The Methods Matter
Faith and EducationIt is of course possible to profess faith, but ‘teach’ as a practical atheist, because public school teachers do every day… however, public school teachers are disempowered to teach according to the true definition of education. In fact, they are even removed the opportunity to apply discipline to the students they are teaching.
Hear and understand.
Education is “The bringing up, as of a child; instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties” (Noah Webster’s First Edition of An American Dictionary of the English Language. Anaheim, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2006).
The Bible doesn’t approve of the double mind. Educators who realize there is a problem don’t know how to move towards right and truth; we do not see many pastors stepping up to equip educators; and the teaching institutions which should “qualify” humans to be teachers aren’t teaching them the methods which would restore true education to them.
Your view of man – his creator, his purpose, and his duty – totally changes not only why you educate, but what and how you deliver that education. If man is created in the Image of God, how will you treat him? If man is immortal, how does this shift how far you teach him to see, and what you should be willing to sacrifice in your own lifetime? If man’s usefulness is for God’s purposes, what does he need training for? If man is to leave an inheritance for generations, what skills should he learn?
Classical
What is Classical Education
Classical Education more commonly refers to teaching along “Three Roads”, known as “The Trivium”.
The grammar stage is a time to build basic skills in language arts (reading skills, writing skills, grammar, spelling) and arithmetic. In the content areas history, science, literature, foreign languages, art and music your goal is familiarity and enjoyment, not complete mastery. You want the child to develop an interest in these subjects, and to be familiar with important events and concepts.
Young children can also begin to develop familiarity and enjoyment with history, literature, and science. In the early grammar stage, you may not always get to the study of history and science every day (or even every week). Lay the foundation for their logic-stage work.
– A Well-Trained Mind
This is when children love reciting, chanting, singing, storytelling, expressing themselves, noticing details, memorizing facts and rote learning material.
During the logic stage, you are aiming for initial mastery that is, the child should be developing a sense of the “big picture,” or how different concepts and events link together in a larger pattern.
Often, this is the most challenging time in a child’s education. The brain is undergoing great development and a major shift in the way that material is understood. Observation tells us that this shift (displayed by an increasing impatience with rote memorization and a growing capacity to understand the whys behind principles and rules) generally takes place in late fourth grade/early fifth grade. In practical terms, it takes time to teach children to think analytically. – A Well Trained Mind
This is the stage where children are defining terms, comparing and contrasting differences, discovering cause and effect, understanding how circumstances make differences, and the importance of opinion and testimony such as considering the skew or bias of the information provider.
And during the rhetoric stage, your goal is to teach the student how to think through ideas and express his or her own opinion about them. Until a student is familiar with history and enjoys it, he can’t move on to the logic stage of critical reflection on how familiar historical events might fit together. And until he has a grasp of the relationship between historical events and historical cultures, he can’t form an opinion on (for example) Josephus’ record of the wars between the Romans and the Jews, or Plato’s theories about the beautiful and the ideal. – A Well Trained Mind
This is the stage where children should be flooding their world with words and sensory information about an idea, asking good questions to find answers, organizing thoughts, finding the best ways of presenting opinions and ideas, and presenting information to the world. This is an important phase of identity formation.
Young children can also begin to develop familiarity and enjoyment with history, literature, and science. In the early grammar stage, you may not always get to the study of history and science every day (or even every week). Lay the foundation for their logic-stage work.
– A Well-Trained Mind
This is when children love reciting, chanting, singing, storytelling, expressing themselves, noticing details, memorizing facts and rote learning material.
Biblical Classical, Hebraic Classical Method
The PRINCIPLE APPROACH
All wisdom, knowledge, and understanding flows from the Bible. The Bible is a key primary source text for our education.
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary is the dictionary which uses the Word as a resource for defining words. We define key terms as we go, to strengthen our minds and form a base for understanding.
We use ORIGINAL SOURCE TEXTS in our research so the truth can be discerned. History has been manipulated, with intention, with key facts removed, and also the omission of the real heart of the subject.
History becomes relevant when children can see how internal character qualities produce external choices and behaviors; history is interesting when children can appreciate individual stories, nuance, and hardships; history is memorable when it is hands-on; and history becomes important when children can place their own lives inside its context and understand their own purpose in it. Through our history, we are helping the children answer life’s 3 ultimate questions: ‘who made me’, ‘why was I made’, and ‘what is my duty’. What we believe of children, and of ourselves forms the basis of our actions, defines our character, and determines the way we operate ourselves, our families, our civil governments, and our Church. Children will learn to decipher this in other important individuals through the timeline, see how God used them, and how each person succeeded or failed.
The way we teach requires the class leaders to become master teachers of a topic, and pass their passion to students through sincere modeling. Don’t be intimidated. We are interested in the journey, not the destination, and we are learning together.
Teaching methods follow the “Trivium”, which means ‘three roads’.
The first road is the Poll Parrot or Grammar Stage (1st-4th). The second stage is the Logic Stage (5h-8th). And the third stage is the Rhetoric Stage (9th-12).
