As the Headmaster of the Rafiki Classical Christian School in rural Zambia, I hear this question often. Currently, our school, which includes Early Childhood classes through Grade 12, is the only classical school in this southern-central African nation. Our student population is composed of resident orphans at our ChildCare Center as well as students who come from the immediate surrounding area where their parents are subsistence farmers. Other students have parents who are semi-skilled workers in the nearby town, teachers in government schools, or employed in the medical field or as civil servants.   

    There are some here who would agree with Socrates and Plato that the benefits of classical education are not for all and rather that skill training for jobs is what most students need in this mostly rural country that is beset by poverty. The education system supports this idea. To proceed in Zambian education, students must perform well on standardized national exams in Grade 7, Grade 9, and Grade 12. The national exams consist of factual questions based on content outlined in the Ministry of Education syllabi. The future of the students, and their families, depends on the students’ exam results. This is truly high-stakes testing.

    As a school, we acknowledge the importance of these exams. Nevertheless, rather than restrict our school syllabi to only those courses that will prepare students to excel on the Grade 12 National Exam and thus be accepted for tertiary education or skills training, the Rafiki School schedules lessons in art, music, literature and other “classical” subjects. We know that not every graduate of our classical Christian school will go to university, either because they do not qualify as per the national exam results or because (more likely) of financial constraints. Yet we believe that future mechanics and future farmers and future barbers, as much as future politicians and future doctors, should have the benefits of a classical Christian education. Why?  That’s the question we address when we hire new teachers.

    Because classical Christian education is not well known here, the induction into classical education for new teachers at our school begins with a definition. I have found the interview of Andrew Kern in a Romans Road Media video helpful. He defines classical education as “the cultivation of wisdom and virtue through the nourishing of the soul with the good, the true, and the beauty.” 

    The focus on wisdom and virtue is woven into the daily routines of the school. These, of course, have both personal and societal benefits. All individuals in Zambia are citizens, not just the wealthy or highly educated. Civic Education is a required course each year for all secondary schools here. Our school’s classical approach to education includes a one-year course in logic and a two-year course in rhetoric at the secondary school level. Combining this foundation with history courses that are taught with a biblical worldview better prepares our students to be wise and virtuous citizens.

    We take seriously the reality that all students have souls and we believe strongly that their souls should be nourished with the good, the true, and the beautiful.  We see the benefits of this as our students in all grades take art lessons. As the students learn art techniques such as shading and perspective, they are excited to see that they, too, can create beauty. Art begins with the three-year-olds in Early Childhood who start to learn the names of colors. Blue is the first and is introduced with a print of Degas’ ballet dancers. The little ones are entranced by the delicate and beautiful dancers in their blue costumes. The secondary students contemplate the print of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” in the library and are inspired by its lasting beauty. Students in Grade 6 learn to sing “Dona Nobis Pacem” and the combination of lyrics and harmony touches their souls. The poetry of Robert Frost or Emily Dickinson that students memorize for recitation stays with them long after the term has ended.

    Secondary students here may take literature for one of their national exams. Rather than teach only the prescribed books students will be examined on (and expected to answer in a predetermined way), we teach literature to introduce students to virtuous characters, timeless truth, and linguistic beauty. As Andrew Kern pointed out in the above-mentioned video, Aesop’s “Fables" are an excellent place to begin to teach wisdom. Our Grade 3 students read the fables and use them in a ”Writing and Rhetoric” text where they hone their written expression skills. The Rafiki Classical Christian curriculum includes a lot of literature from Grades 3 to 12. Students benefit immeasurably from learning, for example, about compassion from Charlotte in Charlotte’s Web, about valor from Reepicheep in the Chronicles of Narnia, and about loyalty from Penelope in “Odyssey.” Are students in a rural school in a country beset by poverty in the Southern Hemisphere actually interested in literature like this? Absolutely. I often see students as they enter the school grounds with their copies of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table or Till We Have Faces, reading as they walk in.

    My argument that all students benefit from classical education has relied on an experiential rather than an empirical argument. I will leave the empirical argument to others. I will merely conclude that the critical components of classical education (the pursuit of wisdom and virtue through the nourishing of the soul with the good, the true, and the beautiful) are meant for, and appreciated by, all students.

References:

Roman Roads Media. (2015, November 13). A conversation with Andrew Kern on the definition of classical education (Video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeDOYrGdV70

Rose Allinder, PhD, is the Headmaster of the Rafiki Classical Christian School in Chongwe, Zambia. She serves with the Rafiki Foundation. More information can be found at rafikifoundation.org.

Rose Allinder, Ph.D.
Headmaster of the Rafiki Classical Christian School

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