Posted in The Principle Approach: A Summary

The Principle Approach Summary

 What is The Principle Approach?

            I don’t know how many times I asked that very question when I was starting to look into the Principle Approach aka "PA".  But it’s not an easy question to answer because The Principle Approach is so substantive.  But after going through SDS {Self-Directed Study; The Noah Plan-www.face.net}, I determined to break it down to the best of my ability so that I could share it with someone in a short conversational length of time.  I still haven’t mastered the ability to share PA in a short period of time, but as I learned from the “bibleprinciples” yahoo group, “the Bible is the heart of PA and History taught from a providential view is the backbone.”  Bible is automatically weaved into your schooling since every subject is studied first as it relates to God’s Word.

1. The Principle Approach is a Biblical, Classical approach to education that uses the Bible as the greatest source of learning across the curriculum.  It focuses on America’s Christian History and our historical Christian form of government as an example of how the student should develop in Christian character.
2. The Principle Approach has identified 7 principles that were predominate assets of the people God used in the building of our Christian nation.  Those traits are taught across the curriculum through the examples of great men and women of God.
3. In the Principle Approach, all subjects are taught (a) first from what the Bible reveals; (b) how they relate to the 7 principles, (c) how they are defined in Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary (as originally submitted by Noah Webster with its Biblical references), and also (d) where your subject lines up with the Chain of Christianity of the westward movement of the Gospel.
4. The Principle Approach teaches Christian scholarship by way of the students preparing Notebooks showing the subject as a whole with the origin and foundations of the subject and then breaking it down into parts.  The notebooks are as individual as each family and student.

Since each individual is led individually by God, everyone that you speak with will have a different emphasis or slightly different interpretation on what PA is all about.  But for the beginner, this is a good place to start in understanding the full scope of PA.

Why “The Principle Approach”?

What Brought Me to PA 

            As inviting as a principled approach to education sounded, this method did not attract my attention early on.  For some reason (before I looked into it), it did not seem like it could be a comprehensive education.  Also, I heard it was centered on American History, which caused me to pass on it, since I was predisposed to world history.  I’ll save the discussion on American History until next time, but needless to say, I was very wrong in both respects.  PA has turned out to be more comprehensive than anything I’ve done so far, and PA includes all the key elements of world history and more.

            The Lord began to strongly place on my heart the need for stronger character development beyond what we had already been doing.  I was trying to look into character curriculum, but every time I tried to proceed in that direction, I ran into roadblocks (I see now this was the Lord).  I mentioned my concerns on character curriculum to a friend of mine and she said that sounded a lot like what she had read on The Principle Approach.  That is what started my dive into PA. 

A Principled Approach to Education

            Generally, a “principle” concerns the “cause, source, or origin of anything; that from which a thing proceeds...” The Principle Approach concerns the origin of all things in Christ; it is uniquely Christ-centered. 

            I had started the education of my children centered on the Charlotte Mason approach to education.  Although it worked very well for my young children, I began looking into a different classical approach as my kids aged.  However, I was extremely bothered that I was implementing an approach to education that was founded in the humanistic age of Greece and Rome.  I found that it constantly required weeding out of humanism and the implementation of godliness.

            When I began to study PA, I realized I had found something rooted in our Christian heritage that we share with fellow believers around the world.  We are familiar with God’s hand in history as relayed to us in the Bible, but we often fail to recognize God’s hand in history since the New Testament era.  As we all know, He is alive and well and at work! 

            You may say, all that is wonderful and very good—but how does that help me teach math or language.  Those were my thoughts.  However, we need to briefly put those thoughts aside, and look into the principles behind our Christian heritage that has come down to us through the ages (the very fabric of who we are as God’s children) and then we can begin to see how to implement these things with our children in daily life as well as across the curriculum.

A Christ-Centered Education Across the Curriculum 

            We’re all very familiar with the Scriptures of John 1:1-3a—In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being by Him…” And, John 14:6—“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.’”  If all things were made through Christ and the only way to the Father is through Christ, then isn’t everything of redeemable value through Christ?  Anything that we seek to teach our children of redeemable value, be it mathematics, language, science, history, etc., has its source and origin in Christ.

            In history, Ephesians 1:9-10 tell us, “He made known to us the mystery of His will…with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ…”  Jesus Christ is the focal point of all things including the history of man.  When man fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, God promised in Genesis 3:15 that one would come who would crush the serpent’s head.  Since the Garden of Eden, ancient history looked forward to the coming of the Messiah (Christ).  Modern history looks backward to the risen Savior at Calvary.  All of history looks toward Christ; so history is Christ, His Story (HiStory). 

            The order and precision in mathematics lies within the very nature of God.  God has always existed as “one”.  There was “three in one” before Creation.  The very position of our earth in the Solar System requires mathematical genius…that if we were any closer to the sun, we would burn up, and any further from the sun, we would freeze.  The tilt of the earth is so perfect that only 16-½ millions of square miles of our 197 millions of square miles are uninhabitable at the poles.  Things, such as these, explain the “why” of it all.  Should the “why” of math be taught that you need it so you can get a job and function in this life, albeit, essential.  Or, should we teach math as lying within the very character of God and essential to our existence, as well as, necessary to function in this life.

            Here is one of my favorites in geography when we discussed the form of our earth.  “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth…”(Isaiah 40:22) God revealed this to Isaiah around 700 BC.  The concept of the earth being round had just recently been accepted in Columbus’ day in the 1400’s. 

