Why Logic

It could be argued that in order to prepare children to confront this world today, the most important thing we can do is give them a firm grasp of logical thinking skills.  It is this ability to reason correctly that anchors a persons thinking.  Logic has its grounding in language and is the skill of critical and correct thinking and conceptual development.  Our textbook defines logic as “the art and science of reasoning well”.  Reason means drawing proper conclusions from other information.

Proper use of reason allows us not only to form rational statements but to understand the statements of others.  Logical fallacies are used everywhere in our society.  We study logical fallacies (bad arguments resulting from common mistakes in reasoning) in order to critically reason through the arguments of others and discern what is true and right.  Logic equips us to understand our beliefs and give a proper defense of our faith. (I Peter 3:15)

Students who are trained to think critically and logically will recognize fallacies in the arguments of others as well as their own.  This skill can also be taken into other academic study areas.  For example:

Into Science: where students develop and test hypotheses.
Into Latin: where students learn and grasp the order and structure of language.
Into Mathematics: where students break down complicated problems into approachable equations.
Into Bible: where students examine the wholeness and rationality of Scripture.
Into Literature: where students explore authors’ visions and narratives, and develop their own ideas.
Into History: where students examine the consequences of events and ideas.
We consider the study of Logic to be essential to Classical learning.