Happy 20th Birthday Paideia
Less than one month after the celebration of our beloved America’s 250th birthday on July 4th, we are again celebrating some very significant birthdays in the month of August!
Before delving into just whose birthdays they might be, however, let us focus for a moment on the meaning of the very word “August.” Spelled with a capital “A” and pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable, it is, of course, the name of the eighth month of our calendar. But how on earth did we come up with it as the name of a month in the first place? Well, it turns out that this particular month was named for Julius Caesar’s adopted son: the very first Roman emperor, Octavius Augustus Caesar. Augustus’s rule began in 27 B.C., as any Paideia Grammar School student could tell you thanks to having learned to recite the History Timeline by heart, beginning at Creation (date unknown) and ending with the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2019. That’s a LOT of history, packed into a fun-to-recite chant, with corresponding gestures, that takes five minutes to run through at Morning Assembly.
When spelled with a lower case “a” and pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, the word “august” means “inspiring awe or reverence, grand, magnificent, majestic.” It is in this sense that we could describe the birth of America as an august event in world history, or “The Star Spangled Banner” as our august national anthem. More and more interesting! So let’s go deeper!
A quick resort to the dictionary reveals that the word “august” derives from a Latin verb: “augere,” a rich word of layered meanings, including “to increase in quantity or size, expand, grow, enlarge, augment, honor, promote, raise, exalt, make more abundant or more esteemed.” These are meanings that connote admirable actions leading to admirable results; so that, when we use the word “august” as a descriptive adjective, we are properly elevating something that is truly worthy of praise. The ability to do so requires us to be people who can actually recognize those things that are inherently worthy of our praise. And that ability is one of the virtues that Paideia intentionally cultivates in all of our students, in every grade and subject.
Another august Roman citizen’s name that is especially dear to Christian hearts is that of St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430 A.D.), one of the greatest of the early Church fathers and a theologian and philosopher whose personal testimony of coming to faith in Christ (“Confessions”) and whose explorations of different loves and values in “The City of God” and “The City of Man” have deepened readers’ understanding of the nature of true faith and discipleship over the course or many centuries.
But let us return to the august birthdays we’re celebrating this month of August! We who live in the 38th State just celebrated the 150th Birthday of Colorado on August 1st! We who love Sean Daniel Kendrick (our son, who introduced us to Paideia when he entered the School in 6th Grade) just celebrated his 26th Birthday on August 2nd! And we who have been blessed by partnering with Paideia are celebrating the School’s founding in 2006, when our first students embarked on their classical Christian education 20 years ago this month! So, Happy Birthday, Paideia! Or (even more fittingly) in Latin: Tiwi Diem Natalem Felicem, Paideia!!
Marne Kendrick