            Language is the expression of thought by means of words.  The first language was spoken by God in Genesis 1:3—“And God said, ‘Let there be light.’”  God did not create language for His benefit but for the world that He was creating for us.  We all know there was originally one language (Genesis 11:1).  Due to sin and the confusion of language at the Tower of Babel, the mastery of any language is very difficult.  English is especially difficult because the Anglo-Saxons of England had a tendency to adopt many words from other languages; primarily, Scandinavian and French words from the conquering Normans, and, of course, Latin & Greek.

Why do we teach our children that the mastery of language is important?  Is it because “you just need it” or because God has commissioned us to go throughout the world and preach the Gospel?  I can speak from personal experience that I had so little mastery of the English language that I could not describe what was in my heart.  It was there, but I didn’t know how to get it out.  I’ve had to develop that during adulthood.  And it wasn’t I who did it, but the Lord determined my path. 

When Rome fell, a vacuum of darkness was created that was only illuminated by the Word of God being translated and made available to the common man.  Wherever the translated Word of God spread, enlightenment and education spread.  Re-introduction of classical education may have taken the credit, but history reveals that the Word of God translated into the common language is what enlightened man in the Dark Ages.

God has used language, and especially English, to spread the Gospel.  When we know language well, we are more equipped to speak and write in order to serve God in what He asks us to do.  Our goal and our children’s goal in excellence in language can be in order to serve God more diligently.

Value of the Christ-Centered Education 

            Whenever I say a “Christ-Centered Education”, I’m speaking of a Christ-Centered Education across the curriculum.  We know from our homeschooling acquaintances, that most Christians are teaching a Christ-centered education.

            But what is the value of a Christ-centered education across the curriculum?  Just as we have, our children will face a constant, non-stop bombardment on the authenticity of the Bible.  If our children do not see Christ outside of the Bible and Church, all the enemy has to do is convince them the Bible isn’t authentic…that some of it is true but not all of it…that science can explain our world…or anything of that order. 

            But if we teach our children to see Christ in all things, they will be a much tougher nut to crack.  At every angle, we, as parents, would have planted the seeds of Christ.  They will see Christ in all of history, in mathematics, in language, in everything they have learned.  They hopefully won’t be so easily influenced away from the things of Christ.

            We know we have no guarantees in life.  All I can do is plant the seeds the Lord calls on me to plant, and then my children must make that decision.  My hope and prayer is that, with the Lord’s leading, I will have provided my children with tools of wisdom so they will not easily be deceived and will serve the Lord wholeheartedly.

What about math facts, nouns, verbs, etc. 

            The tedium of education…we all know we have to teach these things everyday and we do.  We’ve got that part down.  But when you begin to teach subjects from whole to parts…from the origin of each subject to its parts, we clue our children into the big picture—God’s picture…His viewpoint.  It’s always easier for me to learn when I can see the big picture.  The same is true for our children.

How do we teach these things? 

            We can only teach that which is a part of us.  Will you need to educate yourself?  Yes.  But know the Lord never asks anything of us that is beyond our ability.  He knows our responsibilities.  He knows what is on our plates.  He will provide the time for study for that which is best for our families.  The Principle Approach provides freedom in education.  It is about relying on the Lord’s leading in the teaching of our individual children.  He may emphasize very different things for your children than he does for mine. 

            I always prayed and sought the Lord for my children’s education at the beginning of every year and periodically throughout the year, as we all do.  What has changed is I now seek his leading weekly and sometimes daily for the direction He wishes me to take. 

            This is not about changing curriculum, but about how to implement education.  However, you may find throughout the year that the current curriculum you’re using is not best suited for how God is leading you and you may want to make changes next year.  But PA isn’t about running out and buying all new curriculum.  In fact, the interesting thing is, I’m finding I am relying less and less on my curriculum and more on the concept I am teaching.  The curriculum is now becoming my tool and I am no longer a servant of it.  And I am sure there are the truly brave-at-heart out there who have abandoned curriculum altogether.

The Noah Plan 

            This brings us to The Noah Plan.  What is The Noah Plan?  The Noah Plan provides guidelines for helping to implement The Principle Approach.  They are nothing more than that…guidelines.  We seek our ultimate guidance from the Lord, who knows our children, our situations, and us.

            The Noah Plan is published by F.A.C.E. (The Foundation for Christian Education).  The Noah Plan derived its name from its reliance on the Noah Webster 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language.  Noah Webster, descended on his mother’s side from William Bradford of Plymouth Plantation, produced this “first” American dictionary during the time period when the American home and school were established on a Biblical basis.  The dictionary is complete with Biblical references for relevant definitions. 

            F.A.C.E.’s ministry began in the 1960’s when they published the compilations of Verna Hall, which included 30 years of her research of America’s Christian history entitled The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America aka CHOC.  Another name you’ll see a lot of is Rosalie J. Slater.  The following explanation comes from F.A.C.E.’s website:

“Rosalie J. Slater, an educator and member of a study group, was inspired by God to research America's heritage of colonial character, education, and government. She rediscovered the principles and methods of reflective thinking and reasoning that produced the Christian worldview of our founding fathers and mothers and expressed the Biblical principles of liberty and civil government of our Founding and Constitutional Eras in what is known as The Principle Approach®.” (www.face.net)

            Rosalie J. Slater wrote the book entitled, Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History, which is the one we’ll be using with the Self-Directed Study. 

Applying The Principle Approach

            You may start applying The Principle Approach in any subject that you desire.  Many recommend that a good starting place is History.  But any subject is fine.  Again, that’s the freedom in education.  You decide where to start.  You may start with one subject or multiple subjects.  Again, that is your decision.  

            Next time….

§         PA as it relates to World History and American History.  Is it just an American History approach? 

Staying faithful,

Karen