Skip Navigation

Rockbridge Academy Blog

Posts Tagged "beauty"

The Good, The Beautiful, and Cursive

February 04, 2025
By Sarah Reardon, Class of 2020

Such a concern for beauty reveals the values underlying a classical educational model and their distinction from the values of a modern educational model. We believe that education aims at the good, true, and beautiful. If education aims to train students in beauty, then the form of education, even down to the letters with which we write our spelling words, ought to likewise aim at beauty.

Some weeks ago, as I was explaining my role as a teacher at a classical Christian school to several peers, we began to discuss the topic of cursive. I lauded the grammar-age children at my school, who use cursive for nearly all their daily work. “But why is cursive good?” a peer then asked me. I was tempted to answer that cursive is good because it is beautiful, but I knew such an answer would not satisfy him. Though I wished to be able to rattle off five clear reasons why writing in cursive is better than print handwriting or typing, I could not, and, as such, my peer’s question forced me to reflect.

In my reflections since our conversation, I have thought several times of Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry is a writer whose stories and novels often revolve around themes of community, place, and tradition; I was first introduced to Berry by Rockbridge’s own Mr. Vaughn. 

Berry attempts to resist a life of screens and machines. In this resistance, he writes his books by hand, and his wife types his work on a typewriter. In his short but widely-circulated essay “Why I am Not Going to Buy a Computer,” Berry expresses his distaste for computer companies and other companies of their ilk, saying that he wants to be “as little hooked to them as possible.” Yet Berry’s argument against computers relies on the fact that he, as a writer, does not want to use a tool that degrades his work instead of improving it. Berry writes:

“My final and perhaps my best reason for not owning a computer is that I do not wish to fool myself. I disbelieve, and therefore strongly resent, the assertion that I or anybody else could write better or more easily with a computer than with a pencil. I do not see why I should not be as scientific about this as the next fellow: when somebody has used a computer to write work that is demonstrably better than Dante’s, and when this better is demonstrably attributable to the use of a computer, then I will speak of computers with a more respectful tone of voice, though I still will not buy one.”

Now, I’m not sure if Mr. Berry writes in print or in cursive, but his preference for handwriting over typing makes a statement about his beliefs. Berry believes that some forms of writing—and living—are more conducive to truly good work, to the genuine expression of beauty and truth, than others. Berry believes that innovation and ease are not sure means to the end of good work. Berry’s stance suggests, too, that form matters: how we work has an impact on the fruit of our work. How we write has an impact on what we write. 

Instinct attests to the above proposition. We know that form matters: without question, we know that a lecture attended in a classroom, given by a teacher whom we know, will be more memorable than a lecture viewed on YouTube. The former allows us to receive the speaker’s wisdom more directly, due to our shared presence in the classroom. While the latter may be more accessible, its form is not as conducive to learning. Likewise, we know that a poem printed in a bound book will command more of our attention than an Instagram post claiming to be poetry. As many have written, a conversation in person is more likely to have a deeper and more personal effect than a conversation over messaging software.

In short, the meaning of a thing relies in part upon the form of that thing, the way that it is communicated. Or, in the famous words of media critic Marshall McLuhan, “the medium is the message.” We know that the medium or form of anything impacts its meaning, and yet we often neglect to recognize the implications of such a principle. But this principle has implications for many areas of our lives—from evangelism to education, and even in handwriting.
Cursive, as a form of handwriting, ennobles the written word in a way that type, and even print writing, do not. The form of cursive lends significance to the written content. This is part of why classical Christian schools emphasize cursive, a skill otherwise considered outdated and unnecessary. 

Cursive, as a form of handwriting, ennobles the written word in a way that type, and even print writing, do not. The form of cursive lends significance to the written content. 

In a classical Christian school setting—like that of Rockbridge, where I was educated, or that of the school in Pennsylvania where I recently taught—we want to teach our students that their work is important. What students at these schools write is not mere chicken-scratch. What students write are not simply notes to be thrown away. What students write is, instead, an integral part of and a representation of what they are learning. Some of their assignments are more important than others—composition paragraphs are more important than extra math calculations, completed on “scratch paper.” But all of their work is still important. And because we want to teach children that their written work is a vital part of their education, we teach that it is important that the form of that work‒‒that is, the students’ penmanship‒‒be well-ordered, and not only well-ordered, but beautiful.

