Breakout Sessions

Lasting Faith Formation and Classical Christian Education: An Ideal Match - Understanding the Aspects of Cultivating Lasting Faith and their Natural Overlap with CCE

Matthew Brazeale

A central aim of classical Christian education is to form students who live out their faith long after graduation. While alumni testimonies and findings from the Good Soil report offer encouraging signs, an important question remains: which elements of the classical Christian model most directly cultivate enduring faith? Drawing on current research in adolescent faith formation and interviews with 10 graduates from four classical Christian schools, this breakout session examines how philosophy, pedagogy, and communal life uniquely contribute to lasting spiritual maturity. Particular attention will be given to the practices and patterns that most effectively nurture long-term faithfulness into adulthood. Participants will gain both deeper understanding and practical clarity for communicating this formative vision to prospective families, current parents, faculty, and donors. Strengthening the articulation of faith formation not only advances institutional mission, but also enriches the partnerships that sustain it.

Watching the Back Door - How To Track and Make Sense of Attrition Data

John Heaton, Scott McCurley

Many schools assume the reasons families withdraw are already well understood. Often, the data tells a more nuanced story. Does a school consistently track attrition? Is that information interpreted with clarity—and used to strengthen retention and enrollment management? This seminar provides a step-by-step process for collecting and analyzing attrition data in order to identify true “circumstances of attrition” and draw actionable insights for student retention. Using more than a decade of data from New Covenant Schools in Lynchburg, Virginia, this case study highlights patterns that can remain invisible to staff and leadership. Attendees should expect surprises—and leave better equipped to steward enrollment decisions with greater accuracy and wisdom.

Cover and Cultivation - Rethinking Education and Formation with Greystone's Mechanical Arts Program

Mark Garcia

Greystone Theological Institute is intentionally integrating the liberal arts with the mechanical arts, the ethics of embodiment with the ethics of technology, and the world of Scripture with the worlds of human labor, craftsmanship, relationship, and worship. This breakout session presents a vision of education that refuses to divide contemplation from craft or theology from daily work. Participants will consider how such integration strengthens coherence across the curriculum and forms students who understand their studies as preparation for faithful presence in God’s world—marked by wisdom, skill, and reverent service.

The Expected Word - Writing Help from Dorothy L. Sayers

Lindsey Scholl

“The expected word has no power to stimulate,” Dorothy Sayers once observed. This breakout session revisits five hallmarks of strong writing drawn from Sayers’s reflections: the use of concrete nouns, the distinction between misleading and mysterious language, the craft of dialogue in both fiction and nonfiction, the discipline of accuracy, and the necessity of community. Across her novels, essays, and letters to the editor, Sayers not only models excellence in each of these areas but also reflects explicitly on the writer’s task. Participants will engage her insights through excerpts from lesser-known yet lively pieces such as Ink of Poppies and Words I Am Weary Of. Practical guidance and classroom resources will be provided to help teachers cultivate clarity, precision, and vitality in student writing.

The Virtues Only a School Can Teach

Jim Reynolds, Andrew Smith

This session explores Aristotle’s five intellectual virtues and their essential role in the pursuit of truth. Moving beyond an exclusive focus on moral formation, participants will consider how schools cultivate students’ ability to perceive, reason, and discern what is true through thoughtful teaching, time, and experience. With a particular emphasis on instructional practice, this session will equip educators to intentionally develop these virtues so that students grow in excellence in reasoning and contemplation.

We Become What We Behold: How Beautiful Art Forms the Soul

Derek Brooks

Employing the lens of Aristotelian and Thomistic epistemology, This breakout session begins with an exploration of how the human person is formed—how knowledge, desire, and habit shape the soul according to its created design. With that foundation in view, attention turns to the formative role of beauty, considering how visual art can help rightly order the affections and cultivate virtue. Particular focus will be given to explicitly Christian artwork and its capacity to direct the soul toward truth and love in Christ. The session concludes with a brief practicum introducing intentional practices through which educators and students may thoughtfully engage the artwork present in their schools, so that such encounters contribute more fully to Christ-centered formation.

From Screens to Scrapes - What Does a Classical Recess Look Like?

Daniel Payne

Modern assumptions often treat recess as a pause from “real” learning—a necessary release of energy before returning to academic work. Yet within the classical tradition, play carries a richer and more purposeful vision. From Plato and Aristotle to Bonaventure and Aquinas, the great thinkers of the West have recognized play as integral to education and human flourishing. When approached with intention, recess becomes a supervised arena in which students test what they are learning and practice the habits of virtue. It serves as a training ground for courage, self-governance, friendship, and joy. In an age when screens increasingly shape leisure, outdoor play—complete with the occasional scrape or grass stain—offers a needed counterpoint to digital formation. This breakout session explores practical ways to cultivate imaginative play, encourage wise risk-taking, and guide students toward appropriate independence, reclaiming recess as a meaningful and formative element of classical Christian education.

Invitational & Relational

Daniel Payne

Over the past decade, many families have been drawn to the transcendentals that anchor classical Christian education, contributing to significant enrollment growth across the country. With this growth comes a renewed need for shepherding as families learn to embrace the ancient vision these schools pursue. While the cultivation of wisdom and virtue is deeply attractive, the pathway toward that end can appear unclear; the daily work of a grammar school classroom may seem far removed from the portrait of an articulate and eloquent senior. As a result, teachers and leaders increasingly find themselves explaining, clarifying, and at times defending classroom practices. The fitting response is not frustration, but gracious invitation—marked by clarity, patience, and relational trust. This breakout session equips attendees to articulate pedagogical commitments in accessible language, connect a school’s Portrait of a Graduate to daily classroom practices, and extend a hospitable invitation to families seeking the richest education for their children.

Through the Looking Glass: Teaching Modern Literature Through the Lens of the Tradition

Rachel Greb

Last year, a survey of session attendees revealed that modern literature and epic poetry ranked among the most challenging texts to teach. What might shift if certain modern works were approached not as departures from the tradition, but as participants within it—illuminated by the great epics that precede them? C. S. Lewis was composing A Preface to Paradise Lost while writing Perelandra, inviting thoughtful consideration of Milton alongside the Space Trilogy. This breakout session explores ways to weave Paradise Lost into the study of Perelandra—or to teach the two in tandem—so that students perceive deeper continuity within the tradition. Attention will also be given to reading Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow through the lens of The Divine Comedy, enriching interpretation through epic imagination. By tracing these literary conversations across time, teachers can help students see both modern and epic texts with greater clarity, depth, and coherence.

