated is spiritually inferior to the covenant relationship he has outlined...
...This was taken from the account of the two-stage healing of a blind man at Bethsaida described in Mark 8:23-25: “Jesus asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people but they look like trees walking.’ Jesus laid his hands on the man’s eyes again...
...We want to give them the ability to ask questions such as The most central principle of Geneva School is the ancient imperative of classical education: students must be given the intellectual training that will T n l p d n a s n a i l p p a h t i w s m a s e h t t a i t s r u b i l x f o s r a d a t c t s a e d e m a s e h s d r a w t b o ut its t teachers i and li do i n s ors n are d lead e ing ce i - t D s uke, an ng d Baylor...
...Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly...
...So is a network of more than 200 classical and Christian schools in communities across the United States...
...The top ten achievers in its gradJonathan aitken, The American Spectator’s High Spirits columnist, is most recently author of John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway Books...
...At the time we demob-happy schoolboys laughed at what we thought was a headmaster’s joke...
...8 4 t H e a M e R I c a n s P e c t a t o R J u l y / a u g u s t 2 0 0 8 J o n a t H a n a I t K e n Growing spiritual oak trees through education is a noble endeavor that requires originality of approach from both students and teachers...
...However, in later life I have come to acknowledge at least some truth in Lord Macaulay’s dictum “No man can write a decent English sentence until he has first learned to construe a Latin one...
...For the Christian classical education provided by Eton in the 1950s and the sound biblical teaching of its daily chapel services did indeed equip its pupils with sufficient skills of reasoning, analysis, argument, and presentation to win more than a few of life’s battles against the rot-talkers...
...Thanks to a strong board of govclassical disciplines...
...Calvin’s strategic purpose was to encourage young minds to grow beyond the mere acquisition of knowledge...
...But in retrospect I know that these were words of wisdom...
...They are appropriate teaching, including an emphasis on learning poetry words of inspir ation for a Christian challenge to the and Scripture by heart at an early age...
...We strive to give our students the tools with which they can succeed at reasoning, analysis, argument, and presentation...
...We have to develop a covenant relationship with him.…Unfortunately the concept of a covenant relationship has been lost in our culture...
...Compulsory Latin is taught ernors led by James M. Seneff, Geneva will soon from the third grade...
...I have also come to respect the valedictory words of my Headmaster, Sir Robert Birley, to the leavers’ class of 1956, “I hope you will come to realize that the main purpose of your education at Eton has been to enable you to know when the fellow opposite you is talking rot...
...How can I defend the truth in a rhetorical battle to persuade others by presenting arguments that are winsome, attractive, and convincing?’ ” Headmaster Ingram also gives priority to the teaching of Christian values and aesthetics, saying, “We help our students to discover what is morally good, aesthetically beautiful, and philosophically true...
...Beginning in seventh grade, lion...
...So is the trivium of grammar, be moving to a new 52-acre campus costing $25 mildialectic, and rhetoric...
...He wanted to produce students who could use their intellects to reason, question, and challenge their contemporary world in the cause of Christian idealism...
...We are different here...
...The growth of these connected establishments suggests an interesting new trend in education that is proving increasingly popular with parents and is helping pupils win good grades and lucrative scholarships...
...Most American education consists of teaching how to pass knowledge-based exams,” says Geneva’s headmaster, the Rev...
...He later wrote that “the maturing of a Christian soul is not of hasty shoots like a mushroom but may be compared to the slow steady growth of an oak tree...
...Geneva’s motto, like that of John Calvin’s of courses built round a core of Christian ideals and original school in Switzerland, is Post Tenebras Lux values...
...S e o it’s no surprise c tha t t the sch a oo e m a D e r t o N s a s i i s r e v i n u h c u s o t h c a e 0 0 , 0 0 $ he geneva school of orlando is not yet Eton, u 1 atin 0 g class last year won scho t la e rships worth over - l , lence...
...H I g H s P I R I t s Geneva in Orlando by Jonathan Aitken Florida—but not if you are pioneers in classical Christian education...
...In my own lecture to the Trees Walking seminar, on the subject of John Newton’s theology, I supported Keller’s thesis on the grounds that Newton never claimed his own conversion on board an apparently sinking ship to be more than “the first faint streaks of dawn in my spiritual journey...
...How do I know it is true...
...Its key ingredients were It’s a long way from geneva, switzerland, to Orlando, Reformation theology, the sovereignty of Scripture, the teaching of Latin, and an emphasis on dialogue, dialectic, and rhetoric...
...In 16th-century Geneva, John Calvin started a religious and educational revolution in his city’s schools...
...I was fortunate enough to be educated at Eton College, one of England’s oldest classical and Christian schools, founded by King Henry VI in 1440 on land he could see from the battlements of Windsor Castle...
...imperative of classical education: students must be given the intellectual training that will enable them to think for themselves...
...What is this author saying and is it true...
...Robert Ingram...
...Of course we do not neglect knowledge but we go deeper than substance...
...History, literature, music, Association of Classical and Christian Schools across languages, and the arts all form essential ingredients the nation...
...But perhaps substance-based secularism of so much high school the most central principle of Geneva is the ancient education in contemporary America...
...Although still only 15 years old, the Geneva School of Orlando is blazing a trail of outstanding academic results...
...J u l y / a u g u s t 2 0 0 8 t H e a M e R I c a n s P e c t a t o R 8 5...
...It is a blend of law and love, enduring and binding, much more so than a personal relationship...
...Tim Keller’s angle on this text was the thought that “our first contact with Christ leaves us only superficially changed...
...It has helped to birth and nurture 15 sister philosophy (in the form of logic) is part of the cur- schools and is the driving force in the 200-strong riculum, as is theology...
...enable them to think for themselves...
...His biographies include Charles W. Colson: A Life Redeemed (Doubleday) and Nixon: A Life, now available in a new paperback edition (Regnery...
...Approximately 100 of the school’s supporters, donors, and parents were assembled for a teaching weekend led by the renowned Manhattan pastor Tim Keller, whose book, The Reason for God, has stood high on the New York Times list of bestsellers...
...My introduction to the modern reinvention of the Geneva School took place recently in the far from uncomfortable surroundings of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Orlando...
...Like many an Etonian I chafed under what seemed to be the excessive burden of studying Latin for five years...
Vol. 41 • July 2008 • No. 6
