Our Location: 8025 Antioch Road, Baton Rouge, LA 70817
Our Purpose
The purpose of Covenant Classical Christian School is to help Christian parents provide a Christian and Classical Education for their covenant children in the heritage of orthodox, catholic Christianity and the Reformed Faith. The English Puritan poet and essayist John Milton (1608-1674) captured the essence of such a Bible-based and Christ-centered education in these words:
“The end of learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him.”
Such church fathers as Jerome (331-420) and Augustine of Hippo (354-430), and such catholic theologians as Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and John Calvin (1509-1564), would have agreed wholeheartedly with Milton’s ideas in his treatise On Education.
“The end of learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to imitate Him, to be like Him.”
Such church fathers as Jerome (331-420) and Augustine of Hippo (354-430), and such catholic theologians as Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and John Calvin (1509-1564), would have agreed wholeheartedly with Milton’s ideas in his treatise On Education.
Our Passion
Our passion is ably set forth from Henry R. DeBolster’s book, Stepping Forward in Faith, p. 298.
“It required determination, faith, and perseverance to start and maintain a Christian school. It took even more of a commitment to send one’s children to such a small, fledgling school with benches discarded by the public school. What motivated us to do it? Why do we continue to have these schools? Let me assure everyone that it was not a protest against the public schools to protest against the quality of their education. The reason for the financial sacrifices to send their children to the Christian school was because they remembered the promises made at the time of the baptism of their children. They had promised to educate and to have their children educated in the Christian Faith. They wanted their children to know the Lord and to learn about the fullness of God’s creation from a Biblical perspective. This world belongs to God, and we wanted God to be Number One in our and our children’s lives. A Christ-centered education was the only alternative—not an option, but a necessity. If sacrifices needed to be made, so be it. God would help and bless us and, with all our shortcomings, to make use of the means that became available to live a godly life in the midst of a world that either rejected the Lord or ignored Him.”
“It required determination, faith, and perseverance to start and maintain a Christian school. It took even more of a commitment to send one’s children to such a small, fledgling school with benches discarded by the public school. What motivated us to do it? Why do we continue to have these schools? Let me assure everyone that it was not a protest against the public schools to protest against the quality of their education. The reason for the financial sacrifices to send their children to the Christian school was because they remembered the promises made at the time of the baptism of their children. They had promised to educate and to have their children educated in the Christian Faith. They wanted their children to know the Lord and to learn about the fullness of God’s creation from a Biblical perspective. This world belongs to God, and we wanted God to be Number One in our and our children’s lives. A Christ-centered education was the only alternative—not an option, but a necessity. If sacrifices needed to be made, so be it. God would help and bless us and, with all our shortcomings, to make use of the means that became available to live a godly life in the midst of a world that either rejected the Lord or ignored Him.”
Our Statement of Faith
Since Covenant Classical Christian School is a ministry of a local church, its statement of faith is identical with that of Christ Presbyterian Church, namely, the Ecumenical Creeds (e.g., Apostles’ and Nicene) and the Westminster Standards (i.e., the Confession of Faith, the Larger Catechism, and the Shorter Catechism). Of course, the Bible alone is the Word of God, “the only infallible rule of faith and practice,” and these ecclesiastical documents merely declare the Biblical doctrines which we are convinced the Holy Scriptures teach. At the heart of our profession is the common core of beliefs which British essayist and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) called “Mere Christianity.” Our pupils memorize Scripture, recite the Creeds, sing the Psalms, and learn the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
Our Philosophy
Christian philosopher and college professor Gordon H. Clark (1902-1985) has provided a most eloquent and succinct statement of a Christian philosophy of education:
“There is only one philosophy that can really unify education and life. That philosophy is the philosophy of Christian Theism. What is needed is an educational system based on the Sovereignty of God, for in such a system man as well as chemistry will be given his proper place, neither too high nor too low. In such a system there will be a chief end of man to unify, and to serve as a criterion for, all his activities. What is needed therefore is a philosophy consonant with the greatest creed of Christendom, the Westminster Confession of Faith. In such a system, God, as well as man, will have His proper place. This alone will make education successful; for the social, moral, political, and economic disintegration of a civilization is nothing other than the symptom and result of a religious breakdown. The abominations of war, pestilence, and economic collapse are punishment for the crime, better, the sin, of forgetting God.” (Gordon H. Clark, A Christian Philosophy of Education, pp. 21-22.)
Some of the basic presuppositions guiding our philosophy of education are:
The absolute and ultimate authority of the sixty-six Canonical Books of the Holy Bible (as listed in Chapter One of the Westminster Confession of Faith) over all of life and learning;
The eternal and unchangeable distinction between truth and error (or falsehood), based upon the immutability and omniscience of the Triune God, Who is Truth Himself;
The character of children as image-bearers of God and the primacy of the intellect in formal, classical education;
The character of covenant children as sinners, yet redeemed by Christ and claimed by Him in Baptism as His own, to be nurtured in the Faith by family, church, and school;
The need to educate all covenant children for citizenship and service in Christ’s Kingdom, “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”;
The superiority of classical pedagogy with its emphasis upon the Word (Logos) and the disciplines of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric (Trivium) as subjects and as stages in a child’s intellectual and moral development (see Dorothy Sayers’s essay The Lost Tools of Learning).
