Mandi Gerth

About twenty years ago, my husband was listening to a radio talk show on his commute to work. Doug Wilson called in. He talked about a school he had started and a book he had written. I bought that book and read it. Then, I read Dorothy Sayers’ "Mind of the Maker." We had no children, just two Rhodesian Ridgebacks, but I knew then what sort of education I wanted for my future children.

In 2014, we decided that a classical education was worth moving across the country to obtain. We had been giving our children a private, Christian education, but it was not classical. We had saturated their lives with great books and created a family culture which valued learning. But that no longer felt like enough. We moved from Wisconsin to Texas and enrolled our children in a classical University Model school, and I learned what it meant to collaborate in the education of my children in a very sanctifying way.

Since my first reading of "Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning" twenty years ago, I have read extensively on classical education and attended numerous conferences. I took a classroom teaching position at the University Model School where my children attend. I went back to school and received my Masters of Humanities from the University of Dallas.

When I began my reading, I did not know God was going to call me to teaching. I simply loved my kids and wanted to give them the best education. So I read, read, and read some more until I figured out what “the best education” looked like. Because of my love for my children and a great desire to obey God, I have come to embrace a philosophy of education and a way of life that is rich and broad and deep.

Teaching Philosophy

Every educational philosophy begins with answers to these questions: Who is man? What is he capable of? And what is his relationship to his community and to God?

My approach to classical education is undergirded by my belief that man is a body with a soul, that he is capable of rational thought, that he has an innate desire to know, that his loves can be ordered, his appetites controlled, and that he is under the divine authority of a loving God who created him.

One of the most distinctive principles of classical education is that of self-education. I do not believe that students are a receptacle for information, rather I strive to give them an understanding of relationships. I want to help them understand how things are connected, interwoven, involved—how things fit together.

To this end, I agree with Charlotte Mason when she says it is the teacher’s aim “to look over the work of the day in advance and see what mental discipline, as well as what vital knowledge, this and that lesson afford; and then to set such questions and such tasks as shall give full scope to his pupils’ mental activity.”

I am constantly looking for the fundamental human questions being asked by a text so that I can encourage “mental activity” and moral development within my students. We dig into the text together confident that it has something to say to us about what it means to be a human being living in this world under the hand of God.

Statement of Faith

I was raised in a loving and faithful Christian home where church attendance and ministry involvement were woven into our family culture. As newlyweds, my husband and I began reading more and more books on reformed theology and became convinced we needed to join a PCA church. We are currently members in good standing at All Saints Presbyterian Church (CREC) in Fort Worth, Texas.

The life of a Christian is marked by spiritual discipline. The means of grace are opportunities for Christ to put His mark upon our souls. This time with Christ grows our love for Him and results in greater love for our neighbor. I am in constant dependence upon His kindness and mercy. I say with Charles Spurgeon, "I have a great need for Christ: I have a great Christ for my need.”

I affirm and regularly recite the Nicene Creed in Sunday worship.