Sep. 21, 2005 The First Things to Learn and Teach About Government
I will actually be splitting this section up, because there is just too much information. Feel free to ask any questions!
First, you must begin with the definitions of government from Websters 1828 dictionary.
There are four key ideas: Direction, Regulation, Control,
Restraint. Each involves successively greater external control
and a decrease in self-government, or liberty.
Then you look to the scriptures to discover the biblical or divine origins of government.
Look through the following verses and determine who is regulating, controlling, and restraining:
Direction: Genesis 1:26-28
Regulation: Genesis 1:26-30, Genesis 2:15
Control: Genesis 2:17 (first half)
Restraining: Genesis 2:17 (second half)
Man was made to be governed by God alone, not by other men.
Our government (direction, regulation, control and restraint) either
comes from within or without. If man refuses to govern himself,
the external government must increase. Who causes tyranny?
Tyranny is the result of a sinful people. (1Sam 8:7 and continuing)
Conclusion: The biblical origin, source of government is Gods care for His creation.
Death = separation from God
Death = separation from life
Government is for preserving good, NOT doing good. Doing good = socialism.
There are four principles to evaluate good government from wicked government.
1. Gods authority/supremacy established: One God is
Supreme Law over All; All equal under one Law, In the sight of One
Supreme God.
In the beginning, God
(Gen 1:1)
2. Power is from God and is delegated, delimited and defined, but never surrendered.
Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 2:15
3. Voluntary Obedience, Consent to Authority
Genesis 2:7
4. To serve, administer Good, but never to do Good for people.
Genesis 1:31
Conclusion: Government begins with divine authority and whether man is obedient or disobedient to it.
Reasoned obedience = free, voluntary obedience, not coerced, not manipulated.
All four principles were in place from the beginning of our
constitution. That is why we are a Christian nation, not because
of the number of Christians, but because of the Christian form of
government that was implemented here.
When children ask Why? think about your response. Responding,
Because I said so, prepares them for tyranny. Appeal to their
reason: because it is reasonable for you. It is
reasonable for children to obey their parents and others in authority
if they are not being asked to sin. Whether the child likes it or
not, parental requests that do not involve sin are reasonable.
Soul = seat of reason
God invites us to come reason with him. (Isaiah 1:18)
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Sep. 13, 2005 First Things to Teach: History
First and foremost, it
is important to recognize that home education is not our idea, but the
Lord's. The family is the first institution God set up to further
His plan, even before the Church. As parents, we must know God's
word and practice it in our daily lives, seeking first to be a model
and second to be a teacher.
Deu
6:1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the
judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye
might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
Then comes the instruction to teach, continually and in the home:
Deu
6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Teach the laws of the Lord diligently, meaning carefully, with intent,
in your house and teaching the ways of God in all subjects. How
is this done? Knowing, understanding and reasoning from the
scriptures.
To truly understand a subject, you must first know
its rudiments, also called seeds. This comes from looking closely
at the definition of the subject as provided by the Webster's 1828
dictionary. Look up geography, arithmetic, history and economics
and see if you can find two main ideas from each definition. The
following are the seeds given by Ms. Dang:
Geography---> Geography of Nature and Goegraphy of Man
Arithmetic----> Science of Numbers and Computation
History---> Nations and Events
Economics--->Household Economy and Political Economy
So, to begin, we will look at History, since this is a very imporant area in the Principle Approach.
Define the subject using Webster's 1828 dictionary:
1.
An account of facts, particularly of facts respecting nations or
states; a narration of events in the order in which they happened,with
their causes and effects.
Reasoning from the definition, we can see the seeds of the subject. There are two for each subject. Here we see nations and events.
You then search out the biblical origin. Two to pay close
attention to are Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning, God...) and Revelation
1:8 (I am the Alpha and Omega...). God has had a hand in history
since the beginning, and will forever. The definition my 6yo and
I came up with for history after doing this kind of a study together
was "History is His plan for the nations, told through events."
A biblical purpose must then be established. A good start for a
biblical purpose would be Psalm 78:2-8, highlighting verse 7.
Psa 78:7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:
Remembering that the focal point of history is Jesus Christ, establish
purpose for each seed. What is God's plan for the nations?
See Acts 26-27; Matthew 28:19. And for events? See
Ecclesiastes 3:1, Galtatians 4:4.
History is universal...it
carries the story of God's plan for ALL the nations, expressed through
events. See also John 1:3; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 3:27; 2
Corinthians 5:17; Matthew 28:19; Psalm 65:9.
Throught this study, we begind to develop a biblical view of God seen in the details of Universal History.
