Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in Scrambled Eggs

Beginning to see the world according to the guiding principles of Classical Education

You can’t swing a cat at anything in the Classical Renewal without hitting the intrinsic language of the scene. Words like “truth,” “beauty,” “goodness,” “wonder,” “contemplation,” “leisure,” “apprehension,” “community,” “mystery,” “nature,” “harmony,” “virtue,” and even “knowledge” are chock-a-block in any discussion of the Classical world. I try to use these words very sparingly when I talk to people about Classical Ed, because like anything else, they can become stultifying through overuse (ask yourself, when’s the last time you kept reading a sentence after seeing the word “woke?”), but also, because these words have fundamentally different meanings to those in the Classical Renewal than they do to those in the wider world. That meaning demands (and this is another CR word that comes up often) stewardship. It’s irresponsible to throw them around willy nilly unless you’re sure that your audience- or interlocutor, as the case may be -is on the same page as you.

I wanted to bring this language directly into my school this year, because high-minded bluster and principles such as these are often thought of as upstream of what happens in the classroom, but in my opinion, that isn’t really true unless your students can tell you what these things mean and why they matter. So, in my first year as a Dean, I started a devotional series for our lower school (K-6th) that uses Aesop’s Fables to illuminate the dynamic of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty as it informs our work at Omnia Classical School.

Today, I’d like to share the meaning and application of these three words specifically here with y’all, using a recent example from a lesson I gave on, ahem, scrambled eggs. Perhaps we will get to the other words in the future.

First, when I say “Classical” or “Classical Renewal” I am using terms that are inextricably linked with Christianity, specifically, Christianity that propounds and affirms the Apostle’s Creed (that might sound like a low bar, but, well, surprises abound these days). Non-Christian classical schools do exist; however, a Classical education is not about reading thought-leaders from Antiquity or manufacturing Polyannas for Western Civ. It’s just not, sorry. It is instead an entire worldview, premised on Christ’s existence and animation of all creation. Without Christ- the Word, the Logos -there is no objective, original source of reality and Truth, and we must have that in order to make sense of anything and everything else.

So, what is Truth? Truth is Christ, the Logos, the creator and Lord of all logoi, everything that exists. He affirms the existence of everything and the Goodness and Beauty of it. Everything we encounter, from a polynomial equation to a garden full of robust (or rotten!) tomatoes, traced back far enough, has one consistent, original source. Everything points back to Christ. He is the reason we know what things are because He created them, and when we are at school, our chief objective in everything that we do is to perceive the Logos in what we study. What does that mean? We’ll get there. When the Logos is perceived, then everything else- proper understanding, proper action, propriety itself -flows forward.

Then what is Goodness? Goodness is what is created. It is the material reality of life, BUT! We have to be careful not to just leave it at that. Scripture tells us that there is nothing God created that is not good (1 Tim, 4:4), so for our understanding, Goodness has two qualities: it is the created substance, which is vulnerable to sinful corruption and misuse, and it is the Telos, the fulfilled potential, the righteous purpose of that substance. In other words, all logoi are good, but their goodness may require action, time, or some other interference in order for it to be realized.

And what about Beauty? If you scroll back to the top of this post, you’ll see that on the whiteboard I’m about 2/3rds of the way through writing the Fruits of the Spirit within the triangle of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. This is part of my weekly devotions. We read one of Aesop’s Fables, and I ask the students to perceive the Logos (not just the moral of the story, but the moral as Christ would have it), and then the students know to justify that Logos based upon identifying the Fruits of the Spirit that are evinced by the fable (e.g. the Tortoise has Patience, and that’s why it wins the race).

OKAY, BUT WHAT ABOUT BEAUTY? Beauty is what we should imitate. Beauty is what we want to proliferate and spread through our actions. For our children, it’s learning the Fruits of the Spirit and abiding by them to create a harmonious school. For us as adults, it’s learning how to do things with excellence and charm.* It’s engaging with our world, seeing fulfilled Goodness around us, and resolving to make more of it. Beauty is the animating discipline that points us back to Truth and creates harmony, a small foretaste, a tiny amuse bouche, the aroma, if you will, of Heaven.

*And there is often more than one way to do this, which is why it’s true that Beauty is both objective, and in the eye of the beholder.

SO WHAT IN BLAZES DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH EGGS?

I’m delighted you asked. When we came back to school from Christmas two weeks ago, the entire school gathered together to review our customs, expectations for behavior, and bring a couple of new students onboard with our vibe. During that meeting, I had the lower school explain to the upper school what we had been learning during our weekly devotions. Dutiful hands were raised and mouse-timbred voices explained the meaning of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty, but I saw a few raised eyebrows among the upper school and decided an example was needed to drive the lesson home.

We do this thing every Friday called “Fundamental Fridays” where a teacher offers a different bespoke lesson to the whole school on something they should know. Sometimes it’s a fun activity, sometimes it’s an outside guest lecture, other times it’s drudgery- like sewing or changing a tire -that is dull but essential to life, but in every case it tends to be something that spills the banks of the students’ everyday subjects. Just before Christmas I’d done two Fundamental Fridays back-to-back on how to cook scrambled eggs properly, and then again on how to cook them, well, beautifully. Thankfully, the lower school hadn’t forgotten about this, and were able to contextualize scrambled eggs according to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty thusly:

What is the Truth of scrambled eggs? They are eggs that are scrambled.

What is the Goodness of scrambled eggs? They are nourishment. They are affordable, easy to prepare, and fairly tasty as well.

What is the Beauty of scrambled eggs? If you cook them in a high-walled saucepan with 1/3rd a tablespoon of butter per egg, stirring constantly on high heat for thirty seconds, and then stirring constantly off the heat for thirty seconds, once per egg, until thick, soft curds have formed and there is no more liquid runniness, finishing with salt, pepper, and chives, then not only have you made scrambled eggs that are nourishing, affordable, easy to prepare, and fairly tasty- you have made scrambled eggs that are delicious. You have engaged in the Beautiful practice needed to help them realize their full Goodness, their Telos. And you have done so because Christ made it so. The Logos is perceived plainly on your plate.

That is the Classical mindset in a nutshell. There is nothing we encounter in this life that does not possess inherent Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. We start with this trio of principles and hold them aloft as our north star, A) because Christ is God, and B) because they unite all subjects and disciplines under one divine Cosmos. Within this framework, all common goods we associate with education in our modern age- gainful employment, a robust social contract, excellence and innovation in the arts and sciences, and so on -flows forth from learning Truth, recognizing Goodness, and spreading Beauty.

May our Lord illuminate the righteous path He has laid before each of us and compel us to walk it dutifully and with joy.