Grace Christian Academy (2023)

Introduction

Video

Grace, Christian Academy has two defining distinctives.

Number one is that we're Christian number two is that we're classical as a Christian School.

What we mean by that is, we are a Ministry of Grace reform, Baptist Church.

Every one of our teachers here is required to have a clear testimony of Salvation and they're all required to be members in good standing in a bible-believing church and they're all required to regularly seek out opportunities to integrate Biblical teaching into their subject matter, whether that be physics or physio as a classical school.

What we mean by that is the term classical goes back to The Classical period of the ancient Greeks and Romans and their approach to education.

Their philosophical base is very different than what we find in the majority of American Education today.

What predominates the academic landscape in America today is uh, primarily progressivism.

And at the heart of progressivism along with a whole series of anti-christian philosophies is this notion that if you cannot detect something with your five senses, then you shouldn't teach.

It John Dewey went as far as communicating that, uh to to teach a child morality is to do that childhood disservice.

We at GCA do what we do, because the first Authority that we must answer to Is God, who has first given to us he's given us.

Grace he's given us.

Mercy he's made it possible for us to know the truth and as individuals who have now seen the truth and embraced the truth and have been blessed by the truth.

Um, we know that it is our responsibility to then pass that truth on to others, especially in an environment where in a heavily academic environment, where the students are being taught things that are antithetical to truth.

Why do we do it first of all? Because we care? Um, you know, every one of us can point back to points in our education, where we were taught things that were false.

They were not scientific.

They were not based.

In fact, they were someone's opinion that they dressed up in a fancy way to make us consume it.

And we look back on those moments now and a lot of times we get angry.

And why did they teach me that it's? Not true it's, not good it's, not beautiful.

What we are doing each one of us is taking advantage of an opportunity to rescue others from that false teaching to equip them with teaching that is consistent with reality, uh reality, being that which God created ancients of Greece and Rome.

They had a different idea.

And that was that before you can rightly discern, what you detect with your five senses.

You must first have a set of virtue in place.

The Christians came along and said, we know what that virtue is it's, knowing god and knowing his word.

So here, our primary objective is to regularly give students opportunity to know, the savior, um, and then to educate them accordingly, the structure that we follow as a classical school is called the Trivium.

And the Trivium is a three-stage approach that addresses how children receive.

And then retain information.

The first stage of the Trivium is called the grammar school here that is kindergarten through sixth grade it's primary focus is in communicating to our students, the uh, the facts who what where when of all the disciplines.

My favorite thing about GCA is that I get to learn my history.

Um, my friends, my teachers and recess I, really love the school because they are really kind to us.

My favorite class is Latin on piano and science, um piano and all.

Um.

We continue with that through the sixth grade and begin to prepare them for the second part of the Trivium, which is the school of logic, that's, our seventh and eighth grade that is where we transition from the concrete who what where when to the more abstract why? And how uh the focus of the school of logic is training them, how to think and how to think rightly using laws of logic, a time that I used something from this school on the outside world was logic because I was basically looking at debates and I was all these fallacies that I've learned like putting them into use and seeing how people are going wrong with their speeches.

Then we moved them onto our school of rhetoric.

If that's our high school 9th through 12th grade.

And that is where they research, they develop their own ideas.

And that is where we train them how to eloquently articulate and how to intelligently defend their ideas, I think gcac Ed, who had to believe a secular worldview while I was in CR while I was in GCA where we were believing a Christian worldview and I think that's important because we're teaching you here how to defend your faith and how to grow in your faith and I think those are two important things to go into the real world, where you're not going to have this type of nurturing after you're, 18., uh, the teachers care about your soul here.

They care about your experience here.

All my teachers know me and my academics and my personality, and they can have a regular conversation with me.

Whereas in a public school, I'm, pretty sure I would just be another.

Number I think it's important to have biblical a Biblical world view, especially in this school because I feel like in comparison with other schools, especially in today's society, there's not much of an emphasis on learning Traditional Values in terms of education.

And just integrating That Into, You know, the younger generation today.

So I think that it's really important, especially as Christians for us to have a real knowledge of how God you know is involved in all sorts of subjects.

And you know, in education, even in math in history and English and any subject that you can name God is the author that because he's the author of the world and he's the creator of it.

So we ought to give him the glory that he deserves.

And so because of that, um, I think that's, why biblical World review is so important because in any other school or in any other sort of system, you're, not going to be taught that so it's very important, why you're still young, and you have the ability to be influenced in a good in a positive way, I think, it's something that's going to prepare them for the long run as opposed to the public school who prepares them for tactical thinking, but I think here we prepare for strategic thinking in the future.

We talked about it in a constitutional law that's, where I got the tourists right? I always tell people that like my school is a very small school where kindergarten through 12th grade school.

And we don't have we don't even have a fraction of what a lot of people in, especially in the New York City, public schools have like not it's, not even a fraction of that.

But at the same time, I feel like that's.

So good I think that's so much better than having 30 to 40 kids in a class.

Because you first of all, you have more participation.

Second of all you get to learn more.

The teacher gets to elaborate more on what their curriculum is and there's, just more involvement and there's more and therefore there's more understanding I feel.

If you know, I was learning a subject such as math or, um or science.

You know, like I'm taking phases this year, I wouldn't, be able to understand all that I know, if I was in the classroom with 30 to 40 kids.

And you know, you're just rushing through, you know, you're, actually through the course having you're almost being forced to say, oh, you understand this.

You understand that with a classroom size of no-brainer than 10 to 12 people it's, you really get the opportunity to, um, really, uh, you know, understand, uh, what you're learning.

And you get to ask questions, and you get to be involved.

You get to participate and I feel like that's something that a lot of kids in bigger schools, uh, don't, get the opportunity to so I'm, definitely grateful for that.

They make you feel safe here at DCA, just through once again, going back to the accountability.

You know, you have the ability to sit down with them and just be like, hey, I'm having a problem here, or this person is giving me a problem, and they will get on it, because they really do care about your safety and your mental well-being.

And just how your experience is here at GCA this year.

We learned about, um, Sigmund.

Freud.

We read about the civilization of this discontents Mr Clemens has specifically made, you know, us feel safe when he was saying, you know, it's going to be uncomfortable.

And this is.

But this is what the world believes in.

You know here this is where you like discover like what real theology is and how to defend your faith and I think that made me feel safe just because the fact that I didn't have to mess up in public where it actually mattered as opposed to here where this is like a learning experience and about how to defend your faith to secular people in the future, our ultimate goal for our students here is to provide for them a superior, academic and christ-centered education that will earn them platforms by which to then engage their culture in its battle for ideas.

I feel like the education that you get here in the biblical review that is integrated into the system.

And the friendships that you're able to form through the gospel is something that's so encouraging and something that benefits me spiritually and emotionally and mentally, because without that, you know, I could be in a very different place right now, if you decide that this is the direction that God is leading you and your family in then please give us a call at 516-379-2223, or you can reach us on the internet at gcali.com.

We would invite you to visit our Facebook site at Grace, Christian, Academy, Long Island.

We want to thank you for listening to us and considering us for your educational needs and your family.