The Gracious Classroom - Beyond Behavior Management

Kourtney Wright

Behaviorism can amplify sinful tendencies by reducing the classroom to systems of control and compliance. In contrast, the shepherd teacher seeks to guide students toward rightly ordered affections, directing hearts toward God rather than merely managing behavior. Creating a learning environment that does not rely on charts, incentives, or external techniques can feel daunting—particularly for new teachers. Yet a classroom shaped by relationship, meaningful liturgy, thoughtful routines, and intentional design can foster genuine formation. This breakout session considers how the shepherd model of teaching cultivates an atmosphere in which learning flows from love, reverence, and growing self-governance—nurturing not mere compliance, but lasting heart change.

Building, Sustaining, and Supporting a Truly Classical Math Program

Josh Wilkerson

Does a school’s mathematics program form both heart and mind—cultivating virtue alongside wisdom in service to God and neighbor? Why can it be difficult to integrate classical pedagogies and practices into mathematics courses? How should leaders discern which curriculum best aligns with the mission of their school? And how might teachers and families be equipped to embody that mission within the math classroom? Designed for administrators seeking clarity in these areas, this presentation reflects on a five-year journey at Regents School of Austin to more faithfully align its K–12 mathematics program with the philosophy and practices of the classical Christian education movement. The school has witnessed measurable growth in students’ experience of mathematics, supported by meaningful data. Particular attention will be given to vertical alignment, curriculum selection, teacher formation, and parent communication, offering practical insight for leaders seeking coherence between their mathematics program and their broader vision of classical Christian formation.

An Education In Wonder

Kathleen Ruth

At Rochester Classical Academy, an education shaped by wonder stands at the heart of learning and forms a defining element of lower school culture and classrooms. But what is an education in wonder, and why does it matter so deeply within classical Christian education? This breakout session explores these questions at the philosophical level before turning to practical, tangible ways to cultivate curiosity across subjects and disciplines. Attention will also be given to identifying and avoiding common “wonder killers,” ensuring that classrooms remain places where delight, attentiveness, and joyful discovery can flourish.

God’s Story and Ours - Biblical Foundations for Teaching History

Colby Painter

Christian historians and history teachers who take Scripture seriously must consider how the unfolding of human events coheres within the biblical narrative. Because the Bible orders redemptive history through the covenants God makes with His people, faithful historical study requires clarity about how human history relates to that covenantal structure. This breakout session argues that human history is best understood and taught as unfolding within the purview of the Noahic Covenant—the covenant of common grace. Such a framework carries significant implications for interpretation and pedagogy. First, it calls for understanding historical events ordinarily through secondary causes rather than direct appeals to primary causation. Second, it cautions against claiming divinely authorized interpretations of particular historical events beyond the broad contours Scripture itself provides. By locating human history within the scope of the Noahic Covenant, Christian historians and teachers can pursue historical study with theological faithfulness, intellectual humility, and pedagogical integrity.

The 30,000-Foot View to the Daily Desk - A Practical Model for Translating Vision into Everyday Leadership Decisions

Richard Halloran

School leaders often feel the distance between aspirational vision and practical implementation. This breakout session offers a step-by-step model for making vision operational so that strategic priorities are embodied consistently by leadership teams and faculty. Participants will learn how to craft a vision script, build aligned strategic and financial plans, set thematic and standard operating objectives, and establish a sustainable cadence of quarterly, weekly, and daily goal-setting. The result is a clear rhythm of leadership that strengthens coherence, accountability, and long-term flourishing.

Write with Wright: Classical Composition in the Grammar Classroom

Karise Wright

Student Support in a Christ-centered, Classical School

David Bishop, Michelle Bishop

Classical classrooms are uniquely positioned to serve a wide range of learners, yet many schools experience attrition when educators or families feel ill-equipped to address common learning differences. Concern over compromising classical pillars through conventional student support models can hinder growth and unintentionally distance families from a classical Christian education. David Bishop, a licensed occupational therapist with experience in hospital rehabilitation and pediatric clinical settings, has partnered with experienced classical educators at Heritage Preparatory School in Atlanta, Georgia to support diverse learning needs within the classroom. Together with Michelle Bishop, Head of Upper School at Heritage Prep, he will address the tensions classical Christian schools often encounter when seeking to integrate traditional student support with enduring classical commitments. This breakout session offers a thoughtful vision for developing a student support model—whether formally structured or carefully integrated—that strengthens families and sustains classical distinctives. Participants will gain a clear example of a model designed to keep families fully engaged within a classical Christian school, along with practical strategies that can be implemented immediately in the classroom, regardless of program size or structure.

The Ethos of the Classroom - How Scholé, Atmosphere, and Relationships Form Students

Michael Attaway

Classical Christian education is more than an academic enterprise; it is a sacred calling to shape the loves, habits, and spiritual imagination of the next generation. Every teacher carries an ethos into the classroom—a quiet presence that forms students in ways deeper than instruction alone. This breakout session invites educators to recover the beauty of teaching from a posture of scholé, resting in God’s strength rather than rushing through material. Attention will be given to how atmosphere, order, and beauty dispose the soul toward learning, and how relationships rooted in Christ become channels of grace within the classroom. Participants will reflect on the often unseen dimensions of practice—tone, posture, environment—and consider how these elements either cultivate peace or contribute to anxiety. Together, the group will examine how daily faithfulness awakens curiosity, strengthens character, and nurtures a lasting love of truth. Attendees will leave with renewed encouragement, practical rhythms of rest, and a deeper awareness that faithful presence in the classroom bears eternal significance.

Memory and the Voice - Ancient Approaches to Teach Omnibus after Artificial Intelligence

Andrew Black, Alex Burdge

This breakout session presents a two-pronged, practical, and pedagogical response within an Omnibus class to the introduction of generative artificial intelligence. The first installment, Memory, details the course’s sustained engagement with the ancient practice of artificial memory—an approach implemented in 2021 and continued with notable success. Participants will receive a brief history of the method, a principled justification for its use, modeled examples, and practical guidance for faithful implementation. Resources will also be provided to support the adoption of these pedagogical practices in other classical Christian school classrooms.

Every Child is Born a Person - Understanding and Applying Mason's 20 Principles in Your Classroom

Aimee Davis

This breakout session explores Charlotte Mason’s 20 principles to cultivate a deeper understanding of her philosophy and its enduring vision for formation. Guided by these principles, attendees will consider their practical expression in the classroom—shaping lesson planning, nurturing classroom culture, and fostering a love of lifelong learning in students of every academic ability.

The Scopes Trial and the Power of Ideas - Exploring a Key Intersection of Science, Religion, and Culture

Jason Manley

What ideas most powerfully shape students in 2026? Which assumptions quietly influence educators and leaders themselves? How can schools respond wisely to the intellectual currents that define the present moment? This breakout session examines several formative ideas shaping contemporary culture and considers how classical Christian education can address them with clarity and charity. Drawing insight from a pivotal court case a century ago—along with common misconceptions surrounding it and the cultural tensions that followed—participants will reflect on how past conflicts continue to influence American thought. With historical perspective and theological discernment, the session invites renewed confidence in educating students to engage enduring questions with wisdom, humility, and steadfast commitment to truth.

