Foundations of Thought

Our office had a request recently from the admissions department of a major University asking for a course description of our Logic class. It seems that they didn't quite understand why high school Logic was categorized as an English class and they were trying to detemine how they could justify giving English credit for it. This came on the heels of a discussion with my good friend C-vard on the very necessary and practical application of predicate Logic.


The humor of it was too much to pass by. This admissions department fell prey to consequences of reductionist training. Most people fit Logic into Math. They think in terms of set theory and the relationship of elements to, within and between sets of numbers. For nearly all of us who have been trained in a "progressive" model of education, this has been our only exposure to Logic. Yet if one looks at the expected course of university study for philosophy, theology, systems analysis or computer programming, logic is an essential component of the training simply because it is the art of thinking properly. It's absurd to think of a philosophy major not taking logic.

Logic is concerned with the classification and categorization of words, statements and arguments. It addresses the matter of truth and fallacy, consistency of reasoning, validity and invalidity, cogent and uncogent arguments, weak and strong arguments. Any carefully thinking person must give attention to such things, which is why logic is so indispensible for success in debate and rhetoric. It deals with thought, ideas, expressions and whether something is reasonable or unreasonable. If this isn't the skeleton of the art of language (. . . English!), I can't imagine what is.

But in so many ways, the stream of logic runs much deeper than that. The entire process of clear reasoning is indispensible to every area of advance and order. Logic is the working context for process of comprehending the natural world, forming the basis for sound math and science reasoning. It is for this reason that classical students turn out to be so effective in their fields of pursuit.

And add logic to the Christian pursuit of truth, and you have a key component for an effective church leader.

ACT, SAT, TGB

I don't know a family that isn't aware of the ACT (American College Test) and SAT (Scholastic Assessment Test) which are "standardized" tests and presumed to be a measure of college readiness. Tests such as the ACT and SAT are genuinely helpful if one really is assessing college readiness in certain basic disciplines (the operative concept). The ACT folks say as much in their literature.

Such tests are acceptable servants if skill assessment is all that is in view. They are often used, however, as discrimination tests for college entry;competitive measures of suitabilityand deservedness. In other words, "Who do we let in?" and "Who do we give the money to?" For the unwary student or parent, these can become unmerciful masters that dictate and drive one's view of the purpose, expected outcomes, and "usefulness" of education. After all, there are worldview implications in what questions are included and what are excluded. Thus the test dictates the presumed expectations.

As Christians, we are compelled to use a more demanding and discriminating measure of readiness for our students who are completing high school. The ACT or SAT are okay enough for their limited purpose, but over and above these we ought to use TGB. TGB is a measure that extends well beyond college and into real life, because in addition to the academic endeavor, it assesses the quality of business effectiveness, science effectiveness, as well as readiness in fine arts, leisure, medicine, public policy and everything else we touch.

TGB stands for Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. These are the objectives of a Classical Christian education. These qualities are to be learned, embraced and infused into the life of every teacher and student. To restate what Robert Maynard Hutchins has said so well in The Great Conversation, “The aim of liberal education is human excellence, both private and public. Its object is the excellence of man as man and man as citizen. It regards man as an end, not as a means, and it regards the ends of life, and not the means to it." The ends of life are TGB. TGB is the measure of human excellence.

We must not treat Truth, Goodness and Beauty as abstract concepts, but as qualities permeating everything we are as human beings and carried into every arena of our calling. This is a complex dynamic since as human persons we are intricate and complex creatures who interact with one another in intricate and complex ways. Truth, goodness and beauty are discerned and then built into our character, perceptions, thought life, all our relationships, service and leadership. We then carry them as individuals into our families, churches and communities. Family, church and community, as little societies influenced by individuals, bring truth, goodness and beauty to one another.

It is ever the goal of Classical Christian education to bring this, along with the skills of learning and thinking, to the forefront, which is why we cannot ever explain what we do in a sound bite. Irrespective of how high an SAT or ACT might be, to the degree that our education fails to instill TGB, we fail everywhere else that's important.

Confirmations

This morning I was given double joy in the work we do at Wildwood.

First, I had the privilege to spend about half an hour in face-to-face conversation with Dr. Robert Littlejohn, co-author of Wisdom And Eloquence, which the staff is reading this semester. He was one of the speakers at the Educational Policy Conference hosted annually by the Constitutional Coalition and held here in St. Louis. Most of my questions centered around Classical education and Science, since this is of perennial interest in Classical Education circles. As a side bar, he is associated with Trinity Academy located in an industrial research triangle in North Carolina. He asserted the practical appropriateness and desirability of Classical method in high school Science education to the needs of his region. His accounts were a much needed affirmation for an old science-type like me. I'll share much more on this in future posts.

In the course of the discussion, Dr. Littlejohn reinforced the Classical Christian worldview approach that Wildwood adopted at it's founding. He confirmed the need to define the endpoint of the educational process, hold true to that goal, and include in the curriculum those things that get you to that goal irrespective of whether or not they fit with standardized assessments. In our case, the endpoint of vigorous thinking skills, upright character, practical wisdom in every endeavor, Biblical stability and the ability to communicate them all effectively should clearly drive everything else we do.

The second confirmation was a delightful and unlooked for surprise. While waiting for my meeting with Dr. Littlejohn, I was approached by Wildwood alum Blake Bachman (2005) who recently graduated from Taylor University. She had just recently landed a position in town as the St. Louis - Washington D.C. communications director for a local political organization. She is perfect for the position to which she will be able to apply all her thinking and communication skills. Congratulations, Blake! It's good to see former Wildwood students step into their calling.