Portrait of the Graduate
Informed Faith
- The graduate understands what it means to submit to the authority of the Bible and receive God's promise of salvation by faith.
- The graduate desires knowledge of God and is equipped to pursue it ad fontes—to the sources—using tools of grammar, logic, history, and language.
- The graduate cultivates habits of Scripture study, prayer, singing, fellowship, corporate worship, participation in the sacraments, and tithing.
- The graduate ably defends the historic Christian faith.
Virtuous Character
- The graduate aspires to live a good life coram deo—before the face of God—knowing it is God who works in us.
- The graduate’s character is marked by the Christian and classical virtues of faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.
- The graduate demonstrates good manners, honorable relationships, intellectual humility, emotional and physical self-control, and Christian joy.
- The graduate rejoices that God has created him or her male or female and embraces Biblical expectations for his or her divinely-determined gender.
Sound Reason
- The graduate thinks carefully and logically, utilizing both analysis and synthesis to apprehend truth.
- The graduate exercises a unified Christian worldview, recognizing the uses and limitations of human reason and applying wisdom to weigh complex issues.
Mastery of Language
- The graduate listens with attention and discernment.
- The graduate speaks and writes with logic, clarity, wisdom, and eloquence, for the sake of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Trained Aesthetic
- The graduate’s tastes are shaped by intentional exposure to aesthetic masterpieces.
- The graduate appreciates beauty wherever it is encountered in the world.
Robust Knowledge of the World
- The graduate is conversant in the great works of literature, natural science, math, art, architecture, and music in the western tradition.
- The graduate possesses knowledge, skill, and competence in the liberal arts.
- The graduate discovers unity and truth across disciplines.
Steadfast Citizenship
- The graduate works hard and views fruitful work—sacred or secular, compensated or uncompensated—as good.
- The graduate stewards financial resources prudently, minimizing personal debt.
- The graduate prioritizes Biblical family relationships and local church membership.
Sturdy Outlook on Life
- The graduate is equipped for lifelong learning, pursuing truth, goodness, and beauty while cultivating wonder at God’s creation.
- The graduate aspires to service and sacrifice rather than safety and comfort.
- The graduate exemplifies imagination, industry, and excellence, persevering through failure with hope for the future.
- The graduate lives a conspicuously godly life, in accordance with the Christian calling to be salt and light in the world.
“Edmund or Lucy or you would have recognized the dragon at once, but Eustace had read none of the right books."
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Ready to slay some dragons?
Our Rhetoric School seeks to graduate wise, gracious, well-spoken adults who are active in the world today and ready for Heaven tomorrow.