The following remarks were shared at our Middle School Open House this past week.  I thought they might be helpful for our entire community. 

 

"Middle School, you may ask, we don't even have a Middle School.  You would be right that physically such a school building does not exist-does not exist yet-but for the past 10 years, we have been serving students in 6th-8th grades.

 

We are here tonight to define more clearly what that age and stage mean for our school and to give you a sneak peek into our middle school setting.  The main objective of these middle years is to build the social skills and character necessary for Christian community.  The middle grades are all about social groups, belonging, and finding our identity with those around us.  Ultimately, identity comes from community, and our focus on these grades is to build a sense of responsible community. 

 

The middle school years are called the Logic stage of the Trivium for Classical educators.  And while we have one school-Christ Covenant School-we recognize three stages-Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric within the development of Classical learning.  Each stage is different and has different challenges.

 

Perhaps one of the most challenging is this middle school or adolescent years.  Our sweet little ones suddenly begin asking "Why?" more than any other question.   Dorothy Sayers and other classical writers, seek to capitalize and train this innate questioning through the Logic stage of learning.

 

Even Mary and Joseph knew the stresses of the pre-teenage years.  Take the one instance of his childhood we see in Luke 2:42-52.