Key to our mission statement is the word “cultivate.” Our mission states that we assist you as parents by cultivating in students the intellectual and moral virtue necessary for a well-ordered understanding of God, human nature, and the world. What does it mean to cultivate virtue? This fall, I have been meeting weekly with parents to discuss C.S. Lewis’s Abolition of Man. In this book, Lewis contrasts the old (classical) philosophy of education with the new (progressive) philosophy of education:
The old dealt with its pupils as grown birds deal with young birds when they teach them to fly; the new deals with them more as the poultry-keeper deals with young birds—making them thus or thus for purposes of which the birds know nothing. In a word, the old was a kind of propagation—men transmitting manhood to men; the new is merely propaganda.”
Cultivation and propagation are both agricultural words that should remind us of living plants and creatures who have agency, freedom, and responsibility. Cultivating children into virtuous adults—teaching them to fly—is no small or simple task. You may be reminded of the chapter in E.B. White’s Trumpet of the Swan when the swan father, trying to convince his cygnet children that flying will be easy, proceeds to spend multiple pages explaining how to do it. Wonder and moral imagination, which I do not address here, play an important role in the cultivation of virtue; children need their minds and hearts filled with good stories containing vivid imagery of good and evil. Outside of school, children need chores, church, read-alouds, discipleship from their parents, and many other things not addressed by this essay. Instead, this essay focuses narrowly on only one old bird’s role in virtue cultivation—the school’s—and on only one part of that role: student discipline and the structure of the school itself.
Keeping the End in View
During students’ 13-year tenure at Cedar Classical Academy, we want to give them progressively more responsibility alongside progressively more freedom. Students who are not continuously challenged with more responsibility and more freedom will be unprepared to take on the responsibility of adulthood. For this reason, our expectations of your students—both moral expectations and academic expectations—increase over time.
Different Ages, Different Stages
Ages 5-10
At the start of their formal education, we give students structure, routine, order, and narrow confines. Young children thrive with tight management and little freedom. At this age, teachers expect unquestioning obedience from students, and in turn provide clear and detailed rules and systems so that young children know exactly what to expect.
Ages 11-14
As students age into the Upper School, in addition to structure and order, we provide reasons for the rules and give students greater freedom to question what they are taught. Like young bucks pushing against trees, students gain confidence by pushing against ideas to determine which ones can stand up to questioning. Students in 7th, 8th, and 9th grade have greater freedom; they are permitted to transition independently or talk between classes, unlike in the lower grades. Similarly, rather than receiving homework daily that is always due the next day, at these ages students receive homework assignments with longer lead times. Many students initially flounder when given this greater freedom. With more freedom to make different choices, students often struggle to choose the right things in their habits and time management. At this stage, we coach students to handle greater freedom with greater responsibility. Academically, teachers help students in these areas by providing detailed feedback on work and assignments. At this age, teachers expect prompt and respectful obedience even when students do not agree, and in turn provide frank reasoning, opportunities to argue, and loving mentorship so that students can begin to rise up to the challenges of adulthood.
Ages 15-18
Once students hit 10th grade, they are within three years of adult freedom and adult responsibility. In many ways, these students have already entered adulthood. Classroom rules and expectations for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders progressively mimic social norms and rules of etiquette for adults (specifically, for adults in a professional or academic environment). During these years, students are training to make their own decisions, stand up for their own beliefs, and respond to challenges on their own. Teachers expect mature behavior and professional courtesy from their students and in turn provide accountability and appropriate pushback on their still-developing ideas. As with adults in a work environment, consequences for students in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade should be clear, obvious, expected, and enforced. Our end goal for our oldest students is to teach them how to be responsible with freedom within an ordered environment, but not to create students who are carbon copies of one another. Our seniors should demonstrate the maturity to be treated as adults.
