Raising your children in “Good Soil”

The Ambrose School is a member school, and is accredited by, the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, a network of some 300 schools nationwide committed to recovering the classical Christian model of education.

A significant moment has come for the ACCS and its member schools, as the ACCS has released the results of a major study conducted by the University of Notre Dame that looked at the life outcomes of adults aged 24-42 who were educated in one of six school types:

  • public
  • private secular preparatory schools
  • Catholic schools
  • evangelical protestant Christian schools
  • religious homeschools
  • classical Christian schools.

The study is called “Good Soil: A Comparative Study of ACCS Alumni Life Outcomes.”

The results of the study are nothing short of astounding.

Here is the way ACCS describes the study:

During the 1990s, families in about 100 communities across the United States started classical Christian schools with the hope of offering an education that would assist parents in raising their children in the paideia of the Lord. The question almost thirty years later is: “To what extent have the goals of classical Christian education been realized?” To that end, the ACCS commissioned a study by the University of Notre Dame’s Sociology Department.

Understandably, some will view the results of this survey skeptically because of the significant differences between classical Christian schools and the others surveyed. These results can be understood more fully by visiting the ACCS schools themselves. Arguably, the greatest distinctive is integration—the intentional way that the subjects and Christian truth are interwoven. Every class and every school activity has one purpose: to see God’s world rightly and to glorify Him. These communities are tight-knit, serious but joyful, and eminently curious. And, there is room for improvement.

And so the study conducted by Notre Dame compares the life outcomes of adults aged 24-42 in 7 indexes. The indexes “reflect survey answers about a healthy spiritual life, better life satisfaction, an independence of mind, a commitment to conserving the Western tradition, and the potential to influence culture.”

What is the key takeaway? According to ACCS President David Goodwin, 

…the story of hundreds of data points becomes more clear: ACCS schools make a difference in these seven areas. While ACCS alumni shared some common traits with alumni from other sectors, the most significant takeaway is the magnitude of the differences. The differences seen for some of the profiles are an order of magnitude higher for the ACCS segment than for the differences between the other segments.

Read more details about the study HERE.

We encourage you to read and study the report. Our hope is that what it shows will bolster and spark your own commitment to providing your children with a classical Christian education all the way through graduation. Remember, we are not raising children; we are raising adults. Our vision for our children is for them to lead lives of virtue, display mature character, love learning, and serve the Triune God.