I had a wonderful time yesterday speaking to children, teenagers and Moms who are participants of Classical Conversations, a fascinating program which combines home-school education, a common curriculum, and a day each week of group classes in which the students share what they're learning.I had been invited by Sandi Fields, a friend and pro-life colleague who teaches there, to do a 20-minute luncheon presentation to the whole group (Moms to little kids) and then to spend an hour with the older students talking about Christian activism and the development of a consistently Christian worldview.
I enjoyed the experience very much. (I hope they did.)
Classical Conversations is a national network that's been around for 15 years or so though the Omaha group just got started last year. It is a Christ-honoring curriculum centering on the basics (math, science, language arts, geography) but with the "classical twists" of Latin, dialectic and rhetoric thrown in the mix. (You can find out more about the national organization right here.)
Judging from what I saw yesterday, I'd conclude it's a great approach.
It was one of several hopeful experiences I've had with Christian young people and their parents and teachers this week. There was, for instance, the inspiration Claire and I both experienced when spending a day judging home-school kids in a speech and debate contest down in Lincoln. The kids were bright, engaging, well-behaved and...let's face it...unusually wholesome! They provided evidence that there are Christian champions coming along after us to bear the torch. That's a strong comfort.
Then, over the weekend, I delivered a couple of talks regarding "A Theology of Childrens' Ministry" to the remarkable group of parents and teachers that make up Kristen Gray's team at Eagle's Nest Church. It's a powerful outreach they have there and meeting the young people who are a part of the team was a neat blessing. One of these young heroes (Brandon Bunch, a 4th-grader) had a vision to help kids in Burkina Faso that has led to the Chasing Lions Project, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships for Burkina Faso kids to go to school. How cool is that!And then again, there was yesterday's time spent with the Classical Conversations students.
All in all, spending even the few hours I have this week with "quality youth" has been a very bracing and emboldening blessing for me. So, yes, there are reasons to be hopeful about the future. But, in each of these cases, those hopes are being fueled by the sacrificial efforts of the adults in these kids' lives. Parents and teachers who are not letting their children be absorbed into the sloppy secular culture that surrounds them -- parents and teachers that are fighting for their children's futures through prayer, wisdom, compassion, courage and plain old work.
Being around these adults? Maybe that's charged me up as hanging with the kids. Way to go, guys.
