Last year, I had the privilege of being a tutor for my daughter’s Classical Conversations class. Since we are encouraged to write out our whiteboards with God at the center of each subject, I began every class by asking the students where we must always begin our studies. The answer, of course, being God. I soon continued the questioning by asking them the first several questions from the Catechism for Boys and Girls.

Who made you? God!

What else did God make? All things!

Why did God make you and all things? For His own glory!

What does it mean that God made you and all things for His own glory? To show how good and great He is! (This was my own addition.)

How can we glorify God? By loving Him and obeying His commands.

Why should we glorify God? Because He loves me and takes care of me.

This catechistic opening activity was well-received by the students, and over the summer, I began to think of creating simply questions for introducing each subject in order to explicitly tie them back to their roots in knowing God through His created world. And so, I began working on this catechism.

Part Two contains the questions regarding particular subjects that I originally set out to write. Each follows a three-fold pattern: what is the subject, what does it teach about God, and why do we study it. For the classroom, I will likely begin with what each subject teaches about God and work out to the other two questions as the year progresses.

While children can certainly be taught this catechism in its entirety, parents and teachers are the primary audience. The beauty and utility of catechisms is that they provide concise answers to important questions in a form that is easily memorized. You can learn more of their history here and here, as well as which catechisms I recommend using here.

Pursuing a classical Christian education is a noble but daunting goal, especially since few of us received such an education ourselves. My prayer is that memorizing the questions and answers below will help keep the classical vision before our eyes, especially when the going gets tough.

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PART ONE: THE CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN VISION

What is the chief end of man?
To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
[Obviously, I am lovingly borrowing this directly from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. If ain’t broke…]

What is education?
The learning, development, and enculturation of a person toward a particular ideal and end.

What is the chief end of education?
To learn, develop, and enculturate into men and women who know, love, and glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

What is the purpose of school?
To learn how to learn, that is, to develop the tools and skills for lifelong education.
[Note that I am referring to the general process of educating children, so the question applies equally to homeschool, institutional schools, and anything else.]

What is classical education?
A model of education that is rooted in the Greco-Roman ideas of teaching children the seven liberal arts, which are divided into the Trivium and the Quadrivium.

What is the Trivium?
The arts of grammar, dialectic (or logic), and rhetoric.

What is grammar?
The art of developing a foundational knowledge of any given subject.

What is dialectic (or logic)?
The art of analytical and reasonable thought.

What is rhetoric?
The art of communicating knowledge (grammar) and reason (dialectic) for the benefit of others.

What is the purpose of the Trivium?
To provide the student with the three essential arts for life-long learning.

What is the Quadrivium?
The arts of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

What is the purpose of the Quadrivium?
To provide the student with the mathematical arts for understanding the world around them.

What is a classical Christian education?
A classical model of education that is filtered by and saturated in a Christian worldview.

PART TWO: EVERY SUBJECT POINTS TO GOD

What is God?
God is the Creator of everyone and everything.
[This is the children’s version of the Question 2 from the New City Catechism.]

As the Creator, which subjects of education help us to know God more?
All of them!

What does reading teach us about God?
That He has spoken to us through the written word and has made us to communicate in His likeness.

Why do we learn to read?
Because God has spoken to us in His Book, and because it is through reading that we join the Great Conversation.

What is the Great Conversation?
The great books of Western literature that reference, build upon, and refine their predecessors.

What is the Bible?
The Bible is God’s Word written.

Why do we study the Bible?
That we may know God and know what He has spoken to us.

What do languages teach us about God?
That God speaks and has made us in in His image for speaking as well.

Why do we study English?
That we can understand and communicate clearly and effectively in our native tongue.

What is Latin?
Latin was the native language of the Romans that has continued to be used in church and academic writings throughout history.

Why do we study Latin?
To better understand the roots of our own tongue and to gain untranslated access to more than 2000 years of our historical forefathers.

What is Koine Greek?
Koine Greek was the commonly spoken Greek in which the New Testament was written.

Why do we study Greek?
To read the New Testament is its original language.

What is mathematics?
The study of logical shape, quantity, and arrangement.  

What does math teach us about God?
That He is the Author of order, not chaos, and that He is truth.

Why do we study math?
To understand the truth, logic, and order of God’s creation.

What is science?
The study and knowledge of God’s creation through observation, testing, and recording.

What does science teach us about God?
The glory of God as the Creator of all things.

Why do we study science?
To see God’s glory in His creation and to know the goodness and wonder of the world that God has made.  

What is geography?
The study of the lands and features of the earth.

What does geography teach us about God?
That He is the glorious Creator and Designer of all the earth as well as His wondrous provision for us.

Why do we study geography?
To know and understand the earth that God has given us to rule over.

What is history?
The study of people, places, and events of the past.

What does history teach us about God?
That God is the Author and Shaper of all things, including all human events.

Why do we study history?
To consider the providence of God and to understand and learn from the triumphs and sins of the previous generations.

What is music?
The art of aesthetically organized sound, through rhythm, melody, harmony, and various other elements.

What does music teach us about God?
That He is beautiful and delights in what is beautiful.

Why do we study music?
To experience and better understand Beauty.