Such a concern for beauty reveals the values underlying a classical educational model and their distinction from the values of a modern educational model. We believe that education aims at the good, true, and beautiful. If education aims to train students in beauty, then the form of education, even down to the letters with which we write our spelling words, ought to likewise aim at beauty.

A friend of mine, herself now a teacher at a classical Christian school, put it this way: “A century ago, penmanship was a significant part of school curriculum, with methodologies, textbooks, and handwriting drills devoted to it… Emphasizing excellent penmanship in the school setting would train students in a teachable skill that brings a sense of beauty back into learning.” Penmanship itself is an art, one little talked of today. Like any art or skill, penmanship requires a dedicated effort and time, but it also produces rich rewards.

For instance, studies show that cursive not only activates different areas of the brain than print writing, but that it develops more fine motor skills than print writing or typing, because, as one teacher writes, cursive letters “must be connected in a smooth and continuous motion. This can help students develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, which can have benefits beyond writing.” 

In addition to the “sense of beauty” brought by cursive penmanship, secondary benefits of cursive have been marked by researchers and teachers alike. For instance, studies show that cursive not only activates different areas of the brain than print writing, but that it develops more fine motor skills than print writing or typing, because, as one teacher writes, cursive letters “must be connected in a smooth and continuous motion. This can help students develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills, which can have benefits beyond writing.” Cursive can also help children retain more of the information they are learning, as an article from Time magazine tells.

Apart from its usefulness, cursive brings beauty and even joy. How excited students are when they can finally sign their name in cursive! How proud they are of a neat page of cursive writing! A thing well done is a delight, and so, too, is a thing well-written.

I, too, have felt this delight. Before I began teaching grammar-school students, I had to refresh my memory of cursive. It came back to me easily, as I had been well-trained in penmanship as a grammar-school student at Rockbridge but slowly lost my handwriting skills when typed assignments became the norm in my education. Since taking up cursive again, I have found all my written work to be not only more beautiful but more enjoyable. A thing of beauty—even something as seemingly inconsequential as penmanship—is, as the poet John Keats once said, “a joy forever.”

Perhaps my instinctual response to my friend—that cursive is good because it is beautiful—was not, after all, so far off the mark.

This essay originally appeared in Voegelin View. The above version was edited slightly.

Sarah Reardon (née Soltis, Class of 2020) taught at a classical Christian school in Philadelphia. Sarah graduated from Grove City College in 2023, and her writing has appeared in publications such as First Things, Plough, Public Discourse, among others.
 

Posted in Grammar

Further Up and Further In—Library Stories of Life Together

January 22, 2025
By Brenna St. Cyr

Boxes of books—moved and unpacked by many hands. That is how the present Rockbridge library began. Oh, make no mistake, Rockbridge always had a library, even before there was space for one. Great books have always been a defining thread in the culture of Rockbridge. It’s just that the books had to be placed on carts, in corners, on classroom shelves or tables, or wherever they could be safely tucked away and retrieved for use at suitable times. Now, however, over 10,000 books line the shelves of the school library, at the ready. The library still feels like a new attraction to many upper school students since the grand opening in September of 2022. Many grammar school students, on the other hand, will retain no memories of school without a library. As alumni wandered the halls before Christmas break during the Captain’s Cup, a few stepped into the library and one declared, “I am so jealous they have a library!”  We don’t have books for the sake of having books, however. Stories bring us closer to one another and closer to our Savior. They bring us further “in.” As Aslan invited the children to come “further up and further in” in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, come inside the library doors with me for a few moments to hear some stories.

As I step into the library each morning, flipping on the lights or entering to the sounds of beautiful music emanating from the instruments of rehearsing Rockbridge orchestra students, I am struck by the sight and smell of books—nostalgic memories flooding in from childhood days of library visits. These early-life visits being filled with wonder at what the pages hold from each book sitting on a shelf; imagining what journey each story will allow me to partake of or what tidbit of interesting information I can garner. Skip ahead a few years in memory to working in my university library…hoping during my shift that I’ll have some slow time in order to have a few minutes to comb through books in the special collections department or turn through the pages of a century-old newspaper…the corners of my mouth can’t help but turn up into a small smile as I pass through the Rockbridge library doors. After setting my things down, I retrieve the books that have been returned in the book drop, sort through books that have been donated, and collect the handwritten checkout slips, thrilled that the library has been used even during the “off hours.” 

I think of the many anecdotes that have occurred over the past couple years in the library with students. 

