Posted in The Principle Approach: Self-Directed Study

       As you will note, this lesson also includes a selection from The Christian History of the American Revolution—Consider & Ponder.  This is also sold through FACE, but I'm sure you could find it elsewhere through used books with Amazon, eBay, etc.  I didn't list is as a must-have book for beginning the study due to the few times you would crack the book.  But if you love the summary, and you can pick it up somewhere, the sections referred to in the study are a beautiful read, in my opinion.  J

Week 6—Assignment

• Lesson 5
  • Our Heritage of Christian Education
• Supplemental Resources:  The Christian History of the American Revolution: Consider & Ponder {C&P}, pages 602-616
• Assignments:  Define Instruction & Discipline (or others); Work on 2^nd Row of Chart on “Nature of Education” 

Lesson 5—Our Heritage of Christian Education

            In this lesson, we begin to work on the second row of the Chart for the “Nature of Education”.  I started by defining “Instruction” and “Discipline”.  

As an introduction, in Lesson 5, on the first page, please note the reference to “The Solution”.   This reference states that in choosing how and what to teach, the solution is “learning to discern correct methods and a core curriculum from examining Biblical models.”

Philosophy of Education—Hebrew vs. Greek Mind-Set 

            What are those Biblical models?  Well, I found it quite helpful to review the table on the second page of Lesson 5 entitled “Contrasting Two Historic Worldviews of Education”; which are the Hebrew Mind-Set and the Greek Mind-Set.  This table reveals so much of what I love about PA and so much of what troubled me about Classical Education.  I knew a classical approach was the better approach absent the humanistic thinking of Greece that bothered me greatly.  So a Biblical, classical approach through PA intrigued me.

            But is The Principle Approach copying the Greek classical approach?  Or did the Greeks actually copy God’s approach to education [with the exception of course, of excluding Him and focusing on “man”]?  This thought was first brought to my attention by the Bluedorns who wrote “Trivium Pursuit” that some of you may be familiar with.  They described how the stages of classical education: grammar, dialectic (logic), and Rhetoric are actually described Biblically as knowledge (gathering of information), understanding (discerning knowledge), and wisdom (application of knowledge & understanding). 

            The Principle Approach is not about copying a classical approach that is simply peppered with Scripture while remaining rooted in a secular mind-set as is common with a lot of Christian curriculum.  The Principle Approach is rooted in the very Word of God designed after the Hebrew mind-set and the post-Reformation era; that education is about learning to revere God, know God and submit to the authority of His Word. 

            A Biblical example of education requires an understanding of God’s commands and instructions to Israel reflected in the Bible.  On the table comparing the two historic educational approaches, you can find the difference between the Jewish approach to education and the Greek approach to education.  The Jewish approach was to “educate the whole person, the essential quality of holiness (the separation from all other peoples and their contaminating pagan philosophies in order to belong to God).”  Education was centered on God and was life-oriented (not centered on man and information driven).” 

          Our American government and education was originally built on learning and applying the Truths of the Bible through the Biblical principles learned during the Protestant Reformation when the written Word of God became available to the common man through the translations of the Bible—a Hebrew mind-set placing God front and center.

            However, today we have the same dual (Hebrew vs. Greek) contrast in this country.  There is the Biblical Christian philosophy (God-centered) that we are learning now versus the progressive secular philosophy (man-centered) taught in our public schools. 

            A good place to start in restoring God’s Word to the heart of teaching and learning is through the God-centered History Timeline commencing with Creation (set forth also within this lesson) instead of the man-centered timeline that many of us learned in school.

Biblical Models of Education 

          This lesson also sets out three Biblical models of education—being Samuel and his School of Prophets (to restore both religious and cultural literacy), Ezra’s reading of the Word of God in the land of Israel after returning from exile in Babylonia, and, of course, Jesus Christ—the Master Teacher.

            America’s Colonial and Founding Model of Education used the Bible of the Reformation—the first book of all learning, a child’s first reader, and the political textbook of the parents.  From the Bible, children were taught how to reason from the Word of God for solutions in every sphere of life. 

            This emphasis on the Bible during America’s founding generation produced the highest literacy rate of any period in history; and also provided the Christian character and scholarship that resulted in the birth of our Christian Constitutional Republic—a form of government never before seen in history.

            Lastly, in this lesson, don’t forget to carefully review the “Summary of Common Education Distinctives” between Samuel’s School of Prophets in 1100 BC; Jewish Compulsory Schools during the time of Christ; and the Biblical homeschooling of the founding generations of America.

1.      Scripture at the heart of learning;

2.      Educating the whole person;

3.      Training Memory;

4.      Training reasoning from the revelation of God’s Word;

5.      An understanding of the original languages of the Bible;

6.      Composition being central to learning;

7.      Recording (copywork) for a permanent reflection;

8.      Providential History;

9.      Rhetoric—logical expression to defend their faith;

10. Fine Arts versus the brute nature of man;

11.  Sciences and Philosophy;

12.  To equip with virtuous character to govern themselves with a sense of duty to serve.

WOW!  What a list!  We certainly cannot do this in our own power.  We must simply release these concerns to God and have him lead how He will. 