Wise as Serpents, Ordis Amoris: Cultivating Adolescent Affections in a Distracted Age.

Craig Doerksen

Classical Christian educators teach souls, not merely subjects. Course objectives, rightly understood, serve a larger mission: the formation of students into mature image-bearers who glorify God in heart, mind, and action. Yet the forces competing for that formation—technology, media, cultural consumption, artificial intelligence, grades, and endless activity—often seem more powerful than the quiet work of the classroom. How might the “main thing” remain the main thing with greater intentionality and effectiveness? This breakout session invites careful reflection on how to pursue student formation with wisdom and discernment—“wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Participants will consider practical strategies for strengthening formative practices within their unique contexts. Through guided reflection and collaborative planning, attendees will begin drafting concrete approaches aligned to their mission, classrooms, courses, and students, seeking renewed clarity and courage in the shared work of shaping souls.

Attentiveness as Abundance - Cultivating Generous Presence in Our Schools

Franklin Norton

Classical Christian schools rest on the conviction that education is a profoundly human act—formed not only by content, but by relational presence. In an age marked by hurry, fragmentation, and digital distraction, attentive presence may be among the most generous gifts offered to a school community. Drawing on David Brooks’s How to Know a Person and Frederick Buechner’s call to “see with imagination,” This breakout session considers how faculty, student, and parent culture can be transformed through the discipline of sustained attention. When members of a community learn to regard one another not merely as roles to be filled or problems to be solved, but as image-bearers with rich interior lives, they reflect the generous gaze of God and cultivate a culture marked by depth, delight, and lasting formation. Through story, reflection, and a practical framework, participants will examine how an internal posture shaped by curiosity, care, and presence becomes the groundwork for joy, resilience, and relational generosity—whether in classrooms, committee meetings, faculty lounges, or boardrooms. In such ordinary spaces, the practice of truly seeing one another can quietly renew the life of a school. This breakout session is adapted from a faculty development address first presented at Covenant School’s annual Summer Symposium.

The Democracy of the Dead: Teaching Epistemic Humility in the Classical Classroom - Practical Strategies for Helping Students Approach the Great Books with Proper Posture and Genuine Openness to Formation

Gregory Jeffers, Kristin Moore

Many classical students become adept at analyzing texts, identifying literary devices, and critiquing arguments, yet struggle to submit themselves to genuine formation by what they read. Homer may be approached with the habits of modern consumption—or with what C. S. Lewis termed “chronological snobbery,” the assumption that contemporary perspectives are inherently superior to ancient ones. This breakout session addresses a central challenge in classical Christian education: the cultivation of epistemic humility. How might students learn to receive the Great Books not merely as artifacts for dissection, but as enduring voices in a living conversation—voices that carry authority to shape thought and imagination? The path forward lies in a shift from critique-first pedagogy to curiosity-first pedagogy. Through practices such as narration, strategic annotation, and carefully guided discussion, classrooms can become places where students learn to listen with reverence before evaluating with discernment. Drawing on insights from Lewis, Chesterton, and the classical tradition, alongside concrete adaptations from narration pedagogy, This breakout session will equip attendees to recognize signs of chronological snobbery or intellectual pride, frame reading assignments as genuine dialogue, cultivate attentive curiosity prior to judgment, and guide students from grammatical observation to dialectical wrestling and finally to rhetorical evaluation. In doing so, teachers can foster classroom cultures in which past voices are granted what Chesterton called “the democracy of the dead,” and students come to expect correction, growth, and deeper formation through the texts themselves.

Leisure as Generosity in the Classical Christian Educator

Erin Uminn

In 2023, Dr. Erin H. Uminn published her doctoral dissertation, Skole and Sabbath as a Way of Being in Classical Educators: A Hermeneutic Phenomenology on Leisure, examining how self-directed leisure among classical Christian educators directly shapes student experience in the classroom. This breakout session explores the classical understanding of leisure and contemplative practice, presents key findings from Dr. Uminn’s phenomenological research, and considers how a life ordered toward contemplation fosters generosity in teaching. Participants will reflect on the ways educators who cultivate depth, rest, and ongoing growth serve their students not only through instruction, but through the quiet formation of their own souls.

The Mechanical Arts: Bodying Forth Wisdom

Tony Saegert, Gabrielle Rowell

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare describes the poet whose imagination “gives to airy nothing / A local habitation and a name.” Such language captures a task that belongs not only to poets, but to Christian educators: to body forth what is unseen and render truth tangible within the life of a community. Hugh of St. Victor’s Didascalicon reintroduces the seven mechanical arts—fabric-making, armament, commerce, agriculture, hunting, medicine, and theatrics—offering a needed counterbalance to the abstract tendencies into which classical education can drift. These arts mirror the liberal arts and re-root learning in embodied engagement with the created order, opening a more holistic path toward wisdom. This breakout session considers the value of reorienting upper school classrooms toward creative and sensory modes of learning, particularly in an age when fewer eyes glance “from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.” Shaped by the incarnation and self-emptying of Christ, such pedagogy forms channels through which meaning reaches students’ hearts through their hands as well as their minds. In doing so, it cultivates a community strengthened by the risks, disciplines, and shared mysteries of craftsmanship.

Strong Classical Homes Make Strong Classical Schools - Equipping Schools to Partner with Parents Well and Strengthen the School and Home Partnership

Davies Owens

Classical Christian schools labor each day to shape the affections, habits, and imaginations of students. Yet when the school day ends and children return home or depart for afternoon activities, that formative work is either strengthened or strained by what unfolds beyond campus. Scripture calls parents and churches to disciple children in character, habit, and love. Even so, school leaders often wrestle with how—and to what extent—a school should offer guidance that extends beyond classroom communication. How can schools graciously encourage parents to embrace their vital role in cultivating the same virtues, liturgies, and classical habits nurtured each day? What might a “classical home” look like in lived practice, and how can support be offered without overreach? This breakout session presents seven best practices observed in flourishing classical Christian homes, along with practical tools for strengthening school-family partnership. Participants will gain frameworks and examples that help guide parents toward confident, faithful leadership in the home, reinforcing the shared pursuit of the Portrait of a Graduate and the broader aims of classical Christian formation.

A Systematic Approach to Building an Athletic Program - Plans, Strategies, Techniques and Best Practices

Jeff Poore

What is the wisest way to launch an athletic program from the ground up? Which sports should be offered, and how are faithful coaches identified and formed? For established programs, how can continuity be strengthened, coaches developed, team cultures shaped, and athletics thoughtfully integrated into the broader life and mission of the school? This breakout session addresses both emerging and mature programs, offering practical guidance for building athletics that reflect the values of classical Christian education. Attention will be given to cultivating coherent vision, supporting coaches in their formative role, fostering team cultures marked by virtue and unity, and employing best practices that steward time, resources, and energy with wisdom and foresight.

