It's You I Like

Grammar School News - Feb. 23

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 05:00:00 +0000

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 3 of 3)

This post is my third and final entry on truth as it relates to life, most specifically life in the Covenant Grammar School, both as faculty members and as parents. If you haven’t read the previous two posts, I encourage you to do so.

To quickly review, The Grammar School faculty is considering the phrase, 'Who we are and how it is like for us to act', in our faculty meetings this year. Beyond the obvious and more examined Covenant distinctives of Christian, classical, and Charlotte Mason influenced school, we are looking deeper into phrases and taglines that are readily repeated, but less often deeply explored and thoroughly articulated. Thus far, our discussions have centered around the phrase, 'the good, the true, and the beautiful'. This post culminates our exchange of ideas about truth.

We defined truth as the objective, accurate perception of reality. Despite this being a definition of philosophical truth independent of a Biblical worldview, it is not what is accepted in society today. In fact, in today’s economy, truth is a cheap and fluid currency. It shape shifts depending on how a person feels or thinks about something in a particular moment. Weight and consideration is given to “his truth” or “her truth,” oftentimes with little consideration given to the truth. In the span of less than a century, we have become comfortable with a flexible plumb line that for countless centuries prior would have been unimaginable to alter. Even if this reality hasn’t accelerated in Christian thought and practice at the same warp speed as it has in society at large, it has set up camp and gained more traction than is comfortable to admit.

In my previous post, I posed the question of how a foundational commitment to the absolute truth of God and His Word translates to life as a teacher or parent at The Covenant School. With a bit of cheek, I answered my own rhetorical question by saying in short that it is everything. I walked you through some of the ways we adhere to and champion truth here at school. In the remainder of this post, I would like to steer you through some insights about the intersection of truth and life at home.

One reason why truth has become so muddled is because of the onslaught on news and media. Opinions and experts. The good guys and the bad guys. Nothing is plumb and lines in the sand are drawn everywhere. We must remember ourselves, and teach our children, that while we participate in and support leaders in civic and community life, they are not the plumb line for truth…. God’s word is. We live in a flawed and sinful world. While earthly institutions can usher goodness and truth into our societies, they are not the ultimate answer… Jesus Christ is. Do you spend more time discussing the politics and policies of the day with your children? If so, consider continuing in those discussions, but make sure your discussions also outline the beautiful plan and truth laid out in scripture because that is the only sure hope we have in this fallen world.
Do not allow lying to persist in your house. Children, especially Grammar school aged children, are very prone to lie. Sometimes it is a childish error, statement, or omission. Other times it is a deliberate intention to deceive. Often it is an effort to not get in trouble or to advance something they want or need to happen. When you blithely accept your child’s suspicious tale or lament at face value because you want them to think you trust them, layers of things are happening. And they are not good things. Lying is something I intend to write more about in an upcoming entry, but I will say this now. If you believe in original sin, you must recognize that your child is capable of not telling the truth. Trustworthy children who turn into honest adults do not get that way because their parents essentially “manifested” them into becoming honest people. Honest adults are the product of a childhood where truth was paramount and dishonesty did not advance their cause. Habits of truthfulness were built over years. Dishonesty was not rewarded but discipled and shepherded to the light. In time, those habits and behaviors developed into character traits such as honesty, trustworthiness, and discernment.
Demonstrate and model a love for truth. Look in the mirror and see places where you have used dishonesty or manipulation to get what you want. Acknowledge that sometimes the reason we don’t go for the “true story” with our children is because we want to protect them from what people could think of them, or even what they might think about us as parents. Ouch! Repent of that mindset both to the Lord and to your children. Re-calibrate the plumb line of your family if it is off-center and receive the grace and guidance God freely gives to His own.

