Veritas Academy is a rather young educational institution, but it is grafted onto an incredibly old educational tradition. After several years of study and preparation, we founded Veritas School in 1996. In September of that year, in an unfinished building on 42nd Street, we began classes for grades seven through twelve. In 2004, we moved to the present facility and changed the name from Veritas School to Veritas Academy. Over the course of fourteen school years, we have added a complete elementary program to our school, graduated quite a few students, enriched our courses, upgraded our facilities and equipment, and grown quite a lot in understanding classical Christian education.
From the beginning, we have never changed or deviated from our philosophy of education and our methodology of instruction. We recognize that we are part of an old tradition, a tradition steeped in wisdom and knowledge, a tradition founded upon this premise: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). Above and before all other descriptions of Veritas Academy, we are a Christian school. We are Christian in our foundational beliefs about truth and knowledge; we are Christian in our educational theories and practices; we are Christian in our approach to all academic subjects and goals; we are Christian in our efforts to create both within the school and the greater world, a Christian way of life.
We are also a classical school. The word classical implies those things that are older, revered, established, and higher in attainment. We use the word classical in speaking of music, architecture, literature, and time periods. In education, when we speak of classical learning, we are referring to both the content and the methods of learning as practiced in Western Civilization for centuries.
When Christianity came into contact with the Ancient World of the Greeks and the Romans, it began demolishing and then rebuilding the contours of that world. The pagan elements of the Greek worldview were either discarded or retained only for their interesting insights. The Greek language was used by God for bringing the Bible to many peoples. The richness of that language and the complexity of Greek thinking was used by Christians to further the Kingdom of God. The emperor worship, polytheism, and brutality of the Roman Empire were also removed, but Roman political and economic structures were retained.
The Ancient World intermingling of Greek, Roman, Hebrew, and now Christian ideas, practices, language, and life created Western Civilization. Step by step, Christians became the transmitters of education and culture. Pastors, teachers, and later, monks, taught, copied, and expounded upon great writings. Church fathers, like Augustine, Eusebius, and Athanasius, added to their own writings to the canon of great literature. Since Christians are a people of the Book, it has always been imperative that education grow out of Christian worship and living. H. I. Marrou said, “Christianity is an intellectual religion and cannot exist in a context of barbarism.” It was common for conversions to be followed by schooling. Christianity has always educated the uneducated and trained the educated in Christian thinking.
Since Christianity is built upon universal truth, it is natural that Christians take all of creation as the arena of learning, research, and development. R. J. Rushdoony said, “The Christian and the churches are derelict in their duty if they do not rethink every field of life, thought, and action, in terms of Scripture. Christian schools are an excellent beginning, but no area of thought can be permitted to remain outside the dominion of Christ.”1
Western Civilization, from which the United States developed, has a two thousand year history of classical education. Read about the early Christian church, the Medieval period, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the growth of freedom through British civil and social institutions, and all the high periods of European history and you will find recurring examples of classical learning. Read about the colonial period of American history and the education of our Founding Fathers, which included traditional classroom instruction, home schooling, and private reading and study, and you will see the riches of classical learning. Read the history of American Christianity and you will see pastors and teachers steeped in classical learning who passed that learning on to the youth in their congregations.
Classical Christian learning never completely disappeared, although it did suffer from a major eclipse in the 20th century. For much of the 20th century, many influential thinkers and leaders united in a cultural rejection of God, the Bible, and Christianity. Our society is still suffering from and fighting against the breakdown of educational and moral standards growing out of 20th century unbelief.
God has once again showed great mercy to our country. We did not descend into a dark age in the 1960s and 1970s. Instead, parents began educating their children in Christian schools or in their homes. By the 1990s, God reawakened the heritage of classical Christian education.
We are especially thankful that God has put a vision for and commitment to classical Christian education for many here in the Texarkana area.
Although we often succeed in teaching our pupils subjects, we fail lamentably on the whole in teaching them how to think. They learn everything except the art of learning. -- Dorothy Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning"
1 Rousas John Rushdoony, The One and the Many (Fairfax, VA: Thoburn Press, 1978), 374.