Charlotte Mason as Generosity

Deani Van Pelt

Augustine’s De Magistro: Teaching, Learning, Signs, and God

David Diener

Augustine’s De Magistro (On the Teacher) is a brief and often overlooked dialogue, yet it holds enduring significance for both the development of Augustine’s thought and the philosophy of education. Its reflections on knowledge, signs, and teaching continue to shape Christian understandings of pedagogy. This seminar considers De Magistro in three movements. First, it introduces the dialogue and offers a concise summary of Augustine’s central argument. Second, it examines the text’s contribution to Augustine’s theology of signs and his understanding of Christ as the Inner Teacher. Finally, it explores the educational implications of the work, particularly Augustine’s reflections on the nature of teaching and his adaptation of Socratic dialogue from Plato for Christian purposes. By revisiting this compact yet profound work, participants will gain renewed clarity regarding the limits of human instruction and the divine source of true understanding.

Here's Looking at Euclid - Integrating Euclid's Elements into the Modern Geometry Classroom

Kaye Pepin

Book One of Euclid’s Elements offers a rich opportunity to deepen and elevate the modern geometry classroom. This breakout session presents practical ways to incorporate Euclid alongside Jurgensen’s Geometry textbook through a seminar-style approach that honors both ancient insight and contemporary structure. Attention will be given to student presentations, guided discussion, thoughtfully designed assessments, and a coherent curriculum map that integrates Euclidean reasoning with modern geometric study. The result is a geometry course that strengthens logical clarity, cultivates mathematical virtue, and situates students within the enduring tradition of classical inquiry. Participants will consider structures for student presentations, guided discussions, thoughtfully designed assessments, and a coherent curriculum map that supports both conceptual clarity and mathematical reasoning. The result is a geometry course that honors the classical tradition while meeting the demands of a modern classroom.

Shakespeare As You Like It - How to Begin and Grow a Performance of Shakespeare Program at Your School

Benjamin Lyda

Introducing Shakespeare into the classroom can begin simply and grow into a thriving program of full productions. This breakout session outlines a pathway that starts with reader’s theater and develops, over time, into staged performances. Along the way, attention will be given to what students gain from sustained encounters with the Bard—confidence in language, delight in story, communal collaboration, and a deepened love for the dramatic arts. Practical guidance will also be offered for launching and sustaining a Shakespeare program within a classical Christian school. A formative moment sparked this vision: bringing six- and eight-year-old children to their first Shakespeare in the Park performance, equipped only with a picnic blanket and sandwiches. While nearby onlookers wondered whether screens might be necessary, the children were instead captivated—drawn into a world of fairies and laughing freely at Bottom’s antics. That early joy eventually led to the founding of The Children’s Shakespeare Academy, producing full-length plays for students ages nine to 18. This breakout session shares both the inspiration and the practical steps for cultivating similar delight and excellence within another school community.

Why We Don't Offer Dual Credit......and Other Pointed Statements About Upholding the Integrity of Curriculum and School Culture

Jenni Meadows

Recognizing that more than one faithful approach exists for preserving the integrity of curriculum and school culture, This breakout session offers a principled overview of why curriculum, instruction, and student and faculty evaluations are maintained on campus. Participants will consider the philosophical convictions and practical implications that undergird this model, reflecting on how localized oversight can strengthen coherence, accountability, and shared vision within a classical Christian school community.

Why Should We READ Latin?

Karen Moore

Classical schools widely affirm the study of Latin, recognizing its profound contributions to vocabulary, grammar, and habits of reasoning. Yet instruction often concludes after only a few years, before students encounter the richness of reading original texts. This presentation commends the enduring value of engaging the Great Texts in their original language. Such study enables careful attention to diction, syntax, and style as chosen by the author, rather than filtered through translation. In doing so, students gain deeper insight into meaning and intention while also beholding the craftsmanship of the masters themselves. When students learn to see these works in their original form, they encounter what Scripture calls “apples of gold in settings of silver”—treasures whose beauty shines most clearly when the eyes have been trained to perceive their native splendor

SCL Accreditation Panel: The PATHway to Thriving

Brian Polk

The Mimetic Teaching Model for Good Teachers

Carrie Eben

This breakout session considers the pedagogical vision set forth in The Good Teacher: Ten Key Pedagogical Principles That Will Transform Your Teaching by Chris Perrin and Carrie Eben. Rather than offering techniques, the book articulates universal principles that shape faithful, attentive instruction. Together, participants will examine how these principles take form within an ordinary classroom lesson through the Mimetic Teaching Model—a structure that clarifies the aim of a lesson and directs student attention toward true apprehension. Carrie Eben will demonstrate the model in practice, inviting attendees to engage its distinctive form and to experience the enduring principles of good teaching at work.

Creating Spaces for Good Teachers: The Ten Principles for Helping Teachers Be Good

Carrie Eben

In The Good Teacher: Ten Key Pedagogical Principles That Will Transform Your Teaching, Chris Perrin and Carrie Eben articulate universal principles that shape not only skilled instruction, but the cultivation of virtuous educators. Such principles invite an important question: how might school leaders foster both personal virtue and faithful practice within their faculty? Because these ten principles are universal in scope, they provide fertile soil for nurturing a culture of goodness among teachers and staff. Attending carefully to them enables administrators to cultivate hospitable environments in which educators flourish—and, in turn, students prosper. In This breakout session, Carrie Eben will present the principles from the book and guide administrators in discerning thoughtful, practical ways to embody them within their own educational communities.

The Nature of Man and How it Affects the Nature of Education

Louis Markos

Children are not blank slates, but noble-but-fallen creatures endowed with reason, purpose, and meaning, who mustn't be herded or manipulated to serve a purpose foreign to their essential nature and being. In this first of two stand-alone lectures, I will survey ten aspects of the nature of man that have direct bearing on how children should best be educated.

The Nature of Education: Classical Christian vs. Progressive

Louis Markos

Given who we are as people, what kind of pedagogical methods will best allow us to pass down the wisdom of our culture to our children so that they may grow to become virtuous, morally self-regulating citizens? In this second of two stand-alone lectures, I will survey seven things that set classical Christian education apart from progressive education: Liberal Arts vs. Vocational, Canonical vs. Ideological, Books vs. Textbooks, History vs. Social Studies, Humanities vs. Social Sciences, Goodness, Truth, and Beauty vs. Relativism, and Virtues vs. Values.