            The lesson ends with the decline of American education, but delineates our goal in homeschooling and PA, and that is, the restoration of America’s Heritage of Biblical Education in our children; the last link on the Timeline—this is where we and our children come in.

C&P, pages 602-616

C&P is the commonly understood abbreviation for the blue hard back book entitled The Christian History of the American Revolution—Consider & Ponder.

The Education of John Quincy Adams—The Character for a Christian Republic

            In the introduction, Rosalie Slater describes John Quincy Adam’s education as a colonial education in leading ideas (our goal in PA).  In this introduction, I also noticed a further reference to the Bible as a political textbook.  It gave a better description than I have read so far, so I share it with you. 

You’ve probably read several times how the Pilgrims and our early founding fathers used the Bible as their political textbook.  I love how this is described on page 603, “For more than one hundred fifty years the clergy continued to provide leadership by preaching and teaching the Biblical principles of government from the pulpit, and in their election sermons at the seats of the colonial civil government.  Thus, the Word of God became the American Political textbook.”  One of the things this book (C&P) and the red books provide is an abundant source of the sermons surrounding this era.

            As can be guessed since we are reading about the education of John Quincy Adams, he was homeschooled by his mother, Abigail, who had a particular passion for history.   She treasured Rollin’s Ancient History.  Here is a particular quote from that book that really identifies why history is so important. 

“…that nothing gives history a greater superiority to many branches of literature, than to see in a manner imprinted, in almost every page of it, the precious footsteps and shining proofs of this great truth, viz. that God disposes all events as supreme Lord and Sovereign; that he alone determines the fate of kings and the duration of empires; and that he transfers the government of kingdoms from one nation to another because of the unrighteous dealings and wickedness committed therein.”

            One reference described here in history concerns the example of Alexander the Great—who could lead armies but couldn’t govern himself.  His life ended tragically at 33.  With examples such as these, young John Quincy’s education was centered on “putting the responsibility for the rise and fall of nations upon the character and conduct of its people and rulers.”

I just have to share this next quote in a letter from John Adams to his wife, Abigail, because it is so forth telling.  On page 606, the second column about 2/3rds the way down John describes, “If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel and creep all their lives.”  Isn’t that so true?  Is this not the reason we are so motivated to push ourselves and our children beyond our own abilities and theirs.  When Abigail had to release John Quincy to go abroad with his father at 10 years of age, Abigail continued the spiritual education of young John via correspondence. 

Again, a true Christian education is not information driven (as is the Greek) but centered on God and life-oriented; simply utilizing information, in the form of leading ideas, to instill those godly principles.  This should give encouragement to those of us with children that can only take in so much information.  The amount of information is not the driving factor but what godly principles are instilled by the use of the threshold of information they can absorb.  We must maximize their information so as not to do as John Adams so eloquently put it… “suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy”, but not to worry when their threshold of information is maximized less than we would like—for our goal is the instilling of Biblical principles derived from the information…not the amount of information absorbed.

Here are some quotes from Abigail to her son at the tender age of 10; four months after departing abroad with her husband, John Adams; which shows how she valued the character of her son above all else (page 607). 

“…remember, that you are accountable to your Maker for all your words and actions…”

“for, dear as you are to me, I would much rather you should have found your grave in the ocean you have crossed, or that any untimely death crop you in your infant years, than see you an immoral, profligate, or graceless child…”

“…Yet you must keep a strict guard upon yourself, or the odious monster will soon lose its terror by becoming familiar to you….”

“…Young as you are, the cruel war, into which we have been compelled by the haughty tyrant of Britain and the bloody emissaries of his vengeance, may stamp upon your mind this certain truth, that the welfare and prosperity of all countries…and, I may add, individuals, depend upon their morals.”

This was the first letter Abigail wrote to her son after his departure and, abundant on her mind, was his character. 

Pages 608-612 speak much of the life of John Quincy and the education by his father as well as John Quincy’s self-education.  Obviously, the Adams’ were of great intellect.  Our desire here is not to focus on the extensive academia of the Adams’ family but to focus on how character was of primary importance in education; which is our goal as well.

If you need to shorten up this reading, skip pages 603-612 but try to pick up reading again on page 614; Concern for the Character of the Next Generation for the thoughts of John Quincy Adams in writing to his own son concerning the value of the Bible. 

Final Thoughts

            I’m beginning to see why The Principle Approach is not a “curriculum”.  It’s not the information that is the driving factor but the Biblical principle.   We, as the parent/teacher, must experience the Biblical principle before we can lead our children down that path.  The information is the Leading Idea that “leads” us to the Biblical principle.  This is why specific curriculum isn’t the most important, but the principle derived from the presented material.  We need to find the Biblical principle within the material.  Who can help us do that—none other, of course, than our friend and confidant, Jesus Christ.

Karen