  • I think of a kindergarten girl asking, “do you have any books about pink princesses?” 
  • Or, the 1st grade boy asking, “when are we going to get more books about snakes?” 
  • There are the instances of juniors or seniors telling me about their thesis topics and why they chose them. 
  • There’s the 9th grader’s eyes lighting up when they discover how many books we have about World War II! 
  • Then there’s the 3rd grader asking if we have any stories about dogs—she left the library with Because of Winn Dixie, only to come back a couple weeks later saying, “I love this book! As soon as I finish it, my mom said we could watch the movie together!” 
  • Then there’s a new upper school student perusing the library shelves and saying, “I love this series! I am definitely bringing in some books to donate!” 
  • Another instance is when a 2nd grader found a book on the shelf that had been consistently checked out by other students and exclaimed, “It’s finally mine!!!!” 
  • One of the sweetest things is seeing students in the hallway or after school saying, “Hi Mrs. St. Cyr! How’s the library?” 
  • There are dozens of other student stories, but I’ll end with a favorite. A junior kindergarten mom was in the building and expressed her thanks for our library. She said her daughter LOVES when her class visits the library each week. She told me she had been playing “library” at home with a table to check out books and had placed a bucket beside the table to serve as the “book return.” Oh, my heart. 


I can’t help but share how amazing the Rockbridge faculty, staff, and community are as well. Through interactions and observations, I have experienced first-hand what it means to be part of a Christ-centered community.

  • I think of Sam Ostransky bringing in theology classes and excitedly teaching them how to use Bible commentaries. Then he’ll stop by the library regularly to check out books for his small children at home—never neglecting to spend a moment at the library desk to give me an update on how my own children are doing in his classes.
  • There’s Lysa Lytikainen or Caroline Master who spend a few minutes of work or a lunch break to get a moment by the sunshine streaming through the library windows. I absolutely love that Caroline is frequently pulling books off the shelves that she has looked up through the online library catalog prior to visiting. 
  • There are conversations with Andrew Menkis about Lewis or Tolkien. 
  • There’s Melanie Kaiss or Cheryl Mole bringing Mark Campbell into the library to check out books from his favorite Magic Treehouse series.
  • There’s Bob Schingeck asking me to stage a joke with him at the circulation desk in order to elicit a giggle from a visiting class and brighten their day. 
  • There’s Matt Seufert, who provided me with the perfect scripture to use when I unexpectedly had to speak at a funeral. 
  • There’s Jacque Touhey, instrumental in the foundation of the library, checking in with wonderful ideas for helping the library thrive. 
  • There are Heidi Stevens and Laura Mathisen using their artistic and design gifts to discuss beautiful ways to make the library aesthetically pleasing to draw in students of all ages. 
  • There’s Therese Cooley using her art framing skills to repair a picture in the library that would have cost hundreds elsewhere. 
  • There are teachers who are at the ready and willing to help when I ask, “Can you bring your students to Story Time to share something they’ve learned?”
  • When requesting recommendations for the book fair, there are book lists a mile long from Monica Godfrey or Matt Swanson
  • There’s a discussion with Monica Ault before the book fair about her recommendation of Anna Karenina and her love of the often difficult but profound Russian literature. 
  • There’s Kerry Anne Ward inviting me to a book club made up of mostly Rockbridge folk—where discussing Don Quixote or Kristin Lavransdatter with a savory treat in hand and a glass of sangria on the side just might be a little glimpse of heaven. 
  • There’s Stephen Unthank recommending publishers from which to request donations—and then receiving donations of many books from them! 
  • There’s Gretchen Geverdt continually bringing in donations because she makes it a point to go through books that the public library is disposing of to search for treasures. 
  • There’s Shannon Reich, to whom God must have given scheduling magic, who makes sure all the library events are perfectly placed on the calendar so as not to interfere with other events.  
  • There are beautiful moms who have used their time and gifts to make monthly story times special or design a gorgeous library bulletin board that evokes dozens of praises from passers-by. 
  • There are multiple parents who have stopped in the library and asked for our wish list so that they can be on the lookout for books to purchase and donate.
  • There’s the added benefit of being in the library when classes bring in speakers and hearing talks about amazing topics from people like Chip Crane, Stephen Fix, Bryan Grube, or Matt Chwastyk
  • Being near the Beehive (library copy room)—may I please say that this active area is like no other workplace “water cooler” area I have ever witnessed? I’ve worked in several offices, and the places where people have the opportunity to converse are typically areas where people complain or gossip. The Beehive, however, is a place where there is uplifting conversation and offers of prayer and encouragement. It is a testament to how God is using this community. 
  • Jerry Keehner wheeling in carts of books from his personal library for students to use. 
  • An impromptu prayer time with Irma Cripe for a friend. 
  • A beautiful word of encouragement from Kim Ramirez or Chris Phillips. It is difficult for me to stop telling tales without writing a book!