Choir in the Classical Tradition: A Workshop

Suzanne Morrison

The Classical Christian Choir: Learning from the 2026 SCL Honor Choir Come observe, participate, and learn from the 2026 SCL Honor Choir, the Rhetoric Women’s Chorus from The Academy of Classical Christian Studies in Oklahoma City. Suzanne Morrison will share unique pedagogical approaches to teaching choral music in the Classical Christian setting. You will walk away with tools to use in your music classroom, philosophical support for choral music education, and a full heart of beauty from participating in the act of singing together.

From the True to the Good - The Role of Logic in Human Flourishing

Joelle Hodge

Classical education affirms that the pursuit of the good life requires more than moral aspiration—it requires disciplined judgment. This breakout session explores how the study of logic in the middle-grade years, grades seven through 10, forms the habits of mind necessary for discerning truth, resisting error, and choosing what is genuinely good. Often misunderstood as merely technical or academic, logic within the classical tradition is a moral art. It trains students to love what is true so that their lives may be ordered toward what is good. Drawing from classical sources, contemporary reflections on human flourishing, and lived classroom experience, This breakout session demonstrates how the study of logic strengthens prudence, cultivates intellectual virtue, and advances a vision of formation rooted in the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.

School Choice for Classical Christian Schools: Growth Engine or Hidden Risk?

Katherine Bathgate, Kevin Clark, Kyle Rapinchuk

School choice—and particularly Education Savings Account (ESA) programs—is rapidly reshaping the landscape for classical Christian schools. This breakout session equips heads of school, admissions leaders, marketing teams, and boards to evaluate and steward ESA participation with strategic clarity, seeking both enrollment vitality and long-term financial sustainability. Participants will consider how to discern whether ESA participation aligns with their mission, how such programs can support enrollment growth and budget stability, and how to integrate ESAs thoughtfully into a coherent marketing strategy that attracts mission-aligned families. Common concerns, operational challenges, and evolving policy dynamics will also be addressed as ESA programs expand nationally. Leaders from Utah, Arkansas, and Florida—three states with active ESA programs at differing stages of maturity—will share practical lessons, strategic insights, and real-world experience to inform wise decision-making.

The Abolition of Learning - Cheerfully Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Tshepo Rathiaya

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how students learn, how teachers teach, and how institutions define educational success. Far more than a neutral instrument, AI functions as a formative force—a new paideia—that subtly shapes desires, habits, and assumptions about knowledge, efficiency, and even human identity. For Christian educators committed to classical and virtue-based pedagogy, this reality raises pressing theological and educational questions. This breakout session considers whether artificial intelligence presents primarily a threat to Christian formation or an opportunity for faithful stewardship. Drawing on Scripture, the classical Christian tradition, and cultural analysis informed by C. S. Lewis, participants will examine how AI influences the logos, ethos, and telos of learning—and what it means to exercise wise dominion rather than passive dependence. A constructive framework will be offered for cheerful teaching in an age of automation, emphasizing the formation of joyful learners who love God with heart, soul, and mind. Practical principles will guide discernment regarding appropriate classroom use, the safeguarding of virtue-centered learning, and the cultivation of wisdom, attentiveness, and moral imagination in an increasingly artificial age.

Building a Culture Students Actually Love - Launching and Sustaining a House System

Jonathan Horner

A thriving student culture—marked by belonging, shared purpose, and genuine flourishing—does not emerge by accident. One proven avenue for cultivating such a culture is the establishment of a House System. Meaningful student engagement in shaping the structure from the outset fosters ownership and long-term vitality. This breakout session highlights how Trinity Academy in Raleigh, North Carolina has invited student leaders into the discernment and decision-making processes that launched—and continue to sustain—its House System. Each year becomes an opportunity for reflection and refinement, and each cohort of leaders contributes fresh insight to developing traditions. Practical guidance will be offered on the mechanics of initiating a House System, as well as on the steady, weekly work required to sustain a culture that strengthens community, leadership, and student formation.

Financial Leadership for Young Schools: The First Ten Years - The Gravitational Realities of Your School's Economics in the Early Years

Charles (Chuck) Evans

Those involved in founding classical Christian schools are often unfamiliar with the unique economic realities—the unavoidable constraints—that shape a school’s financial life. Without a clear understanding of these dynamics, leaders may adopt a trial-and-error approach to financial planning that limits growth and, at times, creates tension with tuition-paying families. This breakout session outlines foundational principles for launching a school with fiscal clarity or correcting missteps during the first decade of operation. By examining the structural realities that govern sustainability, participants will gain practical insight for cultivating financial stability, fostering trust within the community, and strengthening the long-term flourishing of their institution.

Session 1: Shepherding Middle Schoolers into Maturity: How Habit-Training Creates a Flourishing Student Culture Part 1: Attention

Miranda Quinn (top speaker)

Middle school teachers are well acquainted with the familiar refrain, “I could never teach middle school.” Too often, these students are defined by immaturity and low expectations, as though genuine growth must wait for the greener pastures of high school. Yet classical Christian education affirms that children are capable of far more. In an age shaped by the dopamine-driven rhythms of technology, sustaining student attention presents a formidable challenge. The temptation is to mirror the culture—adding more technology or increasing entertainment in the classroom. A classical vision, however, calls for something deeper: the cultivation of the habit of attention. Drawing on insights from Charlotte Mason, Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion, and practical strategies related to executive function, This breakout session offers concrete techniques for strengthening attentiveness in the middle school years. The goal is not mere compliance, but the formation of students capable of sustained focus, thoughtful engagement, and growing maturity.

Session 2: Shepherding Middle Schoolers into Maturity: How Habit-Training Creates a Flourishing Student Culture Part 2: Habit-Training

Miranda Quinn (top speaker)

Middle school teachers are well acquainted with the familiar refrain, “I could never teach middle school.” Too often, these students are defined by immaturity and low expectations, as though genuine growth must wait for the greener pastures of high school. Yet classical Christian education affirms that children are capable of far more. In an age shaped by the dopamine-driven rhythms of technology, sustaining student attention presents a formidable challenge. The temptation is to mirror the culture—adding more technology or increasing entertainment in the classroom. A classical vision, however, calls for something deeper: the cultivation of the habit of attention. Drawing on insights from Charlotte Mason, Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion, and practical strategies related to executive function, This breakout session offers concrete techniques for strengthening attentiveness in the middle school years. The goal is not mere compliance, but the formation of students capable of sustained focus, thoughtful engagement, and growing maturity.