As believers, we know where truth starts and we even know how it is going to end, but what does it look like in the middle? Like so many things, we can easily begin to just give lipservice to the idea of truth if we do not examine our hearts and our families. The nitty gritty of our life in the middle. The world is saying that finding your own truth is the ultimate goal for freedom. However, God’s holy word, His very breath, tells us the very opposite. John 8:31-32 states that abiding in His word makes us truly His disciples, and that as His disciples, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free. That is where I want to plant my feet and become firmly rooted. I want our school and our community to be lovers of truth firmly grounded in the peace, hope, and freedom that comes from humbly and continually abiding in our Lord.

Grammar School News - Dec. 8

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 2 of 3)

In my last entry, I shared some of the discussion we had as a Grammar School faculty about truth. This year we are delving deeper into some of the less direct distinctives of our school and dissecting not just their meaning and importance, but how they explicitly play out in the life of our classrooms and greater school community. “Who we are and how it is like for us to act,” is the phrase I encountered in my sabbatical reading that is responsible for inspiring this topic of discussion. While the phrase has a clunky grammatical composition, I believe it is somewhat profound and worthy of consideration for faculty, parents, and students.

After the more prominent taglines that Covenant is a Classical Christian school, inspired by the philosophy and pedagogy of Charlotte Mason, it doesn’t take long to encounter the phrase, the good, the true, and the beautiful. Our curriculum and educational philosophy is intentionally steeped in those attributes from the first day of Explorers through the last day of 12th grade. It is a hallmark of our education that we believe goes beyond lessons in the classroom and is foundational to the spiritual formation of our students.

The working definition of philosophical truth we employed in our discussion was that truth is the objective, accurate perception of reality. As stated in my last entry, coming up with a definition for truth without pulling in Christian precepts was surprisingly difficult. As we unpacked the meaning of truth, we then contrasted the absolute truth that is foundational to Orthodox Christianity with the competing theories of the day. It is acceptable in today’s society to consider things that are useful, or gleaned through consensus as truth. Perhaps the most prevailing and accepted theory of the day is that relative/subjective truth is equal, if not above, absolute truth. We talk about ‘his truth’ or ‘their truth’, ‘she thinks’ or ‘we know’ with little regard to objectivity, accuracy, or reality. Absolute truth is not fashionable in our current world culture.

Thankfully, we can rest in the knowledge that such flawed thinking has not seeped into Christian culture and we are safe from its influence. Only if we live in Lalaland.

Christian doctrine and the notion of absolute truth has been countercultural to society since society was born. Being set apart as God’s children has not exempted us from wondering if we are missing the delicacies of food sacrificed to idols or if the carnal desires of our flesh are being unmet by a call to righteousness. In our contemporary society, ascribing to absolute truth, and more pointedly absolute Biblical truth, often translates as an ignorant, judgemental, narrow minded, and even hateful person. Since the fall of man, the world has experienced disorder. However, chaos is currently ruling the day and Christians are too comfortable with it.

So, how does a foundational commitment to the absolute truth of God and His Word translate to life as a teacher or parent at The Covenant School? I am so glad you asked, because the short answer is it is everything.

Every single day in every single subject, we enthusiastically impart Biblical truth and a Christian worldview. We aren’t shy or ashamed of things that are unpopular. We also are not arrogant and judgemental about what we believe. Our illumination to God’s truth was bestowed to us by a merciful and gracious Lord, not by our intellect or merit.

We know that all truth is God’s truth which simply means that in His general revelation, and through His grace, laws of science and nature were conveyed to the world from the minds of believers and non-believers alike. The litmus for many of the laws of nature are not found in scripture but understood and reinforced through study, observation, and time. We don’t believe that gravity is true because we know Sir Isaac Newton was a committed Christ follower. I have no idea if he was or was not, but it is irrelevant to the principle. God exists in reality and he is the author and inventor of truth.

Again, it must be said that an ordered view of truth is not something that should produce haughtiness or arrogance. Quite the opposite. It is humbling to recognize how much truth we cannot even understand in our finite state. While we believe the Bible is the very breath of God, it is silent on many things. We know that God is steadfast and patient in His revelations over time. The world is in a mad frenzy to comprehend all that there is to comprehend, but we will not experience the fullness of knowledge, wisdom, and truth until we are living in eternity.

