Areas of Study
The focus of life for an Orthodox Christian is theosis the ultimate reunion with God the Father, salvation. The focus of an Orthodox Christian education at any level must also ultimately be salvation.
For parents and Orthodox educators, the history of Gods involvement with humanity, His work in time with the goal of bringing all of humanity back to Him is the logical place to start young Orthodox Christians on the task of working out their own salvation. Through the careful study of Salvation History Gods actions on our behalf throughout human history our children a gain knowledge of what came before, and superb examples in Christ Jesus, His Prophets, and His Saints, for how they must proceed.
Integrated Curriculum
The study of Salvation History provides a natural framework for the presentation of material in other subject areas as well:
- History & Geography (the struggle of man to survive and thrive in a fallen world, including cultures, economies, political and social movements, wars, and technical advances)
- Natural Science, Mathematics, and Logic (the struggle of man to understand the universe that God created What is it? How was it made? From what?)
- Stewardship (the struggle of man to take care of what God has charged him with maintaining: his own being as a creature made in the image of God and the world around him, to include hygiene, safety and first aid, nutrition and physical conditioning, Godly lifestyles, childcare and home-making, merciful service to the less fortunate and civic responsibility, awareness of current events in context of Gods commandments, environmental awareness, and conservation of natural resources)
- Literature, Music & Music History, Art & Art History (the struggle of man to document and interpret his experiences in the world, and to emulate Gods creative work in some way)
A Six-year Cycle
The study of Salvation History from Creation and the fall of man, to the raising up of Saints in the young United States is conducted in a six-year cycle, so that a student beginning an Orthodox classical program will cover the needed material twice before entering seminary or college. The topic- and timeline are as follows:
- Year 1 Old Testament (Creation and ancient Israel), Ancient Mesopotamia (Sumeria, Babylon, Assyria), Ancient Egypt.
- Year 2 Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire, New Testament (from the Incarnation to the Apostolic Age), the Church through St. Constantine the Great.
- Year 3 The Byzantine Empire (Apologists, Patriarchs and Emperors, Ecumenical Councils), distortion of the Faith in the See of Rome, medieval West/Orthodox East, the rise of Islam.
- Year 4 Falling away and fracturing of the See of Rome (the Holy Roman Empire and the Franks, the Western Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-reformation), the Enlightenment of Rus, and the Church under the Ottoman occupation.
- Year 5 Orthodoxy and the Americas: The New World and Enlightenment of the Americas. The planting of the Church in North America, impact of changes in Europe and Asia.
- Year 6 Orthodoxy and the World: World War I to Present. The impact of war, the Russian Revolution, the nation of Israel, Islamic fundamentalism, the information age, and the ecumenical movement on the Church.
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
The basics of education subjects which impart the tools a student will need to study, communicate, and analyze on his own as he continues are offered in parallel with the integrated curriculum.
Daily lessons and drills in phonics and spelling, grammar, handwriting, mathematics, logic, and classical and foreign languages are effectively scripted by many non-Orthodox sources. In an Orthodox educational environment, though, this grade-level-oriented material must be chosen carefully to reinforce the integrated curriculum. Basic skills subjects must support rather than hinder, or trivialize, the goal of salvation and study of Salvation History (for example, the Psalter and lives of the Saints may be presented to reinforce phonics-based readers, and will ultimately replace them). In an integrated curriculum, all subjects are exercises and practice to support the goal.
Basic skills should develop in concert with a disciplined intention to learn only the best and the true. In this way, the maturity of the student develops in an integrated fashion, physically, mentally, and spiritually, and no aspect of the person is free to pursue its own end.
There are many students who possess mastery of basic skills, spelling, grammar, reading, mathematics, and languages, who at the same time are taught simply by lack of focus that these skills have no fixed or meaningful purpose. Utilizing basic skills at the lowest educational levels to learn the best and the true provides not only a stable foundation of academic tools, but it minimizes the tendency at higher levels to stray from, experiment with, or invent the truth for oneself.
Enrichment and Creativity