Mission Moment

Dear Covenant Families,

Declamation is an important event in the life of our school where we set aside an evening to celebrate rhetoric’s power over us when done well.

Clearly God delights in great speeches. Scripture begins with something like the first Declamation where our Creator brings form to a formless void through well-chosen words. When He creates Adam, we see him doing something similar by giving names to all the creatures God brought before him. This caring for words is something we continue to do today.

Of course, what we celebrate at Declamation is not just any words. We celebrate those who met the highest highs or the lowest lows with fitting words. Having the right words at the right time is life changing. I still remember President George Bush's Ground Zero address to all the rescue workers and first responders just three days after the horrors of 9/11. Standing on top of the rubble of the Twin Towers, the President through a bullhorn declared, “I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”  Just a few words, but the cheers erupting from the crowd revealed just how important they were in both encouraging and rallying a shocked nation. 

More recently, Dallas Mavericks fans understand what happens when leaders do not have fitting words.  The much beloved All-Star, Luka Doncic, was traded in the middle of the season at the beginning of February, and their General Manager, Nico Harrison, offered a curt and clumsy explanation that "defense wins championships."  His words enraged fans who now want him fired. 

Now, some might be tempted to think that eloquence is a gift only for the select few. Just as people are born with the right body to be a basketball star or the right brain to be a leading thinker, people are also born with eloquence. Certainly, people have a natural aptitude for words, but as a classical Christian school, we know that all have this gift of language, but it must be cultivated and cared for to reach its potential. That is why our students memorize and recite poems, speeches, and scripture in Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric. That is also why students are surrounded by teachers who apprentice students in the love and care for words. 

Tonight, you will get to see the fruit of so much of that work. All Logic students memorized a poem and stood before their classmates while a panel of teachers judged both the quality of the poem and its delivery. Then, a group of semi-finalists competed for the top five spots. The same process happened in Rhetoric except with memorized speeches. For this evening, we have invited judges from outside our community or alumni, to hear our top five Logic poems and top five Rhetoric speeches and to determine who are the top three. All seniors write a Senior Thesis that they deliver before an Attic full of peers, teachers and administrators, and they defend before a panel of teachers. The top three seniors present before our entire community and a panel of professors who are experts in rhetoric. They too will determine first, second, and third place.  

Join us tonight to see firsthand the power of fitting words. Leave inspired and encouraged by our students. You might even want to learn this art for yourself!

• Time: Doors open at 6:45 pm.  The event begins at 7:00 pm.
• Location: Northwest Bible Church, 8505 Douglas Ave, Dallas, TX 75225

Non Nobis,

Brett Tohlen
Academic Dean