In summary, we know how truth began and we know how truth will end. We’ve read the first and last chapters of the book, but that does not mean that the middle is smooth sailing. It is tense and it is uncomfortable. Being grounded and hopeful in a chaotic world is reassuring, but it can also be unpleasant and awkward. We want our Grammar School students to know there is absolute truth, we want them to enjoy and delight in that knowledge. As they matriculate to the Logic and Rhetoric Schools, we want them to share with us the places that truth amidst a world of chaos is awkward and hard. We are not afraid of the questions because whether or not they come while our students are under our roof, they will come. We want them to wrestle openly and in safety. We pray that they will trust in God’s goodness and find peace in His truth.

Furthermore, we can assert that our understanding of truth would require that a Covenant teacher approach her students and the subjects she is teaching with both humility and boldness. He or she would also need to possess a certain peace and confidence in the midst of an aggressive and hostile world. These contrasting traits would give way to clarity of thought and explicitness in speech.

Believe it or not, I have a little more to share about our discussion of truth. I will give you a little teaser that it has to do with chaos, and it has to do with the fact that we as believers have gotten comfortable in this chaotic world a little more than we should have. We aren’t always enjoying the peace that truth provides. I liken our world to a pendulum vacillating between having all of the answers and being completely terrified. Sadly, believers aren’t watching this all from the side, but we have jumped right onto the pendulum and are right in the middle of the madness. The good news is that someone who loves us and always tells the truth promised that the truth would set us free. Free.

What other ways is it like for people to act who not only believe in God’s absolute truth, but believe it will set them free? Stay tuned.

Grammar School News - Dec. 1

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 05:00:00 +0000

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 1 of 3)

I want to continue sharing with you our on-going faculty discussion, “Who are we? And how is it like for us to act?” If you will remember from a previous post, this phrase came up in a book I was reading this summer. It is a bit awkward grammatically, but it really started me thinking about how it could apply to us as a faculty. Instead of jumping into the more obvious distinctives of classical, Christian, or influenced by Charlotte Mason that we readily and routinely discuss, I have selected other values or philosophies central to our mission and vision. The first distinctive we discussed was goodness, and even more specifically, how goodness was manifested in beauty.

Our most current discussion was about truth. As believers, absolute truth is foundational to our understanding of scripture and the gospel. As a school, we routinely state that we are directing our students to the good, the true, and the beautiful in their education, and ultimately in their relationship with The Lord.

Rhetoric Theology teacher, Nathan Fan, was a most valuable consult as I was preparing for this discussion. The first few days of Sophomore theology are devoted to defining truth. Mr. Fan challenges his students to define truth as a philosophical precept, not a Christian doctrine, which is harder than you might think. The working definition they ultimately landed on was that truth is the objective, accurate perception of reality. Every word was curated and replaced until they landed on a definition accepted by Mr. Fan. Each word was intentionally included and necessary for the definition to be valid. When presented to the Grammar faculty, there was robust discussion about how words like objective and perception were intended and included, with final agreement that it was a worthy definition.

Without spending too much time here, I will tell you that our discussion further included how truth relates to freedom, how it is held accountable, and why it is not just important, but foundational. We also looked at the prevailing theories in our society opposing absolute truth, consensus truth, useful truth, and relative/subjective truth. After examining the philosophical nature of truth, it was gratifying to see the congruence between it and spiritual truth. We knew it was there, but transcendent to our faculty meeting discussion was a palpable sense of awe and gratitude that we were chosen to be illuminated by the ultimate truth of God.

From this point, we began to flesh out how a revelation of truth informs and impacts us all day, every day. Look for part 2 next week.

Grammar School News - Sept. 8

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 04:00:00 +0000

I look forward to sharing some of the experiences and insights that I gained during my time away last semester with you very soon. But before I do that, I would like to bring you in on something we are visiting and thinking about as a GS Faculty this school year.