Laying the Groundwork: Fund Your Master Plan Vision While Honoring Your Donors

Jason Smith, David Nees

Is your enrollment bursting at the seams? Are you holding 7th grade Latin in a broom closet, repurposing hallways as homerooms, or doubling grammar sections with no place to put them? Like many growing classical Christian schools, you may be sensing that a capital campaign is not just a future dream—but an urgent necessity. As you build to meet these needs, how do you know if your plan will keep pace with your demand? What's more, how do you know if your plan resonates with those who love to fund your mission? Before any school launches a campaign, a feasibility study provides the wisdom, clarity, and confidence needed to move forward. In this session, you'll discover why a feasibility study is the essential first step in discerning capacity, confirming vision alignment, and cultivating the early donor buy-in that drives a successful campaign.

Nature Study and the Liberal Arts: Experience a Lesson

Katie Earman

Sassy Students & Picky Parents - How to Love well with Justice and Mercy - Tips and Tools for Holding High Expectations and Bold Boundaries with Magnanimity and Charity

Tamara Venderburg, Kim Elgie

Do challenging students diminish the learning of others? Do difficult parent dynamics strain the capacity of a teacher or leader? This breakout session addresses the academic and behavioral support of students with clarity and charity, offering thoughtful approaches to intervention that strengthen the classroom rather than disrupt it. It will also consider how to cultivate healthy, trust-filled relationships with parents—marked by wisdom, appropriate boundaries, and shared commitment to student formation.

Moments of Wonder - Creating Parent Education to Draw our Parents More Deeply into our Mission

Jonathan Callis

In many classical Christian schools, parents did not themselves receive the kind of education now shaping their children. They may recognize the beauty of classroom liturgies, recitations, and pedagogy, yet struggle to articulate what makes this model distinct. For this reason, intentional parent education is essential to cultivating a shared culture and a unified school community. Drawing on the medieval concepts of ratio and intellectus, this breakout session considers how parent education can function both as poetic vision-casting and as an invitation into the moral and intellectual formation taking place in the classroom. Attention will be given to the structure and content of parent sessions, as well as to the importance of shared learning and fellowship. When families feast on the same vision together, the culture of the school is strengthened in coherence, hospitality, and joy.

Do These Pieces Fit? - How Does Dante (or Anything Else in the Curriculum) Relate to Biology?

Robbie Andreasen

This breakout session features modeled portions of ninth-grade biology lessons that demonstrate how the disciplines of mathematics, science, history, metaphysics, logic, rhetoric, epistemology, art, and literature interrelate within a coherent vision of knowledge. Rather than treating subjects as isolated fields, these lessons illustrate the unity of truth and the meaningful connections that bind the curriculum together. In addition, the session will outline a standards-based grading system designed to assess student learning with clarity, consistency, and integrity, supporting both academic growth and intellectual formation.

Don’t Be a Silo! - Interdisciplinary Teaching & Practical Collaboration for Rhetoric, History, English, and Science

AnnMarie Hamilton, Robbie Andreasen

Classical education flourishes when disciplines converse with one another, yet teachers often labor within subject-area silos. This breakout session invites dialectic and rhetoric school faculty to recover the interdisciplinary spirit of the classical tradition, demonstrating how rhetoric, history, literature, and even science can work together to cultivate wisdom and eloquence. Participants will examine the philosophical foundation for integrated learning—the unity of truth and the conviction that subjects illuminate one another. From there, the session turns to practical, classroom-tested strategies for collaboration. Examples will include joint units between rhetoric and history, such as analyzing and delivering significant historical speeches; rhetoric and English, such as framing debates through literary texts; and rhetoric and science, such as cultivating clarity and excellence in formal presentations. Together, attendees will envision—and begin shaping—a school culture in which teachers labor side by side for the formation of articulate and thoughtful students.

Faculty Formation in Classical Christian Education

Karen Elliott, Erica Robertson, Kelly Fore, Erica Robertson Kelly Fore Shakiyla Solomon

In communities where classical Christian education is unfamiliar and cultural values are shaped more by prevailing trends than by Scripture, the preparation of new teachers requires particular care and intentionality. How can educators be formed to enter this rich tradition with confidence, clarity, and faithfulness? Drawing on more than 20 years of experience as school leaders serving in 10 countries across Africa and in the United States, This breakout session offers practical guidance for cultivating a flourishing faculty of classical Christian teachers. Special attention will be given to cross-cultural contexts where nearby classical models are not readily accessible, equipping leaders to build depth, coherence, and shared vision within their own communities.

Building a High-Impact Student Ambassador Program: Strategies, Structures, and Success Stories

Sharon Ray

“Wow! I want my child to be like those ambassadors.” Such remarks often follow a campus tour and testify to the formative strength of a thriving Student Ambassador Program. When thoughtfully cultivated, student ambassadors not only elevate the visitor experience but also embody the attributes reflected in a school’s Portrait of a Graduate. This interactive session equips admissions leaders to design, implement, and sustain a program that authentically communicates the distinct value of classical Christian education. Attention will be given to establishing a thoughtful student selection process, developing comprehensive training, and empowering ambassadors to serve with confidence and consistency. Practical strategies will also address leadership alignment, faculty engagement, and the integration of ambassadors into broader marketing and retention efforts. Participants will receive adaptable resources—including sample schedules, training frameworks, and management tools—designed for immediate implementation.

Stop the Madness: How to Build a Development Plan That Actually Works - A One-Hour Crash Course to Move your School from Reactive Fundraising to a Strategic, High-Impact Development Plan

Shelby Wade, Tom Olmstead, Bethany Cooler, Tom Bethany

Most Christian schools operate in a constant state of fundraising “survival mode.” Events pile up. Emails get sent at the last minute. Staff juggle a dozen competing priorities. And because leaders rarely have time to stop and plan, development becomes reactive, exhausting, and ineffective. But here’s the truth: If you don’t plan, you plan to fail. And with 90% or more of Christian schools facing a tuition gap, a development plan is not optional — it’s mission-critical. In this breakout session, development expert Shelby Wade will help school leaders step back from the noise and see clearly what is (and isn’t) working in their current fundraising efforts. Through a guided “Effort vs. Impact” exercise, attendees will quickly recognize which activities produce true results, and which ones drain time, energy, and morale. Then, Shelby will walk participants through the core principles of a simple, strategic, mission-aligned development plan they can take home and build upon for the next academic year. This breakout session is not theoretical; it’s practical, clarifying, and designed to free Christian schools from reactionary fundraising. Attendees will leave with a realistic starting point for a development plan and the confidence to stop “doing everything” and start doing what actually moves the mission forward.

Rhetoric Class: Tips, Tricks, & Pacing - Tabling ideas to create a robust Rhetoric Class and preparing students for their Senior Thesis

Tyler VanFossen

Designing a course requires careful research, thoughtful curriculum evaluation, wise selection of supplemental sources, attentiveness to student faculties, and clarity regarding the telos toward which the class is ordered. This breakout session presents a vision not merely for a successful Senior Thesis Night, but for a well-balanced course that prepares students for the demands of the thesis process and for the responsibilities that follow graduation. Attention will be given to structuring the year with coherence and purpose so that rhetorical training forms articulate thinkers marked by intellectual virtue, confidence, and mature judgment.

