At Providence Hall, we believe children to be capable of remarkable achievement, and believe that they should be graciously taught in accordance with their gifts.The “newness” of their wonder and delight perfectly joins with the excitement of learning through song, chant, game, rhyme, and recitation; and the exuberance of their studies fill a school building with laughter from their hearts.Voices are given songs to sing, bodies are given things to touch, and minds are given stories to tell.
It is no wonder that teachers are drawn to the classrooms of children—their enthusiasm for the everyday things is a great reminder of the potential of our God-imaged humanity; for this is the stage of life when the familiar things are by far the most amazing.Even so, this is that great moment when their love is the most persevering—what better time could there be to fill their minds with the knowledge of all things that are lovely?
Providence Hall draws from the great wealth of phonetic, grammatical, historical, mathematical, and Biblical traditions of the West to bring a comprehensive education of all things factual to the worthy pupils in our grammar school.Their minds are being constantly seeded for the observance and appreciation for the eternally True, the unassailably Beautiful, and the immutably Good.These are the first things of wisdom.These are the firstborn of society.
The School of Dialectic
“Systematic investigation” doesn’t quite capture all of it; “introduction to abstract reasoning” doesn’t quite describe all of it—the dialecticschool of Providence Hall, while certainly digesting those two disciplines, is comprised of much more.Students will certainly learn the art of analysis, the ordered sequence of rational thought, and the mechanics of meaningful language—both ancient and modern; but their course of study through these sister disciplines will climb higher still.
One might describe the school of dialectic as that first great juncture in students’ lives when they take notice of the world of ideas.The simple joys of the grammar school are now being replaced with the deeper emotions that accompany mystery, perspective, intent, symbol, and the theoretical.A satisfying welcome to the life of the mind, the Dialectic School exists to examine consequence alongside narrative, structure alongside meaning, and beauty alongside truth.
At Providence Hall, the culmination of this kind of immersion has all of the practical benefit possible—the love of God in Christ with all of one’s mind and soul.Christ who bears both the nature of God and of man; He who holds all things together by the word of His power; He whose beauty is matched only by His truth—the dialecticschool marks an important passage through unique years of emotional, spiritual, and physical maturity.
The School of Rhetoric (…to come)
Providence Hall’s plans for the school of rhetoric are already well underway, though her doors are not yet open.Secondary programs in which students read up to forty books per year do not come quickly or easily, and so we’ve been building from the ground up for a good four years in anticipation of the capstone to come—Rhetoric.
We hope to have not left behind the voice, the body, and the mind so often associated with the grammar school; for we have need of them in the School of Rhetoric in ways befitting of the now advanced thought-life of our student.Our training in mathematics, humanities, aesthetics, drama, economics, literature, and music—just to name a few—will have prepared our quintessential Christian philosopher for lifelong pursuit of excellence and justice in the world.Rhetoric equips a student to use all of the available means of persuasion in this endeavor of enacting the Christian life—in word and in deed.With all of the boldness of Christian humility and dependence upon God, and tempered by the Wisdom that is the cross, we hope to see the great fruition of the classical education come to bear in these last years with our students.