* God overseeing and subduing the temporal to serve eternal purposes.
* The power of Christ within the individual overcoming the world.
"Come and see the works of God: He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men." Psalm 66:5
* Seeing One God working.
* Seeing the Hand of God overrul in ALL the affairs of men and nations.
Look carefully at Isaiah 9:7. This is a prophecy of the kingdom of Christ, and what promise does it hold for us?
Isa 9:7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall
be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it,
and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even
for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. The
following is my best attempt to reproduce a graphic illustration of
these points:
One God Working
Superintending
Overseeing
Disposing
Overruling
All Men and Nations
Universal History
One
Plan
One Savior
One Goal
advance of the
gospel Christ, focal
point
liberty of the individual
of history
Gen 3:15
Gal 4:4
John 3:16
4,000BC-------------------+--------------------2,000 AD
------------> <--------------
Christ is the focal point of history.
Universal History is one God, one plan, one savior, one goal for all men and nations.
Pre-Christ is the Pagan Era. Post-Christ is the Christian Era.
The Pagan Era is characterized by Law without Liberty. Christ
introduced the Law of Liberty. After His crucifixion, we
experienced Liberty in Conflict with Law. The Christian founding
of our nation saw Law and Liberty Reconciled. The capitalized
parts above represent key ideas, or general themes, in history to
emphasize.
God works: Individually, Internally, Invisibly, Imperceptibly, Incomprehensibly
This is primarily governmental. More on that later, but the
definition of government includes direction, regulation, control and
restraint. Each sphere restricts liberty more. The ideal is:
Government of God through Christ indwelling the individual leading to
local self-government of the church and then state leading to local
self government with voluntary union under a Conditional Federal
Republic.
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Sep. 5, 2005 Katherine Dang seminar, part 2
Here are some more notes
from the seminar I attended. I'm not sure how they will come out
being pasted in this blog, so hopefully they make sense. If not,
please ask and I will do my best to explain.
The Christian ideal is to replace wrong thinking with right thinking.
The positive alternative to progressive education is American
Christian Education (PA).
Dinstinctly American Education
Individual Self-Government
History Government
a just view of God Self and civil
Ruling and overruling primary and secondary sphere
in the affairs of men (who or what in control)
and nations
Christian socialism is nice. We submit willingly to our socialism and
view it as helping, giving freely, rather than having it forced upon us.
We are independently dependent on God.
(another triangle)
Individual Self-Government
Character Conscience
Faith yields Steadfastness Liberty of cons. yields decisions
Diligence yields Industry of conscience
Brotherly love yields Christian care Concscience void of offense
God and man yields obedience
The quality of individual self-government is determined by the quality
of individual character and conscience.
Distinctly American Christian Education
Biblical Result = Biblical Content + Biblical Method
(aim) (curriculum) (approach)
Individual Self-government = First Principles + Biblical Reasoning:
Christian Character and of every subject Reasoning from the
conscience Principles of every
subject
We owe our children foundations...they owe themselves an education.
By the age of 12 they should be self-educating. Parent directed and
guided, but personally responsible to build on foundation parents have
laid.
She views the parents responsibility for the child to end at age 20
because of Num 14:29-30.
establish the rudiments, or seed of a subject, for example:
Geography--------->Geography of nature AND Geography of man
Arithmatic------->Science of numbers AND Computation
History---------->Nations AND Events
Economics-------->Household economy AND Political economy
This essentially is determined by looking at the definition from the
Webster's 1828 dictionary, say history. The definition can be broken
down into two key factors...nations and events. Like the word
studies, you can then define those key terms and glean more
interesting information. Search the scripture for these concepts to
ensure a biblical view. Everything should build from there with
purpose and direction.
The goal is to minister directly to the soul, or seat of reason, of
the child. The output, i.e., mastery of the material, is secondary to
the development of the understanding and ability to reason from
principles. The output should only be viewd as the effect of what is
happening internally...it is too easy for those of us raised in a
secular system to flip this.
clear to anybody? hope so...this, I think, is pretty basic, but
probably helped me gain a bit of confidence that I can do this, even
if it is a bit slow in the beginning.
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Aug. 30, 2005 Katherine Dang, Part One
This is essentially the basic framework
of the current system to which Christianity must provide a positive
alternative. That is, of course, the principle approach, which I will
begin later. Some of this is my musings inserted, but the idea is the
same...
Ok, this first part is on socialism...
"Socialism" began around 1800 in the USA, with the death of George
Washington, as America began forgetting her history. Already, we were
beginning to turn to the state as a solution to our problems.