The more I read about organizational leadership and growth, the more I am struck by the importance of culture in the health and sustainability of an organization. Culture has been a consistent theme in the stated genre of literature for a while. In fact, we are broadly aware that culture eats strategy for breakfast, but I am becoming more and more aware of its significance in our work here at Covenant, specifically in the Grammar School, and most expressly as we add new members to our faculty.

There is a large learning curve for new Covenant faculty members. New curriculum, new pedagogy, and new expectations are only some of the things that must be supported with on-going training and assistance. Often, even seasoned educators beginning their tenure at Covenant find our classical and Charlotte Mason model distinctly different from anything they have experienced.

Starting at the interview phase, we spend a good amount of time exploring our distinctives and the expectations we have for our employees. We have a very clear and robust faculty profile we want our teachers to not merely adhere to, but to joyfully embrace.

Because we are a Christian school, we unapologetically approach all issues out of a Biblical framework. Our desire is that all of our teachers are in a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is moving them toward a life of righteousness. So, could a Covenant teacher be interchangeable with another teacher at any Christian school? Possible. Or does the Covenant culture inform, cultivate, and require something different? Absolutely.

This year in our GS Faculty Meetings we are asking the question, “Who are we and how is it like for us to act?” Or put another way, as a Christian, classical, and Charlotte Mason influenced school, how is our culture distinctive for the educators, students, and families alike? Each month we are going to examine a distinctive and dig down to how that is fleshed out culturally in the classroom and in the community. In order to not state the obvious and to stretch our minds and hearts, we are going to be examining distinctives that are less prominent in our verbiage but very ardent in their scope and influence.

You don’t have to be at Covenant long to hear us say that we desire to move our students toward “the good, the true, and the beautiful.” We want to whet their appetites when they are young for these praiseworthy things, not for educational pompous or cursory virtue, but because we believe that it points them toward the Savior.

This month we looked at goodness, specifically how goodness relates to beauty. If we are a school that values and promotes goodness, how is it like for us to act? While the word goodness rolls off your tongue with ease, defining goodness without using the word itself poses a bit of a challenge.

We ultimately defined goodness as something that is right, pure, positive, wholesome, nourishing, and thoughtful. It is not something that is transactional or manipulated, but something that is motivated from a place of purity. Examples of goodness were anything from the sound of laughter to the feeling of contentment. From a slice of the most delicious piece of pizza to sunlight or relationships, examples of goodness were much easier to come up with than its definition. We know we have experienced goodness because of the warmth it brings to our hearts and the peace that it creates.

Beauty is closely related to goodness in the ways that it explains and demonstrates it. Beauty is goodness manifested. Beauty is the radiance of truth and goodness.

So if we are a school that pushes our students to all that is good, true, and beautiful, how is it like for us to act? We determined that the sincerity and pureness of goodness would make it difficult for us to live personal lives devoid of goodness and then quickly adopt its tenants when we arrive on campus each day.

As teachers, we determined that creating a space for thinking and reflecting and not performance was a way to promote goodness. Our curriculum is chock full of good stories and beautiful ideas. We do not want to just present it to our students as lessons, but enjoy it with them for the soul nourishment that it is. It is often tempting to take the easy way out or to prefer the popular culture to doing what is right and good, so we want to be courageous when it is easier to be comfortable. We want to know our students well and for them to feel known and loved the entire time they are in our care. This means greeting them each morning with the same new morning mercies our Lord meets us with, delighting and enjoying their uniqueness, and guiding them both to knowledge and maturity. The only hope we have for these lofty goals is to be daily abiding in the Lord and learning to love the things that He loves.

Children are gentle critics most of the time, however, they are generally not fooled by insincerity. We cannot say we love what is good if we have faces that go bright over achievement and popularity. We cannot say we love goodness when we do only what is necessary to get by, or if we scoff and sentimentalize what is right. When we make excuses for our sinfulness, we cut ourselves off from God’s grace and create a culture where goodness is stunted. At Covenant, we have decided that goodness matters. What ways is the beauty of goodness manifested in your home? How can you join us in creating a congruent culture of goodness both at school and at home?

