The following notes are from Mr. Higgins’ talk at the 2026 Information Night.
I’ve been around school enough of my life to know the joke about what assuming means for you and me, but still, I’m ready to risk it. I assume that every parent wants more for their kid than to grow up to be a rock star at scrolling TikTok. I haven’t seen bumper stickers for that yet: “My kid won Most Cat Videos Watched last month at We Are the World Elementary.” Our household has really benefited from some recipe reels and hair-care tutorials, and I always enjoy a good sports’ fails compilation, but this isn’t the goal, right?
I will also assume that when you imagine your son as an adult, you want him to be able to do more than prompt an AI chatbot to summarize the meaning of life, let alone make himself an AI girlfriend-bot for $20/month. You want your graduated daughter to be able to think more deeply than drafting a three bullet point list to decide whether Netflix or Disney+ is the better streaming service. I guess that means at least she’s trying to follow a budget?
I assume you want them to know how to read, and know how to pick out something that is good to read, and then even want to want to read, not just for their job, or to troubleshoot a broken appliance, but because they enjoy it. I assume you want them to know how to put down their phone at the right time, how to spot when a Taylor Swift song is trying to manipulate their feelings to make selfishness a virtue (and aren’t they all?), hand how to avoid the feelings of anxiety and panic over every hourly headline of the imminent apocalypse.
I’ll admit that I really like a Claude commercial from a few months ago. It starts by cycling through scenes of disaster under a dystopian filter while the voiceover keeps repeating, “There’s never been a worse time.” But then the music changes and a new voice says,
“There’s never been a better time…to have a problem, to be stuck, to be overwhelmed, to be impatient, to be out of ideas, or out of your depth….”
The commercial ends with Claude’s tag line: “Keep thinking.” That sounds good. But do we know how to think? Does anyone even think thinking is good?
Here’s the thing, we could call it a meta-problem, as in a systemic or societal problem, and it relates specifically to schooling: who is defining what is the problem, and then, who is willing to care and work to try to solve the problems? Are we going to have to think about it? Is this going to be on the test?
Part of the problem is that it’s easy to misdiagnose the problem. Part of the problem is that we’ve got enough food and strong enough cell signal that we’ll let others deal with the problems, especially the hard ones. Part of the problem is that so many schools are the problem, teaching students that their bodies are the problem, that their country is the problem, that God is the problem.
The future–and for that matter, the present–still belongs to people who know the truth, who can think and write clearly, and who identify what should be done, how to do it, and why. For that matter, heaven and earth belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are His. He is the truth, the way, and the life, and He calls His disciples to care about all that He cares about. Blessed is the man, and the student, who delights in all things because he’s meditating on the law of the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
(Psalm 1:3 ESV)
At ECS we are trying to equip image bearers to be stout and fruitful. We want them to get a taste for how good it is to work—including working with their minds—to work hard, to do hard things, to solve hard problems. Stated another way, our mission is to help them become such impressive learners that they can carry and advance Christ-honoring culture. This requires developing the skill of laughing, the strength of endurance, and the sacrifices to work at all this with one another.
We follow a teaching model that isn’t delight driven, but it is intended to direct their delights where they should go.
We teach our youngest students that God separated the light from the dark, land from sea, right from wrong, right from left, nouns from verbs, boys from girls. Flowers and bugs and books of the Bible can be distinguished, named, and it doesn’t have to be a chore.
As students mature we teach them that the world, having rejected God, is messy, logic is hard to find, and it takes effort to understand how things fit together and effort to build something great. Cause and effect, and second level consequences, aren’t impossible to think about, but you do have to think.
And as our students get nearer to graduation we teach them that they can create, not just consume. They can speak, not just scroll. They can know the truth and adorn it, make it look good. They can learn to show up, and stand out.
Classical education refers to these emphases as Grammar (distinguishing Truth from Error let alone Lies), Logic (distinguishing Goodness from Evil and Apathy), and Rhetoric (distinguishing Beauty from the Ugly and Envy). The Trivium also seems to fit with certain stages of a student’s development, from Elementary to Junior High toward High School. But they are also gifts from God that help us solve problems.
There are problems: legal problems, political problems, potty-training problems, what’s for dinner problems, what-do-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up problems, novel-writing-character-development problems, classroom problems, financial problems, health and medical problems, language problems, traffic-circle problems.
There is no better time to honor Christ in our thinking. There is no better time to honor Christ by taking agency to think clearly about what’s wrong, resist the inertia of the lukewarm, and work to advance Christ-honoring culture. There’s no better place than ECS to think about it together.
Yes we live in unfavorable circumstances. We’re not yet living in the apocalypse, but we are living in some crazy days that seems to have borrowed major ingredients of every dystopian story ever written. And yeah, the prince of darkness is pretty ticked off at how many blessings God has given to His children. The serpent has been hostile to God’s people from the Garden. But we know the one who crushes the serpent’s head. He’s given us His Spirit, complete copies of His inspired Scriptures, a lot of great books, and fast WiFi.
May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;
(Psalm 144:12 ESV)
I’ll end as I began: I assume you’re here tonight because this is what you want for your kids. ECS cannot replace you as parents, we’re not trying to, but we can be a tool you choose to help you. Come think and pull with us in Jesus’ name.