Pietas Classical Christian
Join us for an OPEN HOUSE!
A Greeting from our Headmaster
Dear Parent Educators,
I don't need to tell you that one of the most difficult things that a parent decides is how to choose the various curricula and supplemental instruction for their children. Part of this, of course, has to do with the enormous amount of options available, and another has to do with the fact that most of us are trying to figure out our own goals as we go along. Besides navigating the curriculum maze, it also needs to be taught, which can be a daunting endeavor. Pietas is a collaborative educational program that has been helping give educational vision and aid to families in Brevard County for the last six years. Our mission is to help students properly order their loves to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty through the Seven Liberal Arts and the Great Books with Christ as the cosmological center. While choosing and teaching curriculum is paramount, helping students to see the integrated nature of things is perhaps even more significant. Our books and pedagogy are designed to lead students into the consideration of goodness, truth, and beauty in math, history, science, literature, theology, rhetoric, Latin, and logic. These considerations elevate the mind into the contemplation of their Source, which is Jesus Christ through whom everything was made and without him was not anything made that was made (John 1:3). By God's grace, our students will become wise and virtuous self-learners.
In brief, Pietas reaches back to the oldest models for the academy both in terms of the content and the method of education. This means that we discuss texts. Both of these words are important. What I mean by texts is that we focus on the great books. We do this not in order to ensure the claim that we have read as many texts as possible. Rather, we read great texts precisely because they are those that have proven the most fruitful to gesture the human soul into dialogue, and it is here that the soul is shaped in conversation with the riches of the human tradition. Regarding discussion, at Pietas we privilege the art of discourse and the free movement of the human soul through cultivated and crafted wonder. Education is ultimately about aiding each growing son of Adam and daughter of Eve to see the glory of God firstly in the face of Christ and secondly in created reality. If that aim becomes secondary to anything else, we have lost the vision. At Pietas, our teachers, board members, and our president promise, by God's grace, to refuse this compromise.
Pietas staff come alongside parents and are treated as the crucial assets that they are, never just discardable “employees." In order to ensure quality across our program, we regularly participate in teacher training and brainstorming about how to craft the art of dialogue with children at various stages. We also schedule afternoons to sit with parents to talk about the curriculum and how we teach it in class. Since PCC is a collaborative model, PCC staff and parents must be aiming at the same target so that together we can give our children the best education available.
Our boys and girls and our young men and women must learn the way of wonder again. I'd be delighted to share our vision more thoroughly with you.
Yours in Christ,
Dale Stenberg