"Crucial Elements of LSA Schools"

Every LSA school takes on its own character, molded by the parents and professionals working together creatively in service to our Lord and as a blessing to one another. As literary creativity is expressed in form, so this educational creativity and uniqueness follows an overall form common to LSA schools. What follows is a brief distillation of the crucial elements that characterize LSA schools.

1. Congregational Connection - LSA schools are extensions of the church, carrying out part of the essential mission of the church to reach out to the lost with the saving gospel of Christ and to teach the whole counsel of God. They are extensions of the family, assisting parents both in the Christian instruction of the children and in preparing their children for vocation.

2. Sustainability - LSA will partner with congregations to establish schools that can be expected to remain sustainable over time. A critical mass of students, congregational leadership, and tuition-driven financial support is necessary to assure that the best professionals can be attracted and retained. Administrators of LSA schools will demonstrate the leadership abilities necessary for recruitment, communication, marketing, curriculum implementation, and effective classroom instruction within the school.

3. Model for Curriculum and Instruction - All LSA schools will all follow a similar model that will define LSA schools and will be largely uniform from school to school. Every LSA school will embody and reflect the following elements as essential to what an LSA school is. While much of this is drawn from a classical model, it is implemented according to distinctly Christian principles. A "Classical Model" curriculum recognizes the natural developmental level of children. This model is most succinctly expressed in the sequence of the "Trivium": Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric.

1. Grammar - "Grammar" is not a reference to the study of language but consists of the information, the core of any discipline. The Grammar of language is, well, grammar. The Grammar of mathematics is counting, then arithmetic facts, and so forth. The Grammar of history is time and place and personage. Grammar is, in a sense, what we know.
2. Logic - "Logic" refers not just to formal logic but to the phase of teaching which involves understanding. For example, letters and sounds and left-right approach are put together to make words and, in turn, this decoding is put together to enable comprehension. Similarly, math facts must lead to a grasp of such things as equality and inequality and a competency in "word problems." Logic is what we understand.
3. Rhetoric - "Rhetoric" is what we create, based upon what we know and understand. So in language, rhetoric is taking the words that we have learned and understand, and writing sentences. Mastering sentences, we can create paragraphs and entire compositions. So also in mathematics, we move from arithmetical thinking to algebraic thinking and the manipulation of mathematical expressions to solve problems.

The ramifications of these principles are far-reaching. They govern the sequence of the curriculum so that in LSA schools the teacher at each level can depend upon students having been taught the things that prepare them for the next. This in turn implies that for some elements of the curriculum, particularly the grammar of any discipline, there will be an insistence upon mastery learning. Likewise, disciplines such as algebra, requiring significant abstract thought, will await those developmental stages that make such learning easier.

4. Preparation for Further Learning - Simply stated, the broad outline of academic materials learned in earlier grades provides a cognitive framework to which we can relate new information with a deeper understanding. A careful application of this principle might place some subject matter later in the curriculum or remove some subject matter altogether. It will also bring other material into the curriculum that has been left out. Figuring large in this last instance is foreign language, particularly Latin. Studies have shown that learning even a small amount of a foreign language in itself increases the ability to learn and comprehend language. Beyond that, the influence of Latin upon our language is so great that significant exposure to Latin contributes to comprehension across many disciplines.

5. Broad Range of Teaching Styles & Resources - There is broad empirical understanding of the fact that different people learn differently - something which modern research has clearly demonstrated. Drawing from traditional and classical models, LSA schools recognize and teach such things a memorizing, listening comprehension, listening analysis (taken notes in an outline) and reading comprehension as learnable skills. Such skills then equip students to expand their learning styles. An additional aspect of LSA methodology is the self-conscious direction of the child toward truth in all matters, what in the classical model is called dialectic. The teacher directs, permits, and encourages rational discussions of virtue, goodness, beauty, and all the infinite and intangible things that escape analysis. Thus the Christian verity governs, conditions, and integrates all knowledge in the LSA school.

6. Consistent Values and Cultural Understanding - An LSA is highly values-driven and means that objective truth exists. It also means that there are standards by which the value and worth of things may be evaluated. Paramount in this is the acknowledgment of the revealed truth of God's word, the Bible. The word of God is the first and greatest truth that we must know and the study of His word an end in itself. God's word also applies to all aspects of knowledge. This holy word informs our whole understanding of society, including our families, our vocations, and our whole reason for being. These things considered, LSA schools draw upon classical models, nodding to the "great books" school of classical education and seek cultural literacy through a discriminatory process of determining what is truly "good."

7. Leadership Preparation Based Upon Christian Presuppositions - It is truly an important purpose of Christian education is to preserve our children in the true faith. They are built up in the word of God. In this way, children are developed in the ability to know and understand what is true and beautiful, to lead effectively, and to conclude matters decisively. In this way and in whatever vocation, our children and young people are equipped to carry on in the cosmic battle in which the church is engaged. They are prepared to be instruments of His truth and to be witness in whatever their vocational calling might be. LSA schools are successful in this preparation by fostering schools of excellence. This is not to say that our schools are exclusive, limited to those who are gifted, but rather that our schools diligently prepare all of our students.

8. Identity and Culture - The distinctive character of any truly Christian school is that Law and Gospel are rightly divided. It is paramount that the gospel of Jesus Christ predominates within the school and that repentance and a full and robust atmosphere of forgiveness be the norm for every classroom. LSA schools will diligently care for the physical safety of every child. Every child is loved and accepted as a blood-bought soul. A culture which regards authority is fostered and habits are developed which support personal discipline. Self-respect, respect for one another, and esprit de corps will be reflected in the students dress with uniforms the norm for first grade and above.