Hopefully, these stories brought you “further up and further in” into life in the Rockbridge library. I think of how Aslan revealed himself to the Pevensie children through their experiences. They were ultimately drawn into the BEST story. At the end of The Last Battle, Lewis speaks of this story: “…the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”  During a speech by Heidi Stevens at the library grand opening, she spoke of the time when the founding families of Rockbridge gathered together and what they envisioned. She said, “We longed for our children to recognize the great Story behind all good stories: the story of a King who is making all things right again and restoring his original pattern of what’s Beautiful, Good, and True.” May it be so.

Brenna St. Cyr has served in the Rockbridge library since its formation. She is currently pursuing her master's degree in Library Information Science and enjoys co-coordinating a food pantry at her church each week where she gets extensive community interaction. She has two children who attend Rockbridge, and she resides in Bowie, MD with her husband and children.

From our Library Grand Opening in September of 2022: 


 

1 comment

Art, of Course! Four Tenets of Classical Christian Art

November 20, 2024
By Therese Cooley, Upper School Art Teacher

In art, we are ultimately educating students toward a deeper knowledge and love for God and our neighbor. We are teaching a fear of the LORD which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). In Hebrew the word for “wisdom” means “skillful with the hands,” evoking handiwork done with care and knowledge.

Rockbridge Academy has a weekly art course, from grades 1 through 8 as well as a chosen elective for grades 7 through 12. We invest time in the schedule, space in the building, and money in the budget. We grade participation, memorization, worksheets, and projects. Art is taught classically at a grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric level. We know this high view of art education is counter-cultural since we witness art and music being the first courses that drop during a time, space, or budget crunch. Yet, here it is, art as a cherished part of education, not as a “second recess.”  John Ruskin said, “Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together.” Thus, classes elicit the student’s concentration and diligence, encouraging their best work with carefulness and neatness. In this environment students can produce their best work with a sense of delight: “Aaah, I did that—and it is good!”  This sentiment should evoke thoughts of our Creator. An inescapable fact of our humanity is that we bear the image of God and thus have a deep desire to create good work with joy and thanksgiving. Genesis 1:31 states, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”  In this article I describe four attributes or goals of a classical, Christian art education. There may be more, but these stand out as foundational. Thus, I am calling them the four tenets of a classical, Christian art course.

1.  See and Apprehend God’s Glory

The first tenet of a classical, Christian art education is to help students see and apprehend God’s Glory. That is, to show the excellence of His character and providence in our finely-tuned, complex creation. The Westminster Confession of Faith states, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” There is true enjoyment in gratefully appreciating God’s creation, learning to observe it well with joy. Theologians describe two “books” of God’s Glory: Creation and Scripture. Psalm 34:8 and Psalm 19:1-4a state:

“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!
   Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
  
The heavens declare the glory of God;
 The skies proclaim the work of His hands. 
Day after day they pour forth speech, 
 night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
  no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
  their words to the ends of the world.”

In art, we are ultimately educating students toward a deeper knowledge and love for God and our neighbor. We are teaching a fear of the LORD which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). In Hebrew the word for “wisdom” means “skillful with the hands,” evoking handiwork done with care and knowledge. As students learn to carefully observe the world, they perceive its intricate complexity. They notice patterns, symmetry, proportions, rhythms, ratios, and harmonies. Students witness the Golden Ratio, the Fibonacci Sequence, and many varied sophisticated designs in forests, feathers, and our double-helix DNA strands, for example. All of creation speaks visually of our gracious, kind Creator who is all-powerful, sovereign, and trustworthy. Students may begin to understand why the angels, the Seraphim call to one another, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD Almighty, the whole earth is FULL of His Glory!” (Isaiah 6:3).

2.  Understand the Flow of Art History

The second tenet of a classical, Christian art course is that it is based on the flow of art history. Here is another view of God’s story. Students can begin to understand the progression of world views through history as they are seen in various cultures’ artwork. For example, how do we know what the Egyptians believed to be true or important except through the art which is left for us to observe and study? And consider, is there a reason why one art era moved to another? As we study reactions to various world views, we can see what could be happening as the philosophy of cultures change through time.