The main purpose of progressive education is socialism We seek
thereby to produce generations that only know how to act in the
collective. It encourages "socialization" or how to live in groups.
This is accomplished through "standardization." Everyone is compared
to the norm, and uniformity is the goal. Uniform curriculum, uniform
delivery, uniform product. Some school districts in California have
even adopted curriculum that is scripted...the teacher merely reads
what is given to them to the students, word for word.
Some ideas to look at...why are tests standardized? why are their
group projects in schools? why is ability grouping so taboo? why is
excellence punished? why does President Bush have anything to do with
what is taught in the classrooms? Let alone how or by whom.
The practice of socialism:
Collective action supersedes individual action.
Collective enterprise is preferred over and above individual enterprise.
Collective will overrides individual decisions of conscience.
Collective responsibility displaces individual accountability.
Collective well-being is viewed as essential to the well-being of the
individual.
The biggest problem with American socialism is that it is a
"Christian" socialism. We do it willingly and are nice about it. If
it were not for our form of socialism, there would be no real problem
with illegal immigration. Now, people come and we feel we need to
help them and provide them with our friendly social programs. If we
still held to the values we were founded on, people might still come
for "the American dream" but to come with the purpose of being able to
have an opportunity at free enterprise does not hurt our nation.
Our idea is basically that government can and should do good for
people. It sounds like a good idea, but it is fundamentally
anti-biblical.
The idea of socialism focuses on output rather than causation. The
soul and character of an individual is irrelevant. This notion in
particular has seeped into almost every aspect of American life,
including the church. Current trends in education demonstrate a push
toward "motivation," "stimulation," and "behavior management" in very
socialistic terms. The enviornment is designed to influence the
individual (completely backwards from what God commands in Genesis).
And learning is trained, like Pavlov's dogs. Endless worksheets,
multiple choice and short answer tests continue to train children to
swallow and regurgitate, but never to reason.
Children are entered into this "indoctrincation" earlier and earlier,
and this is done willingly by parents who are more worried about their
child's worldly success than about their character...or are all to
willing to take advantage of the free childcare. We now have K3 and
K4 programs (kindergarten for three and four year olds). Daycares are
full and new ones are opening continually. All tout their preschool
curriculae designed to promote success in the schools. Nobody stops
to ask if we really want our children learning what our public school
system has to offer today.
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Aug. 21, 2005 Katherine Dang seminar
I apologize to anyone who
might have checked here Friday or Saturday looking for my promised
summary of Ms. Dang's seminar. I was visiting my parents and time
got a little short. And I'm not sure how to summarize what I
heard. It was a wonderful seminar, full of very good information
and it provided a firm background for teaching the principle
approach. I don't really have time right now to post very much on
it, but am planning to go through my notes later and may see if I can
provide a general outline of sorts."
For the moment, I am going to provide one idea which to me is key to this whole thing.
"God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. And God saw
the light and that it was good: and God divided the light from
the darkness." (Gen 1:3-4).
The light may also be viewd as the
truth of God's word. In fact, John 1:5 draws this analogy
nicely. If we are successful at teaching our children the
scripture and how to reason from scripture, we will have given them all
the tools necessary. It is the light which shines in the
darkness, not the darkness covering the light. Once a child knows
truth, a lie will have no power. They will be able to discern
truth from lie independently if they carry the light in their heart.
The ability to read AND reason is very important. As to how to do
this...well, my daughter is still a bit young. She reads well but
not that fluently yet. I'm hoping to begin those kinds of lessons
by the start of next school year.
This seminar also
helped me to feel more confident in my vision for what I want to
accomplish and a little less worried about the lesson plans in my
lesson plan book. I was already starting to wonder if we would
ever get time to get to them, because with every idea we explore, so
many relevant things come up. I don't want to overwhelm her with
things she is not ready for or with too much. I firmly believe
that my purpose is to teach my daughter HOW to think. All the
rest of the facts of each subject can come on their own as we
explore. But it is not nearly as important for her to know the
factual events of history as it is for to be able to see God's hand in
what we observe and to be able to draw reasonable conclusions from the
information we discover.
My original plan was to come back and
begin working on history as our first formal PA subject, and now I'm
thinking there is no hurry. We already are establishing the
principles behind the subjects in what we are teaching. I think
adding a formal study of history at this point would be too much.
For now, we will stick with our geography plan because that is
providing good history as well, but focus more on the history presented
in the bible. But primarily, we will work on increasing fluency
in reading, continue math and get used to thinking about God as the
force and the reason behind everything. So basically what we were
already doing. 
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