LANGUAGE ARTS

Simply put our ultimate goal for every Veritas student is that they represent themselves and Jesus Christ well to a fallen world.  In order to do this they must be effective communicators.  There are many ways to communicate, verbally and nonverbally, but the vast majority of communication comes through language. 

Secondary Language Arts at Veritas is comprised of literature, composition, grammar, and vocabulary, with a special emphasis on great works as they coincide with history. The study of grammar and vocabulary contributes to precision in communicating ideas, whereas literature, great literature, conveys truth in life-changing ways.

 

In Luke 10, when asked what must be done to inherit eternal life, Jesus commands loving God with all of our strength, soul, and mind, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. When pressed to define “neighbor,” the greatest Teacher responded with a story.  Great stories continue to teach us timeless truths about the human experience, allowing us to tap into our cultural heritage and better understand our fellow man, creating bonds that enable us to enter into dialogue, or the “Great Conversation.”

 

Literature links us to the past, not just to people and events, but also the ideas which shaped them. In our secondary readings, we not only encounter beautiful and skillful use of the written word, we also witness some of the greatest literary characters come to life. We share in their experiences as they come face to face with the struggles of being human.  Shakespeare deals masterfully with the sin of overarching ambition and its repercussions in MacBeth. Achilles must weigh the importance of glory and mortality. Elizabeth Bennet, in her circumscribed world, deals with issues of family, marriage, and a woman's place in all of this. Perhaps no writer illustrates human folly as well as Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales. Dante delves into man's relationship to God. Through these and other great works our young readers are called on to carefully reflect and draw conclusions based on the truth of Scripture. In short, great literature is “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy.” (Phil. 4:8)