Non Nobis,
Laura Mountjoy
Grammar School Head

Grammar School News - Sept. 1

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 04:00:00 +0000

September and I have a complicated relationship. On one hand, I feel that flipping the calendar from August to September should ensure that hot and humid weather is behind us and when it isn’t I feel a little resentful. On the other hand, September means that the school routine is well under way with sharpened pencils, new boxes of Crayons, and precious minds ready for the joy and challenges that await them. As a Texan, I should be more realistic and less disappointed with the lack of weather changes September brings, but as an educator I can’t imagine that September won’t always quicken my pulse, long after my work at a school comes to an end.

There is no question that we are well into the school year journey here at Covenant, most especially in the Grammar School. Opening Chapel, the first day of school, and Knight School filled our calendars one week with the Vision Summit and our evening with Dr. Cristina Sevadjian followed closely behind. Whew! I mean it when I say that our desire isn’t to run frantically through life as we have these last few weeks. Thank you for your joyful participation and don’t begrudge yourself some time to relax with your feet up.

Last night Grammar School kicked off the first of a series of parent meetings with Dr. Cristina Sevadjian of Sparrow House Counseling Center. I think all who were in attendance would agree that the partnership between Covenant and Sparrow House is going to provide us with valuable knowledge and insight as we address the social and emotional development of our students.

While we chose not to record last night’s talk, Dr. Sevadjian was generous enough to share her presentation with us in order for the parents who were unable to attend to join the conversation. Maybe even more insightful than the presentation was the Q&A portion of the evening. I am putting together a summary of some of the questions posed and will include it in next week’s Grammar School News.

Dr. Sevadjian will also be addressing the Logic and Rhetoric parents this month. You are welcome to attend if you would like to do so. Information on those evenings can be found under the Logic and Rhetoric tabs of the Covenant Copy.

I hope everyone enjoys a little extra relaxation this (long) holiday weekend. Even though it may not be quite the end to the summer weather some of us would like, what a joy it is to enjoy some extra rest and an opportunity to reflect on a blessed start to a new year of school.

Non Nobis,
Laura Mountjoy
Grammar School Head

Grammar School News - Aug. 18

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 04:00:00 +0000

How many schools get to say that a squirrel ate through a power line EXACTLY at the time school was starting… on the first day of school?? I’m thinking not very many. It must have been a little strange to step away from your children and leave them in the dark. Thank you for trusting us in the way that you do. As expected, our teachers swooped in with reassurances and peace, and it ended up being the most terrific adventure. A first day that will not soon be forgotten!

I have absolutely loved seeing you and your children this week. Be still my heart! My time away was the most amazing gift. In the coming days, I can’t wait to share some of my experiences, as well as the way that God revealed Himself to me. I am thrilled to be back here with my sweet people!

You may have already heard about our partnership with Sparrow House Counseling Center this year, but I truly believe it is going to be something that will equip and bless our community in countless ways. As Grammar School parents, the first opportunity you will have to hear from Dr. Cristina Sevadjian is on Wednesday night, August 31st from 7:00 to 8:30 in Covenant Hall. Dr. Sevadjian will be addressing some issues specifically pertaining to Grammar School aged children. I realize that this is the busiest time of the year, but I encourage you to attend if you are able to do so. It is sure to be an inspirational and informative evening! Dr. Sevadjian will also be meeting with Logic and Rhetoric parents in the coming weeks, and while you’re welcome to attend those as well, she will be addressing issues specific to those divisions. We hope you can join us!

I look forward to seeing you tonight at Knight School!

Non Nobis,
Laura Mountjoy
Grammar School Head

It's You I Like

Grammar School News - Feb. 23

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 3 of 3)

Grammar School News - Dec. 8

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 2 of 3)

Grammar School News - Dec. 1

When Truth is a Distinctive (Part 1 of 3)

Grammar School News - Sept. 8

Grammar School News ​​​​​​​- Sept. 1

Grammar School News - Aug. 18

Grammar School News - Sept. 1