Mathematics as a Language of Logic - Using Conversation, Debate, and Writing to Master Math Concepts

Jessica Kaminski

Through mathematics, students learn to perceive the created world in its order, structure, and hierarchy. This breakout session considers how purposeful conversation in the elementary classroom can shape mathematics as an act of thoughtful inquiry rather than mere procedure. Attendees will examine ways to guide students in uncovering the logic that undergirds mathematical processes and in recognizing how individual ideas cohere into a rich and beautiful language—formed through careful generalization and precise vocabulary. In this vision, mathematics becomes more than the solution to a problem; it becomes a lifelong pursuit of truth.

Lower School Student Support

Grace Yoder

Operationalizing and Re-Operationalizing Your School’s Portrait of A Graduate

Russ Kapusinski

What happens when a school’s Portrait of a Graduate—the guiding “north star” of its mission—becomes detached from daily decision-making, student experience, and the functional telos of the institution? This breakout session examines the enduring importance of a Portrait of a Graduate and offers practical pathways for operationalizing it throughout the full culture of a school. Attention will also be given to renewing and re-animating a Portrait of a Graduate that has lost its formative influence, restoring coherence between vision, practice, and lived experience.

Holding Fast and Reaching Far: Leading with Conviction Through Meaningful Growth

Timothy Bridges

How can a school safeguard its classical Christian culture amid enrollment growth and campus expansion? What if the answer invites not anxiety, but hope-filled leadership? This breakout session explores how a hopeful leader guides a growing institution through “abiding patterns of personal and institutional conduct”—habits that uphold faithfulness, effectiveness, and a Christ-centered joy that casts out fear. Rather than reacting defensively to growth, such leadership strengthens coherence and confidence within the community. Practical takeaways will include examples of these abiding patterns: creating intentional cultural moments that proclaim what matters most; cultivating a joyful faculty who serve as ambassadors of the school’s ethos; practicing strategic accessibility in seasons of expansion; developing an institutional vocabulary that reinforces shared identity; shaping communication that reflects both classical and Christian convictions; and discerning when to decline well-meaning but misaligned initiatives.

Building a Strategic Financial Plan - Serving Your Mission through Intentional Fiscal Stewardship

John Niehls

Thriving schools do not drift into financial health; they plan for it. Yet many classical Christian schools remain confined to short-term budgeting rather than cultivating a long-range financial strategy that genuinely advances mission and vision. This breakout session presents a clear and practical framework for building a strategic financial plan. Participants will consider how to align financial stewardship with institutional purpose, clarify the distinct roles of board and administration, and move from reactive budgeting to proactive, multi-year strategy. Attention will be given to identifying key financial drivers, connecting enrollment and advancement assumptions to long-range projections, strengthening board-level oversight, and fostering a culture of disciplined stewardship. Attendees will leave with a roadmap for developing or refining a strategic financial plan that supports wise growth, institutional resilience, and faithful stewardship.

The Turn Around School: Strength, Strategy, and Gratitude during Challenging Seasons

Holly Kalton

Leading a school through seasons of difficulty requires both courage and clarity. This breakout session offers practical, biblical strategies for guiding a community through challenge while sustaining gratitude and resilient hope. Through hands-on tools, actionable frameworks, and examples drawn from real school contexts, participants will consider how to strengthen leadership practices, make strategic decisions with steady confidence, and cultivate a culture marked by perseverance and trust. Even amid adversity, schools can flourish when leadership remains anchored in conviction, wisdom, and Christ-centered joy.

Art as Gift

Sabin Howard

Hands, Head, Heart: An Interview with Sabin Howard

Sabin Howard, Eric Cook

Reflections on "Abundance or Scarcity: The Implications of a Generous God"

Peter Greer

Reflections on "A Generous Orientation"

Leslie Moeller

Reflections on "Numbering our Days"

Lydia Dugdale

Reflections on "True and Feigned Generosity in Fairy Tales"

Jonathan Pageau

Culture and Discipline: Building and Maintaining a Loving, Peaceful, Predictable Environment

Jessica Gombert

Building a Kinder Prep Program: Why Early Childhood Education is Important to the Success of the CC Movement

Jessica Gombert

In classical, Christian education, we speak of the Grammar School years, yet the true foundation of learning begins at birth. Children arrive at school already shaped—mind, body, and soul—and early childhood education plays a critical role in that formation. Educators must intentionally cultivate environments and establish habits and rhythms in which development, learning, and focus can flourish. By giving careful attention to the earliest years, schools can better prepare children for the good work and joys of a classical, Christian education—forming students who are not only academically capable but also virtuous, attentive, lifelong learners. In this session we will discuss how early intervention impacts future learning and skills such as phonological and phonemic awareness, auditory, language, and fine motor development. These skills can be evaluated early so that difficulties, especially those related to reading, can be identified and addressed. Early intervention at ages four and five gives children the best opportunity to succeed, with the expectation that most students can become capable readers. A thoughtful Kinder Prep program also considers kindergarten readiness. Through observation and appropriate developmental assessments, educators can determine whether children are prepared for formal instruction. Rather than pushing children prematurely into academic work, programs should emphasize developmental readiness—building fine motor skills through tools such as egg-shaped crayons, strengthening listening through nursery rhymes and stories, and nurturing language through rich conversation and literature rather than worksheets. Children are fearfully and wonderfully made with a God-given purpose. With the end in mind, we can create early education that shapes students to grow and learn well in our classical, Christian schools.

Strategies That Stick: Tools for Today’s College Counselor

Mary Smoke

A strong college counseling program requires more than the management of applications; it calls for a Christ-centered vision that guides students and families through one of the most formative seasons of their lives. Faithful counseling rests on the conviction that God is sovereign over every path, decision, and opportunity. This breakout session considers how to design or refine a comprehensive program shaped by that conviction. Attention will be given to helping students discern their callings, communicating a school’s mission and distinctives to colleges with clarity, and cultivating enduring relationships with admissions offices marked by integrity, trust, and excellence.

Canva Can Compensate - For Your Inadequacies, Insecurities, and Inaesthetic Advancement Proposals

Andrea Loy

Many schools operate without a dedicated graphic designer, even as advancement efforts increasingly depend upon well-ordered and beautifully crafted campaigns. Budget constraints often make it difficult to secure a designer who both understands classical Christian education and can clearly communicate its distinctive value to donors. As a result, advancement teams may overspend on outsourced design or face delays when relying on volunteer support. This breakout session offers practical guidance for equipping advancement teams to steward design work more effectively through accessible tools such as Canva. Participants will consider how thoughtful visual communication can reflect the beauty, coherence, and mission of a classical Christian school—while conserving resources and strengthening internal capacity.

