The Reformers argued and disagreed about many things. They held a seemingly endless number of debates, disputations, colloquies, and the like.  However, there is one thing they did not argue about: whether to start churches and schools!

Zwingli started the first protestant seminary in Zurich around 1525. John Sturm built the famous Strasbourg Gymnasium in 1537. Sturm was recruited by Martin Bucer, the influential Reformer and wise mentor to John Calvin. Bucer brought Calvin into his home, giving pastoral counsel throughout Calvin's time of exile from Geneva. While he was there, Calvin was able to interact with and observe Sturm, who Bucer recruited to run the Strasbourg Gymnasium. Sturm was the rector for 43 years, and his dynamic classical Christian school was the model for dozens of schools that launched all across Europe. In 1559, when Geneva Academy was opened, it was evident that Calvin was strongly influenced by the Strasbourg Gymnasium. Robert Kingdon says, “Calvin and Beza did not invent their academy from whole cloth; they adapted and refined the proven Strasbourg system to meet the needs of a Reformed training center.”

While the Reformers would often draw hard lines on theological matters and use incendiary rhetoric on deeply held ecclesiastical matters, when it came to advancing classical Christian education, they were more collaborative and open-handed. Melanchthon corresponded with Sturm about curriculum design and grammar instruction. Calvin wrote frequently to Bullinger and Bucer about theological formation and pastoral training. Beza shared lecture notes, theological treatises, and recommended reading lists with schools across Europe. Many Geneva Academy graduates became professors in Heidelberg, Herborn, and La Rochelle. In fact, Calvin and Beza viewed the launch of Geneva with the idea that it would be a model for others to emulate, which is exactly what happened.

The reformers did not work in isolation. They were part of a dynamic intellectual, theological, and institutional network that spanned cities, languages, and decades. Schools like the Geneva Academy, the Strasbourg Gymnasium, and Zwingli’s Prophezei were not standalone projects; they were nodes in a shared ecosystem of ideas, curricula, teachers, and pastoral formation strategies.

If the Reformation teaches anything to the modern classical Christian school movement, it is that we are meant to build together. The Reformers understood that no single person, congregation, or institution could build their schools or accomplish their broader vision alone. They prioritized collaboration over competition and shared vision over territorial isolation. They wrote letters across borders, shared curriculum freely, sent teachers and graduates to plant new schools, and deliberately built academies as models for others to follow. Their legacy reminds us that the work of classical Christian education is ultimately about cultivating a living ecosystem of institutions that, together, form hearts and minds to love truth, pursue virtue, and serve God’s kingdom for generations.