New school to open in Americus

‘Classical Christian education’ coming to locals

From Staff Reports

AMERICUS — In response to parents concerned with the removal of the Bible and biblical principles from the educational system, a new school is being born, the River of Life Academy.

Local ophthalmologist, Dr. Chanh M. Tu, a board member of the new school, says, “This will not be a school that just teaches a Bible class; rather, every topic will be taught with Jesus at the core. This will give students a Christian world view training.” Tu added that Biblical principles should not be just taught and followed on Sundays, but should be integrated into every subject taught every day of the week.

According to a news release from Tu, after considering what is wrong with today’s educational system, he and other parents came to three missing “key ingredients.” These are “the systematic expulsion of Biblical principles and laws from schools’ curriculum; parents’ abdication of their responsibility and role in training their children; and the shift in the educational system from teaching how to think to teaching rote information.”

Tu says that the River of Life Academy will be a “classical Christian school” that will integrate Christian principles into its curriculum. The school also considers itself an “extension of the family” and “hopes to help parents recognize and reclaim their primary role in the training of their children,” as mandated by the Bible.

Along with these goals, according to Tu, the River of Life Academy will also offer a “solid college preparatory curriculum based on the classical education method.”

“As opposed to the current educational method called progressive education,” Tu says, “classical education has been around for several thousand years.” Classical education was the method of choice up until 100 years ago. Following the Industrial, Revolution, worker training shifted to more hands-on methods.

“Prior to this,” according to Tu, “classical education focused on teaching students how to think,” revolving around three natural stages in children’s cognitive development. These are the grammar stage which deals with the acquisition of raw information, when children absorb information and copy what they see and hear; the logic stage, in which reason and logic are taught to analyze the raw information, when children start asking “why” and “how;” and the rhetoric stage, when individual thoughts and expressions, using the raw information, lead to questioning, debate and reason.

Classical education places strong emphases on classical literature and Latin. “Studies have shown that students who are classically educated and who are strong in Latin perform better on standardized tests than the contemporary educated students,” according to Tu.

“By integrating all three aspects into the curriculum,” Tu said, “River if Life Academy hopes to train students who are able to think and learn on their own and who are able to prioritize issues facing them with a Christian world view.”

He said a community information seminar on the new school is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in Room 100, of the Education Building, Georgia Southwestern State University, to which the public is welcome.

He said the school, which will initially be housed in a portion of the former Central Baptist Church building on South Lee Street, will begin registration by the first of the year for kindergarten through sixth grades for the 2010-2011 school year. Plans are to add one another grade each year all the way through high school.

For more information, call 938-1576 or 874-4884 or visit www.riveroflifeacademy.com

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