Understanding the Unique World of Our Students and Their Parents

Keith McCurdy

Know Thyself: Growth in Prudence through Self-Examination

Ann Lowrey Forster

Scripture warns that the heart is deceptive above all things, while the ancients teach that prudence begins with self-knowledge—and that prudence is the chief virtue of a leader. How, then, can true self-knowledge be pursued when the heart itself is prone to self-deception? The modern world offers numerous tools for self-understanding—Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, Kolbe, Working Genius, and others. When used carefully, such instruments may provide helpful insight. Yet they are not grounded in the theological categories given by the Christian tradition: that humanity is created imago Dei, fallen in Adam, and being redeemed in Christ. Christian self-knowledge is not directed toward self-praise or mere awareness, but toward growth in prudence. With that end in view, This breakout session turns to the examination of “pet” virtues and vices—their excesses as well as their deficiencies. Rather than focusing on personality or working style, attention will be given to the old man and the new man. Through scriptural and classical categories, participants will be invited to deeper gratitude for God’s grace and clearer vision for the growth to which He calls His leaders.

Poem of the Day with Mrs Wright: Playing with Poetry in the Classical Classroom

Karise Wright

Read Like a Roman: Buzzing into the Book with Seneca

Will Killmer

In the idealized classroom, students would seamlessly take in all of our teaching and Latin texts without distractions, implant it in their memories without hindrance, and swiftly connect to aspects of their own lives and character without prompting. And of course ace their tests. However, this classroom only exists in our wildest halcyon dreams, and is profoundly unclassical! In this session we will unearth an approach to reading from Seneca’s Epistula 84, and discuss how we can utilize Seneca’s advice in this letter to prompt our students to read deeply, organize their thinking, and thus forge connections with their Latin learning that extend into their inner lives and other disciplines. Nota Bene: Just as Seneca exemplifies his exhortation through his mode of argumentation, a large portion of this session will be conducted in Latin in order to give participants the visceral – and classical – experience of reading, comprehending, and probing a text like many of our meditantēs māiōrēs. All abilities and comfort-levels of Latin speakers are welcome: since the goal is to understand and learn from Seneca’s letter, much effort will be made to keep the Latin approachable, comprehensible, and lively! Through this session, participants will gain: An understanding of how the Romans held together one’s reading, memory, thinking, intellect, and ōtium (leisure). A handful of practical strategies to make Latin literature more concrete and enduring to their students as they are learning and reading it in class. The experience of reading authentic Latin literature in and through Latin itself.

Forming Virtuous Teams - Using the Core Motive Inventory (CMI) in Hiring and Daily Leadership

Erik Twist

The Core Motive Inventory (CMI) is a virtue-centered temperament framework designed for Christian schools. It identifies a leader’s core motives and default patterns—such as initiative, decision-making, conflict engagement, follow-through, and resilience—and translates those tendencies into concrete practices of virtue that strengthen vocation, team culture, and student care. This breakout session equips school leaders and hiring teams to employ the CMI in three key areas. First, personal formation: reading one’s own profile to discern near-term growth habits and necessary guardrails. Second, team health: cultivating a shared language that reframes differences as complementary strengths and accelerates trust, feedback, and wise conflict resolution. Third, talent stewardship: crafting clear role scorecards, designing targeted interview questions, and shaping onboarding plans that support flourishing in the first 90 days. Participants will leave with a practical framework for integrating the CMI into faculty and administrative hiring, coaching current colleagues, and sustaining a culture in which charity and truth guide collaboration. The result is a community of leaders and teachers who support one another more wisely in the daily pursuit of virtue within their callings.

Classical Education in America: What It Was and Can Be Again - Adapting Classical Education to Our Evolving Republic

Chris Perrin

The tradition of classical liberal arts education in America predates the nation itself. Its seeds crossed the Atlantic with early explorers and settlers, took root in colonial covenants and compacts, and shaped the governing vision of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The influence of this tradition can be traced through the Federalist Papers and the Constitution—what G. K. Chesterton described as "the creed upon which the United States was founded." This presentation traces the flowering of classical education in the American context, noting both its seasons of strength and the gradual decline that followed. Yet the story does not end in decline. Like perennials that seem to vanish in winter only to reemerge in spring, the classical tradition is again rising with renewed vitality. Participants will gain historical perspective on this unfolding narrative and renewed confidence in the enduring resilience of classical liberal arts education within the American experiment.

Extravagant Provision: Lessons Learned in Starting and Sustaining the Urban Classical Christian School

Russ Gregg

Over the past 26 years, a growing movement of classical schools across the country has experienced remarkable provision in service of its mission. What accounts for this flourishing? What common convictions and practices distinguish these communities? This breakout session reflects on patterns observed among schools that have received abundant support and explores the theological and practical foundations that undergird such generosity. Attention will be given to three essential moves that position a school to pursue faithful stewardship, cultivate trust, and invite meaningful partnership. Rather than relying on technique or urgency, this approach centers on alignment with mission, clarity of vision, and confident dependence upon God’s provision—trusting that when a school orders its life wisely, generosity often follows.

Forming Virtue Together - Strengthening the Parent-School Partnership in Classical Christian Education

Dalene Wilson

At the heart of classical Christian education stands a vital partnership: parents, teachers, and administrators laboring together for the formation of students in wisdom and virtue. While schools provide structure and intellectual rigor, parents remain the primary disciplers. When home and school move in harmony, the result is not merely academic success, but the shaping of whole persons whose love of truth is lived daily. This breakout session explores the theological roots and practical expressions of that partnership. Through discussion and case studies, participants will consider how biblical *paideia* takes visible form through clear communication, shared expectations, and aligned practices across home and classroom. Attendees will gain practical frameworks for grace-filled communication, conflict resolution, and “Virtue in Practice” planning that connects classroom instruction with family discipleship. The goal is a unified school culture marked by joy, humility, and shared spiritual purpose in the integrated formation of intellect, character, and faith.

Beyond the Trivium

Kyle Rapinchuk

In this session, we will explore how schools can move beyond the Trivium-as-Stages model to a recovery of the Trivium as Liberal Arts. Questions we will consider are: How do we define the Trivium as liberal arts? What do the arts of the Trivium look like in the classroom? How can I plan lessons in my class that develop training in these liberal arts?

The Sympathetic Teacher

Riley Gilmore

Great teachers of history and today teach through the eyes of their students. The sympathetic teacher is able to put themselves in the position of their pupils. They are able to anticipate challenges, consider motivations, and personalize the learning process. The purpose of this session is to help teachers and school leaders better understand the perspective of students in their school by identifying common misconceptions students bring to the classroom concerning the learning process.