“There is only one philosophy that can really unify education and life. That philosophy is the philosophy of Christian Theism. What is needed is an educational system based on the Sovereignty of God, for in such a system man as well as chemistry will be given his proper place, neither too high nor too low. In such a system there will be a chief end of man to unify, and to serve as a criterion for, all his activities. What is needed therefore is a philosophy consonant with the greatest creed of Christendom, the Westminster Confession of Faith. In such a system, God, as well as man, will have His proper place. This alone will make education successful; for the social, moral, political, and economic disintegration of a civilization is nothing other than the symptom and result of a religious breakdown. The abominations of war, pestilence, and economic collapse are punishment for the crime, better, the sin, of forgetting God.” (Gordon H. Clark, A Christian Philosophy of Education, pp. 21-22.)
Some of the basic presuppositions guiding our philosophy of education are:
The absolute and ultimate authority of the sixty-six Canonical Books of the Holy Bible (as listed in Chapter One of the Westminster Confession of Faith) over all of life and learning;
The eternal and unchangeable distinction between truth and error (or falsehood), based upon the immutability and omniscience of the Triune God, Who is Truth Himself;
The character of children as image-bearers of God and the primacy of the intellect in formal, classical education;
The character of covenant children as sinners, yet redeemed by Christ and claimed by Him in Baptism as His own, to be nurtured in the Faith by family, church, and school;
The need to educate all covenant children for citizenship and service in Christ’s Kingdom, “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”;
The superiority of classical pedagogy with its emphasis upon the Word (Logos) and the disciplines of Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric (Trivium) as subjects and as stages in a child’s intellectual and moral development (see Dorothy Sayers’s essay The Lost Tools of Learning).
Our Program
Covenant Classical Christian School follows an eclectic program, the purpose of which is to achieve a basic mastery of language” in its broadest sense. For mastery of the basics of Biblical language we use the King James Bible for classroom reading, instruction, and memory work because of its historical significance, its classical roots, its ecclesiastical acceptance, its mastery of English prose, and its cadence which makes for easier memorization. For mastery of the basics of theological language we memorize the Catechism for Young Children and the Westminster Shorter Catechism. For mastery of the basics of the English language we learn to read using the Veritas Press Phonics Museum and then learn the structure of sentences with the Shurley Grammar Method. For mastery of the basics of historical language we learn a timeline of world history from Creation to the present through the Veritas Press History Cards. For mastery of the basics of mathematical language, we work from textbooks published by A Beka Book and Saxon Math Publishers. For mastery of the basics of the classical languages, we begin with the Latina Christiana primers and finish with Henle’s Latin. For mastery of the basics of reasoning and thinking, our middle schoolers work through the Mars Hill Introductory and Intermediate Logic Program.
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew are the “basic languages” of the Biblical world, Classical antiquity, and Medieval and Reformational Christendom. The Gospel declares: “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin” (John 19:19-20). Our pupils begin their study of Latin with the Latina Christiana primers. They also start reading Latin prose (Greek and Roman mythology and Holy Scripture) and begin participating each year in the National Latin Exam and the National Mythology Exam. The students move on to Henle’s Latin to complete their learning of Latin grammar.
We choose Latin as our “starter” in the classical tongues because it is a bit easier than Greek and was the universal language of Western Christendom for centuries. Latin provides practice in linguistic and analytical skills and helps build a child’s vocabulary (60-75% of English words are from Latin). Latin is also the basis of the “Romance languages” (from lingua Romana, “the Roman tongue”) such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. It is no wonder that our twentieth President, James A. Garfield (1831-1881), known as “The Preacher-President,” and as “The Classicist-President,” wrote in his school diary, Amo Latinam (“I love Latin”).
Latin, Greek, and Hebrew are the “basic languages” of the Biblical world, Classical antiquity, and Medieval and Reformational Christendom. The Gospel declares: “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross, and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin” (John 19:19-20). Our pupils begin their study of Latin with the Latina Christiana primers. They also start reading Latin prose (Greek and Roman mythology and Holy Scripture) and begin participating each year in the National Latin Exam and the National Mythology Exam. The students move on to Henle’s Latin to complete their learning of Latin grammar.
We choose Latin as our “starter” in the classical tongues because it is a bit easier than Greek and was the universal language of Western Christendom for centuries. Latin provides practice in linguistic and analytical skills and helps build a child’s vocabulary (60-75% of English words are from Latin). Latin is also the basis of the “Romance languages” (from lingua Romana, “the Roman tongue”) such as French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Spanish. It is no wonder that our twentieth President, James A. Garfield (1831-1881), known as “The Preacher-President,” and as “The Classicist-President,” wrote in his school diary, Amo Latinam (“I love Latin”).
Our School Song
Our school song, “Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds,” is a paraphrase of Psalm 78, written by the “Father of English Hymnody,” Isaac Watts, in 1719. It is usually sung to the tune “Dundee,” which comes from the Scottish Psalter of 1615.
“Let children hear the mighty deeds
which God performed of old;
which in our younger years we saw,
and which our fathers told.
He bids us make His glories known,
His works of pow’r and grace;
and we’ll convey His wonders
down through ev’ry rising race.
Our lips shall tell them to our sons,
and they again to theirs;
that generations yet unborn
may teach them to their heirs.
Thus shall they learn in God alone
their hope securely stands,
that they may ne’er forget His works,
but practice His commands.”
“Let children hear the mighty deeds
which God performed of old;
which in our younger years we saw,
and which our fathers told.
He bids us make His glories known,
His works of pow’r and grace;
and we’ll convey His wonders
down through ev’ry rising race.
Our lips shall tell them to our sons,
and they again to theirs;
that generations yet unborn
may teach them to their heirs.
Thus shall they learn in God alone
their hope securely stands,
that they may ne’er forget His works,
but practice His commands.”
Our Affiliations: (ACCS) Association of Classical and Christian Schools
