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‘Know thyself’ was an ancient Greek maxim. Plato wrote that Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.” And that’s what our seniors have been doing this semester in their theology class.
Mrs. Carlson and Ms. Nock co-teach a capstone course they designed titled – Triad of Transformation: The Integration of Head, Heart, and Hands in the Christian Worldview. Through it they are challenging their students to explore one of the five Portrait of a Saint characteristics – Known. At VCHS, we define Known this way – our graduates seek to know themselves and others through the lens of God’s unconditional love.
In doing that, seniors chose a theological area of interest and took the opportunity to wrestle through their beliefs and doubts. Topics ranged from God’s existence to God’s nature to free will, just to name a few. This week and next they are sharing their capstone presentations – a culmination of what they have learned about themselves throughout the semester.
Mrs. Carlson and Ms. Nock are challenging seniors to think through what it means to be fully human – the integration of head, heart, and hands, or put another way – mind, spirit, and body. And from that, their challenge is a practical one to students – So how will you then live your lives? What do you want your impact on the world to be?
Mrs. Carlson shared with me, “I simply want our seniors to be curious…to be willing to explore the Christian faith more deeply and to discover their beliefs. Our challenge to seniors has been to really work at thinking through what they believe about themselves and God and to give an explanation and defense for their beliefs whether Christian or not.”
I see all of our theology courses as an opportunity for students to ‘explore’ and ‘discover’ their own personal beliefs. Of course as a Christian school, we do that through the lens of a Christian worldview. And that’s what our seniors are doing as they wrap up their high school experience. Why? Because we believe that personal transformation results from an integrated approach – head, heart, and hands integrated as one for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.
Steve O'Neil
Head of School
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