Students also notice that some aspects of humanity are similar throughout time and space, pointing again to our Maker. For example, all over the world, and since the earliest of times, mankind has sought a God or gods, felt closer to Him or them on a mountaintop, and felt a debt, a need to sacrifice, to give to this higher power. Where did all this come from? Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

The students witness themselves being part of an extremely large picture. They gain an understanding of the foundation and rise of Christianity. They realize they are not alone, they live in community, in a continuum of time, connected to a legacy of thought. It is like witnessing a very long conversation with many members from the beginning of time. This aspect may not seem important but consider that one of the goals of public education is to dispel this truth. John Gatto was awarded New York Teacher of the Year in 1990 and 1991. His revealing book, Dumbing Us Down describes his classes this way: “The first lesson I teach is confusion. I teach everything out of context… I teach the un-relating of everything. I teach disconnections. I teach too much: the orbiting of planets, the law of large numbers, slavery, adjectives, dance, surprise guests, pull-out programs, standardized tests… What do any of these things have to do with each other?” Their goal is for students to witness disconnection and confusion, not order and harmony. I recall Dostoyevsky’s revelation in The Brothers Karamazov, “the awful thing is that beauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and the devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.” Consider now that an objective of public education is to use various subjects to purposely instill chaos, confusion (babel), not connection, peace, or wisdom. This is an intentional strategy of the enemy to dismiss the beauty of God, including the beauty of creation and divide the community we have with one another.

3.  Integrate Other Subjects with Art

This is where I declare that I have the BEST job at Rockbridge Academy: teaching art! Various parts of all subjects come together in our art lessons revealing an orderly whole. These connections are unavoidable and they are unexplainable without considering the work of a powerful Creator…Look for it with me—there is art in every subject and every subject in art.

And here we have a smooth segue to the third tenet of a classical, Christian art course: Integration. Rather than disintegration, art lessons reveal integration across subjects. Truly, we live in a universe, not a pluriverse. As teachers, we are intentional in revealing integration. This is where I declare that I have the BEST job at Rockbridge Academy: teaching art! Various parts of all subjects come together in our art lessons revealing an orderly whole. These connections are unavoidable and they are unexplainable without considering the work of a powerful Creator. We’ve already seen a connection of art with history, geography, philosophy, and Bible. Consider also the many Latin root words we review. Proportion is a stem of “proportio” meaning an analogy of parts. Duplication is to draw something a second time. Chroma is color. Primary colors are the first ones. The list goes on and on. Additionally, we often have math lessons. We teach value as the weight of black and white, or of a color. We literally work on geometry while studying shape, form, perspective, and ellipses. We also consider science since artists study nature to draw it well. It wasn’t too long ago that to be a great scientist you had to be a great artist—drawing what you saw in the natural world. Artists were chemists as well, mixing their own paints. We connect our color and composition lessons easily with music: rhythm, patterns, harmony, disharmony. After all, tone is color. I recall my daughter describing a lesson her music teacher at the time (Mrs. Ball) gave to the choir, “that is a bright red tone, try to make it more of a mauve…” This instantly communicated a more correct harmony. Finally, as art teachers, we require our students to write well, not just with proper spelling and grammar, but with their neat handwriting. Look for it with me—there is art in every subject and every subject in art.

4.  Teach Skills of the Craft

Lastly, the fourth tenant of a classical, Christian art course is simply that we teach definite skills of the craft. In other words, we do not hand students a blank paper and ask them to draw whatever they feel. Oh, how overwhelmingly self-conscious and intimidating that could be. Rockbridge Academy’s art curriculum is purposely drawing-heavy. Our lessons begin (and continue) with, “draw what you see, not what you think you see.” Students grow in their ability to patiently draw with accuracy. They may grow-up to become an artist or they may just need to confidently draw what they see in a microscope, doing so without fear, being able to gain an even deeper understanding of what they are seeing by drawing it correctly.

Classical in nature, our art education involves students imitating forms in life and duplicating other masterpieces. They grow throughout the curriculum and move toward greater sophistication. We seek to generate enthusiasm, joy, and wonder as well as provide lessons in real skills for the students to practice, real information for them to learn, sensing a real love that we have for them as our students and for God as LORD of creation, and God of Wonder.

