Our Philosophy of Education

Our philosophy of academic instruction  begins with honoring the Lord through our studies.  We want students to be engrossed in what they are discovering. Therefore information will not be our primary aim but instead students will be given time to dive deep into what they are studying, so that a love of learning is fostered. Our teachers will model this by revealing their own eagerness to learn and by cultivating a holy curiosity in their students. While we will strive towards mastery at Valor, we also understand each student is given unique talents by God and will partner with parents within the framework of natural gifting so that mastery is individualized.   

We live in a world of specialization but we’ve disconnected and compartmentalized the parts from the whole. At Valor Classical we intentionally integrate the humanities: the study of the image bearers of God. We dive deep into literature, from which the fields of study pour out. We see history come alive through story, revealing context, rather than seeing history as just a date or an event. Through story we see characters making decisions and the consequences, good or bad, for those decisions. This gives us opportunities to practice discernment. Through story, Jesus taught truth. 

We will survey God’s Word to understand His ultimate plan. We will interrogate the texts before us and aim towards that which is true, good, and beautiful—even when evil is present. Therefore, our humanities will be founded in reading books, both fiction and non-fiction, that tell the story of the era of time in which we are studying, giving us a vantage of God’s intricate orchestration of His story. 

At Valor Classical, students will study Latin after developing foundational English grammar skills. Latin reinforces English grammar by applying grammatical skills to a new language. Because Latin is a well-ordered language, its students develop a logic of language that deepens their understanding of language in general. The study of Latin and its etymology builds a strong vocabulary foundation, as it is the basis of our legal and medical terms and the root of all Romance languages. Latin is also the language of Rome, the culture in which Christ came, so many foundational documents for the Christian Church were written in Latin. Not only does the clear grammatical structure of Latin make it beneficial to study to form the logical minds of students, but it is also an excellent language to be able to translate and interpret for deeper understanding. 

In a Classical Liberal Arts Tradition, the Quadrivium is the art of numbers. We start with arithmetic (numbers) and move to geometry (numbers in space), which gives us a foundation for better understanding in music (numbers in time) and finally this lays a foundation for understanding the "cosmos" (scientific understanding of the world around us).

Mastery in the language of numbers is paramount to being able to interpret the world around us. Mathematics teaches objective truth as we solve problems and come to a provable answer. We build skills in arithmetic and intentionally work to develop a rich sense of numbers, so that they are a language the student can use fluently to decode God's Creation. 

The word science derives from scientia which means knowledge in Latin, and because God IS the Creator of all, scientific skill grants the opportunity to observe and understand more of God's creation. Through science, we can know more about God Himself. With this as our aim, it is imperative that our science program sparks holy curiosity about the world in which we live.  We will view science as a tool for getting to know the Creator, and through joyful interactions with scientific material, we will train children in the skill of observation and how to interpret what they observe through the lens of a Created world. 

Scripture calls us to be a singing people ("sing psalms hymns and spiritual songs" - Eph 5), so we desire that students are skilled in singing. We will lay a foundation of musicality through rhythm, and then build a fluency in the language of music through music theory. This will be done in the context of choral work where students will be engaged in lifting their voices to glorify the Lord.