Redeemer’s Career and Technical Education program, which we call Common Arts, first began in 2023. In a previous post, I explained why we call it Common Arts and how it integrates with the Liberal Arts and the Fine Arts. (You can find that here.) Today, I want to focus more on the specifics of what the Common Arts looks like at Redeemer.
First, we have made the Common Arts part of our normal curriculum. They’re not extracurricular or electives. Every student in 6th-12th grade will engage in the Common Arts in some capacity while at Redeemer. In 6th-8th grade, we take more of a broad approach. One class period a week (for a semester), our Logic School students learn leatherworking, carpentry, cooking, navigation, archery, fishing, trade and finance, sewing, and more. Our goal is to briefly expose our students to many different fields.
In 9th-10th grade, students spend one class period a week across an entire year studying the Common Arts. In 9th grade, their time focuses on leadership and service. The following year, students take a class called Life Skills, where they learn everything from Driver’s Education to banking and budgeting; they also practice nutrition, automobile maintenance, etiquette, resume writing, and workplace communication.
In 11th-12th grade, we get to the core of our Common Arts curriculum. Upperclass students dedicate two block periods (which equates to four class periods) each week to Common Arts. These larger chunks of time allow students to not just learn, but put into practice skills like carpentry, metalworking, forestry and ecology, crop production, horticulture, animal husbandry, and agribusiness. They also have the opportunity to participate in shadow days and internships during those two years. And all of this alongside Redeemer’s regular robust academics.
Our goal with the Common Arts curriculum is to help every student become more well-rounded by providing valuable experiences they need to thrive as adults. But we’re not just providing skills. Our hands-on curriculum helps students develop perseverance, problem-solving, teamwork, planning, organization, and so much more. Not to mention equipping them with basic skills that will come in handy wherever they go. With our Common Arts curriculum, we also hope to restore dignity to the trades and show students another career option with great value. We recognize that God doesn’t call every student to college, and he doesn’t call everyone to a white-collar job. So we want to prepare our graduates to enter whatever vocation God calls them to.
Most importantly, Redeemer’s Common Arts classes help students understand that we are embodied learners. By that I mean that we’re not minds in a jar; we’re not merely souls floating through an expanse. We’re all mind, body, and soul. As humans, we have physical bodies with unique abilities and limitations. This curriculum provides opportunities to discover those strengths and weaknesses, and how we can use it all to glorify God. Common Arts teacher Greta Houff emphasizes this in her teaching. “Colossians 3:23 says ‘Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men.’ Our Common Arts students learn what it means to work hard and the joy that it brings when we honor and serve God and others with our work.” We’ve watched time and again how students’ hard work brings great satisfaction. And how seeing the tangible results of a job well done brings delight.
The Common Arts teach us all this and more. That’s why we’ve made them such an integral part of a Redeemer education.