Our vision for Classical Christian Education
Tutorium believes that classical education is an excellent expression of the calling on Christian parents to raise their children in the ‘paideia of the Lord’.
In Ancient Greece, ‘paideia’ referred to an education that aimed to raise up virtuous citizens through a process of enculturation. This classical ideal is then redirected and remade in the Lord Jesus. In the paideia of the Lord, children are to be raised in virtue to the service of God, for the bearing of his name and image in the world.
The classically educated student is not homo economicus — man the producer and consumer — but homo sapiens and homo adorans: man as made for wisdom and worship. Classical education respects the nature of the human person as made to love and pursue all that is good, true and beautiful.
It begins with early ‘gymnastic’ (bodily training) and ‘musical’ education, which is a process of enculturation into the love of what is good — in music, story, art and religion. This prepares the student for the study of the liberal arts: the trivium of grammar, dialectic and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music. In the Christian tradition, the study of the liberal arts is given unity through theology, the queen of sciences. Liberal arts education forms a mind that knows how to reason and knows also its limits: where the light of reason must submit to the guidance of faith.
The New England Tutorium is dedicated to translating the Classical educational heritage into the Australian New England in this 21st century of our Lord’s reign.
Our pedagogy
We respect the minds of our students as made for knowledge, their characters as made for virtue, and their personalities as God-given.
Each Tutorium lesson begins and ends in prayer to the God from whom all blessings flow.
Affection for the good is learned by example. Our teachers must love what they teach.
If knowledge is good, then learning is a delight. We cultivate an atmosphere of delight in our classroom.
Students are the rightful heirs of the very best of our cultural tradition. The material we present to our students is comprehensible now but rich enough to continue bearing fruit over the course of their lives.
The authority of the teacher and the obedience of the student are their prerogatives from God. We seek to uphold a high standard of discipline and orderliness.
We respect our students’ frames. We do not place burdens of obedience upon them which they cannot bear. We do not quench their enthusiasm for the sake of orderliness. Lessons with our youngest students are short and to the point, involve physical movement, and much interaction.
Our Teachers
Bénédicte Uphill
Latin, Ancient Greek, Music
Mrs Bénédicte Uphill holds a Bachelor of Classics and French Literature from the University of Lille I, a Master of Classics and French Literature (Research) from the University of Lyon III and a Master of Teaching from the University of Lyon I. She has thoroughly enjoyed sharing her enthusiasm for Classical Languages with children and adults alike, including students of Campion College, Sydney and UQ, Brisbane. In more recent years, Bénédicte has also been cultivating and teaching her other passion, Music. She and her husband Benjamin are Catholics affiliated with the Armidale Cathedral parish of Sts Mary and Joseph.
Jemimah Wilson
Latin, Literature, Philosophy
Mrs Jemimah Wilson holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, Class I) in Philosophy and English Literature from the University of Queensland, a university medal, and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Yale University. She has taught students from 5 to 80 years old across a wide range of contexts, including several years of teaching the philosophy program for Emmanuel College, Sydney. She is a member of St Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Armidale, along with her husband Sean and daughter Dorothy.
Find out more about classically educating with Tutorium
Send us a message, we would love to arrange a time for you to talk to our teachers.