All this work and wonder is wrapped up nicely in the spring when the Rockbridge Academy community comes together to enjoy the Fine Arts Showcase. Don’t miss it.

Take a look at the past Rockbridge Academy Blakey Prize winners HERE. 
 

Therese Cooley, upper school art teacher, has been a part of the Rockbridge Academy faculty and staff since 2006. She has also taught grammar school art and the photography elective and helped with the yearbook and communications over the years. She and her husband, Roger, have five Rockbridge alumni children and four precious grandchildren. 

1 comment

Making Room for Beauty

April 27, 2023
By Heidi Stevens

“Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.” If you’ve been around Classical Christian Education for more than a minute, you’ve probably noticed that we love to say these words. These three transcendentals, lauded by the philosophers of classical antiquity and rightly located by theologians in the very nature and being of God, are an apt rallying cry for the work of classical Christian education.

Still, some of us may have a more ready apology for truth and goodness than we do for beauty. We point to God’s Word as the source of truth and acknowledge Him as the One who defines all the reality of the cosmos. “All truth is God’s truth,” we rightly say. We recognize how God reveals Himself as we happily pillage the best sources of knowledge from across the ages. Likewise, we acknowledge that goodness is in and of God, both in terms of morality and blessing. The Greeks conceptualized “good” as that which fulfills its own purpose, and we find in our Creator one whose perfect purpose is actively revealed to us in His character and His work of redemption. Just as with truth, we recognize God wants us to know and explore His goodness; in fact, we cling, like David, to the comfort that “surely goodness and mercy” will pursue us all the days of our lives.

But what of beauty? Do we defend and cleave to beauty with a similar conviction? Do we remember that this third member of the triumvirate is also located in God and that He uses beauty in His pursuit of us? After all, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” rolls so easily off the tongue, and experience tells us that there is variety and gradation in people’s aesthetic preferences. Since there’s no accounting for taste, don’t we hit a dead-end with beauty?

Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar commented on this tendency to quietly sideline considerations of beauty when he said:

Beauty is the last thing which the thinking intellect dares to approach, since only it dances as an uncontained splendor around the double constellation of the true and the good and their inseparable relation to one another. Beauty … without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, [is] a word which both imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world.

Even many Christians, Balthasar says, have functionally jettisoned beauty from the realm of the essential. He gives a somber warning about the consequence of this devaluing:

We no longer dare to believe in beauty and we make of it a mere appearance in order the more easily to dispose of it. Our situation today shows that beauty demands for itself at least as much courage and decision as do truth and goodness, and she will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance.

We can be grateful that there is a conscious intention at Rockbridge Academy—and in the broader classical Christian education movement—to guard against the easy “disposal” of beauty about which von Balthazar soberly warns. “Truth, Goodness, and Beauty” isn’t just a catchy slogan. It’s a shorthand reminder of a Trinitarian truth: we are made in the Imago Dei, with intellectual, moral, and aesthetic sensibilities and desires. Thus, in the classroom, asking “What is Beautiful?” is just as worthwhile as asking “What is True?” and “What is Good?”.

Classical Christian education allows breathing room for such discussions. On the one hand, our “classical” bent reminds us that, in the tradition of the best thinkers from across the ages, pursuing a better understanding of beauty helps us explore what it means to be fully human. On the other hand, our unapologetically “Christian” emphasis reminds us that the answers we seek are ultimately found outside ourselves. While God created us with individually nuanced tastes and pleasures, He is our ultimate reference for what is beautiful. Embracing this juxtaposition of imminence and transcendence in the beautiful, good, and true (and valuing their inescapable connection to one another) is a part of the very good work—the “courage and decision”—going on at Rockbridge Academy, by the grace of God.

Embracing this juxtaposition of imminence and transcendence in the beautiful, good, and true (and valuing their inescapable connection to one another) is a part of the very good work—the “courage and decision”—going on at Rockbridge Academy, by the grace of God.

Heidi Stevens taught art and humanities courses for twenty years and now serves on the Rockbridge Academy Board of Directors. She and her husband, Rick, have two grown daughters, both Rockbridge graduates.

 

 

Posted in School Culture
1 comment

Recent Posts

2/4/25 - By Sarah Reardon, Class of 2020
1/22/25 - By Brenna St. Cyr
11/20/24 - By Therese Cooley, Upper School Art Teacher
11/10/24 - By Chip Crane, PhD
10/23/24 - By Sonmin Crane, Communications Manager with Roy Griffith, Headmaster

Categories

Archives