Teach, Train, Bless, Curse
At Cedar Classical Academy, with this end in view, at the start of each school year we follow a pattern of discipline. It has four parts: Teach, train, bless, and curse. This system is adapted from Matt Whitling’s talk “Sins of the Classroom” (available to ACCS member schools here). I have presented on this topic for the school community before (available on our YouTube channel here). This four-part model of discipline is based on how God worked with His own people in the Old Testament. The Lord taught his people (wrote the Ten Commandments in stone, delivered the Law), trained his people (in the desert Moses trained how to obey his commands through the erection of the tabernacle, etc.), and then blessed and cursed his people throughout Judges, Samuel, Kings, and through the words prophets based on whether the people righteously obeyed commands or not.

Before the First Day of School
Before the first day of each school year, all of our teachers think through their classroom systems and rules. The school as a whole has certain systems in place—including how to line up for recess, how to recite a Scripture verse, and how to respond to adults. Teachers prepare ahead of time to conform their students’ behavior to these systems. Beyond that, teachers also spend time thinking about the culture that they wish to foster in their own classrooms. They begin to define expectations for their specific grade level, as I already explained.
The First Week of School, We Teach
Beginning on the first day of class and extending for the first week, teachers teach these rules. This means that they tell students the rules, show students the rules, play games using the rules, or provide fun quizzes on the rules. Teachers do not expect students to perfectly obey rules that they have not learned.
Weeks Two Through Six, We Teach and We Train
Teachers train students by practicing the rules daily, reminding the students what is expected of them, and then practicing again. For example, in grades 7-12, teachers teach their students study skills, writing guidelines, and how to retake assessments. In grades K-12, teachers teach their students how to turn in homework at the start of the day. If young students are too disruptive, or if older students do not understand the system and expectations, then the teacher resets and teaches the expectations again.
And Now, We Bless and Curse
At this point in the year, teachers begin to “bless and curse.” This means that teachers hold students accountable for what students have been thoroughly trained to do. Colossians 3 contains lengthy lists of what virtues Christians should “put on” (Colossians 3:12-17) and what vices they should “put off” or “put to death” (Colossians 3:5-11). Teachers assist students’ character growth by generously praising and encouraging students’ good work, keen interest, quick obedience, and compassion for one another. Teachers also assist students’ growth by gently, firmly, and cheerfully correcting students’ sloth, impatience, and disrespect. This is the meaning of “bless and curse.”
What to Expect
As we finish out the first quarter of the year, you will see an uptick in three things. First, expect more phone calls and emails from your child’s teacher about his habits and behavior. As our mission states, we want to partner with you in the cultivation of virtue within your children. This requires that you are kept informed of patterns of vice and disobedience that teachers identify in your children. In “The Herring Net” painting below, you can imagine that the teacher is the co-laborer in the boat with the young fisherman instructing, reminding, and correcting; he is not standing on the shore with a megaphone shouting critiques. Second, expect detailed comments from all of your child’s teachers about her growth in both moral and intellectual virtue through quarterly assessments. We created and continually refine these to be rich sources of information for you about what we are cultivating in your student in school.

Teaching Young Birds to Fly
Third and finally, expect your child to fail. As I said at the beginning, students who are not continuously challenged with more responsibility and more freedom will be unprepared to take on the responsibility of adulthood. Think about the idea of being continuously challenged. That means that as soon as your student masters a skill or has victory over a challenge, we will actively look for ways to give him a new challenge. This is not meant to discourage a student; it is meant to encourage him! As we transmit humanity to the next generation of humans, we want them to not only be capable of growth, but also to know themselves to be capable of growth. There is always something new to learn, or a way to know something more deeply.
Teaching a young bird to fly is not a theoretical or abstract activity taught once and then implemented perfectly on the first try. Proverbs 24:16 says that “the righteous man falls seven times and rises again.” This is the pattern of both the Christian life and of classical education. Do not be discouraged when your student experiences challenges. Challenges are the condition in which humans practice and participate in their own education. Children are living creatures who require not confinement and control but cultivation and propagation through diligent mentorship and constant challenge. This is how moral and intellectual virtue grow.