HOLY TRINITY CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
Laying a Foundation for a Lifetime of Success
story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER photos by JENNY PHILLIPS
Located in historic Beaufort, Holy Trinity Classical Christian School is a neighborhood school nestled between Depot and North Streets near the Spanish Moss Trail. At Holy Trinity, something once lost is being recaptured and celebrated: classical, Christian education. Another distinctive feature is that Holy Trinity now has its first-ever woman Interim Head of School, Mrs. Minnie Bullock.
“Classical education is truly an ancient form of educating children. It was patterned after the way the Lord made us to develop and grow,” says Minnie. Classical education focuses on the different stages of the development of children. These stages are known as the Trivium. The trivium provides a proven framework for education that aligns with how children develop. Grammar, logic, rhetoric: Each stage builds on the last. Students who complete this progression gain the tools necessary to become lifelong learners and virtuous citizens.
During grammar school (K-5th grades), children enjoy memorization. In these early years of their education, through active movement, songs, rhymes, and hand motions, they learn facts: poetry; Latin vocabulary; the stories of literature and history; math facts; descriptions and functions of the human body, plants, and animals; and the rules of English grammar. They are like sponges and can soak up a lot of knowledge. The objective during grammar school is to help students learn how to learn and to love learning itself.
When students move into middle school (6th-8th grades), their natural desire is to ask questions. Students become more analytical in their thinking, exploring cause and effect, relationships among disparate topics, and the ways facts relate in a logical framework. For example, in writing, students learn to support a thesis; in reading, they learn to analyze texts for truth and fallacy; and, in science, they learn to use the scientific method. This helps students comprehend even deeper information, and ask profound and important questions.
Through the high school years (9th-12th grades), students focus on rhetoric, providing them with the opportunity to debate, discuss, and persuade. They take what they’ve learned throughout their grammar and middle school years and put it into action. “They learn to disagree without being disagreeable. Equipping these students to communicate well sets them up beautifully in two critical ways. First, regardless of their career choices, they have the ability to express themselves clearly and persuasively, and that is a powerful tool whether they are engineers, parents, or business people. They are equipped to be powerful communicators. More than that, they are prepared to be articulate ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, carrying the Good News of Christ with them wherever they are called after they leave Holy Trinity.”
This is something that sets Holy Trinity apart from just being a school with a classical education. These students are steeped in biblical truth, fed on beauty and goodness, and loved with the love of Christ. The school’s founding vision is that those alumni will then be taking that love with them, whether that is into the workforce, into their churches, their future relationships, etc. “The love of Christ compels them, and when combined with the ability to communicate beautifully, they can speak into our culture when they encounter things that are not beautiful, true, or good,” shares Minnie. “We are cultivating joyous, virtuous, wise citizens whose lives are built upon the bedrock of faith in Christ, taking His Gospel to the ends of the earth. We are nurturing missional adults. That is what our society needs, now more than ever.”
The founders of Holy Trinity Classical Christian School agreed with cultural commentator Chuck Colson in How Now Shall We Live when he said, “What the schools do today determine what society will be tomorrow. That’s why reforming education, from preschools to universities, is one of the most crucial cultural tasks that Christians face.”
Classical, Christian education has a very different goal and viewpoint of what education should be. “It has been a joy to be a part of something so beautiful,” says Minnie. “Our students come to Holy Trinity from very different backgrounds and locations, and thrive. We provide an education that is geared to the way children develop. We get to see our alumni living out our founding mission.” Each year, alumni come back to HTCCS to share about how they are continuing their life of faith and speak to the senior class about what it looks like to take the foundational truths they learn at HTCCS out into the world with them. “Aside from raising my children, this is the best and most important work I have ever done. I have seen the fruit that this school bears. Being able to serve as Interim Head of School is a tremendous privilege. I love it. I love our families and faculty, and being able to serve them.”
Holy Trinity is not a parochial school and is not funded by a diocese. It is supported by several area churches and has an Anglican ethos, but the school is independent. As an evangelical school, not a covenant school, all the faculty and staff are Bible-believing Christians, but the students come from a multitude of denominations. Some families do not even have a faith background, but they have an understanding that their children will be taught Biblical truth.
“Often, a student who had never heard about Christ will hear about Him in Chapel, in their classrooms, and see the Christian faith lived out among their teachers and fellow students. Some HT students have taken the Gospel home to their families and have joined churches in our area,” says Minnie. “We are not trying to create Anglicans. We are just sharing the Gospel.”
In addition to providing an excellent education, Holy Trinity prioritizes student safety. “There are so many challenges that are facing parents and students in our culture. The safety of our students is a sacred responsibility, and we take that very seriously,” Minnie shares. Holy Trinity has an active security task force that continually reviews its security plan and coordinates with local law enforcement. In partnership with their vibrant parent association, PAW (Parents At Work), the school also provides an on-campus security guard. “We have made a tangible commitment in this crazy world to keep our students safe — it is an expression of our love and care for our families.”
“Classical education is important and well-rounded in that we are educating the mind, body, and soul of each student,” says Kelly Newnham, director of Communications and Marketing at HTCCS. “There are opportunities outside of the classroom. Our students can participate in extra-curricular activities like sports, drama, and clubs that complement a well-rounded classical Christian education. Our grammar school students are excited about learning, we are seeing that excitement move into middle school, and that enthusiasm helps fuel them when they reach high school.”
“We also encourage our students to develop their executive skills. Recently, we had some middle schoolers come to us asking if they could have a spring dance since they enjoyed their winter social so much,” Minnie says, laughing. “We told them to write up a proposal, which they did, and they all signed it. To me, that is important learning, but it also speaks to their desire to be with one another. They love to have fun. There are a few common misconceptions about classical Christian schools: that they are not academically excellent and that they are not fun. Neither of those things is true about our school.” Holy Trinity has orderly small classrooms, but within that order, the students can have fun and express themselves. “We want them to know they can glorify the Lord while having a good time.”
HTCCS currently has 255 students spanning from preschool to 12th grade with over 60 members of faculty and staff. “It is an intimate school, we know every student’s name, and we never want to get away from that. Even as we grow, we never want to get past the opportunity to interact with every student. Our founding Headmaster Rev. Chad Lawrence used to say, ‘Classical education is hand to hand and face to face,’ and that is an important aspect of our work. It is by design that we are a smaller school,” Minnie says.
Minnie concludes, “We are always working to equip our students in an age- appropriate way, to face the challenges of this world with faith, rooted and grounded in Scripture, and to be able to interact with those challenges with the love of Christ. That is the call. It is joyous work, and it is a tremendous privilege to serve such a beautiful school community.”
