Classical Christian education
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Classical Christian education is an American educational movement that can trace its origins to the 1981 founding of the Logos School in Moscow, Idaho. An outgrowth of the home schooling movement and the growing dissatisfaction with the public school systems felt by many American Christians, the Logos School was founded by several local parents, including Doug Wilson, who had previously home schooled their children.
Combining elements of a classical education with a commitment to the Christian values as described in the Westminster Confession of Faith, Wilson used the decade of experience at the Logos School to write the 1991 book Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. This ground breaking book drew from the work of Dorothy Sayers who wrote the 1940's article The Lost Tools of Learning.
In his book, Wilson argued for the adoption of an educational framework that emphasized the trivium (focused progressively on the teaching of grammar,logic,and rhetoric) and Christian values.
The book became extremely popular, the the classical Christian curriculum advocated by Wilson was adopted by many families that home school their children. In addition, it spurred the growth of classical Christian schools around the country. In 1994, these schools combined to form the Association of Classical Christian Schools. As of 2008, that organization has more than 200 member schools, and counts approximately 30,000 students. In addition, an estimated 50,000 home schooled students use some form of classical Christian curriculum in their studies.
