February – the month of love. Little paper hearts fill up bulletin boards, supermarkets prepare for a bump in their bottom line with shelves of heart shaped chocolate filled boxes, and bulky cards declare, “I love you for always, really, truly I do!” Even now some schools are telling parents to make a box and prepare Valentine cards for classmates – not CCA.

So, am I against love and hearts? On the contrary, love is an important part of the classical model. Scholars must order the affections of their hearts by learning what is worth loving and at which level of love so that they neither love the wrong things, nor love the right thing proportionally more than they should another right thing. St. Paul admonishes the Romans in his letter to them to “let love be genuine – abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good” (Romans 12:9 ESV).

When scholars learn what is good and practice it, they reflect virtue using the knowledge they accumulate for good and the proper love for right. Eliminating the need for ordered affections – true love – virtue from education or teaching students that the heart is to be followed, not ordered, can be seen not only in today’s philosophically progressive and critical classrooms, but disordered hearts are evident in the culture all around us. Scholars at CCA are taught that there is right and wrong, learn virtue through direct instruction and by being immersed in a school culture that prioritizes and exemplifies genuine love in the processes of the day lived out by the people who surround them with ordered joy in the classrooms and hallways, on the playground and in the pick-up line.

Order and Joy walk together in a classical school so that hearts may be reminded that there is a way to be and a way to habituate that being into virtuous, responsible, and independent young people – it need not be legalistic or drudgery. After all, what good is intellect without honesty, morality without love, civic participation without the courage to act, and life without joy?

So, when the month of love comes around, superfluous sentimentality will not be manufactured to distract our scholars, rather they will move about in the consistent atmosphere of St. Paul’s instructive “sincere love” and demonstrated virtue which will last longer and instruct better than handing out Valentines. Don’t worry, though, even I will add hearts to our seasonal vignettes in Great Hall to help us remember to order our own affections well because I do, indeed, like love and hearts.