This leads to developmentally appropriate interaction and exploration with learning materials and methods which children and growing teends find fun, interesteing, relavent, and compelling!
The Bible teaches foundational principles for each area of study. These principles for each subject will be explored year after year, so the student and the teacher know the unseen laws that guide and shape our world.
We will use the 4 Rs (Research, Reason, Relate, Record), the Notebook Method, word studies, timeline on the Chain of Christianity, hands-on experiments and experiences, immersions, field studies and more to make our studies come alive!
This will explain how you apply the 4 R’s to lesson planning. When you purpose to teach a subject, first you must learn it.
Begin with research, which is helpful for a teacher to lesson plan. Take ownership and responsibility for the truth of what you’re teaching, and fact-check the sources. This means you diligently examine facts and principles in the search for truth. Understand the vocabulary of what is being said using the Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary. Search out the scriptures. Figure out the Christian history of the topic using original source texts and example the key people, events, and documents that relate. Determine how this topic relates to the advancement of the gospel and its impact on liberty. Notice the related geography, art, science and technology. Enable the student to be inspired by what you discovered.
Second, reason. Deduce inferences justly from premises. Reason from the lens of Biblical truths and name them, and reason from the truths you’ve already discovered through research. Ensure you’ve identified the Biblical principles and God’s purposes for history, the contributions made to the Great Commission, and how this topic glorifies God and reveals His nature and character.
Thirdly, relate to what you’ve researched and reasoned. This means you retell, recite, and connect to what you’ve learned and you’ve grasped its personal meaning to you and your students. You would make text selections to enhance your lessons, develop your leading ideas and questions that would shape a vigorous classroom discourse, drill and practice the right memory work, create demonstrations / maps / activities, place the events on a timeline, determine how you will display the information via dramatic story-telling, posters, special immersions, or field studies.
And lastly, as a matter of record, you record what happened. To record, you write or enter in a book those things which help you preserve authentic and correct evidence for the purpose of both jogging memory and imprints on the mind. To do so, you would guide you and your students to write down their thoughts, conclusions, and impressions of what they have learned to become part of their permanent record. As a teacher, you would also keep excellent student work samples and pictures / videos / rich media to share and remember in the future. The students would collect their writings, maps, memory work, research, and reports in their notebook as a permanent record of learning from which to leverage in the future.
Part of the Principle Approach is to record your learnings. Students will write or enter in a book those things which helped them to preserve authentic and correct evidence for the purpose of both jogging their own memory and imprints on their minds.
To do so, students are guided to write down their thoughts, conclusions, and impressions of what they have learned to become part of their permanent record. The students would collect their writings, maps, memory work, research, and reports in their notebook as a permanent record of learning from which to leverage in the future.
This is a tool, method, and discipline of incredibly tremendous value!
The Principle Approach simplifies learning by providing students with just 1 leading idea in each lesson. Leading ideas are the main point of each lesson. Touch points of the lesson, the 4 Rs (which you’ll hear about), all the ways that we relate to the material point to the one leading idea. This makes actually absorbing the material much more possible for the student.
Start learning about The Principle Approach through FACE and other resources.
If you haven’t already, invest in a FREE 90 minute personal, interactive, live Principle Approach 101 Intro online.
Enroll in the Foundations Course in person over the summer or via Independent Study anytime. This is the entry-level course in the Principle Approach philosophy, methodology and curriculum, and if you desire, you can consider becoming a credentialed master Principle Approach teacher.
Texts
- Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History, The Principle Approach, by Rosalie Slater, pages 88-110, (22 pages). Available in the FACE bookstore.
- Every Child a Promise is a 16-page booklet simple introduction to Principle Approach education. Available for purchase or one copy free.
- Principle Approach 101 booklet by Dr. Max Lyons.
Short articles
- How Should We Then Teach by Dr. Carole Adams
- Distinctive Methods of the Principle Approach by Dr. Max Lyons
Online
Fun – Formative – Unforgettable
We Know How to Make Learning Stick
When learning is relevant, relateable, and can become real-life, the learning will stick.
Instead of fill-in-the blank, multiple choice, boring old ways of learning, we will return to the methods which were used by tried and true the founders of this Christian Nation, and the methods which we see in the Bible.
The Principle Approach honors the place of the Holy Spirit as the Teacher and Revelator and puts God in His seat on the throne of all life: all knowledge, all understanding, all wisdom, and all persons, all families, all communities, and all nations. The Principle Approach teaches biblical foundational principles over and over again, and highlights how God uses events, people, inventions, or tragedies to further the Gospel through history and their impact on liberty. The Principle Approach is distinctly interested in how America was formed as a Christian nation, and teaches its students what it means to be an American Christian as a steward of this nation, and to be able to articulate America’s unique place and mission in His Story.
The Principle Approach teaches how to develop curriculum, with freedom to answer to the Holy Spirit’s instructions. We use what we learn from the Principle Approach to add to the best Christian Classical methods such as the five core habits, the five common topics, and the five canons of rhetoric. But we add Word Studies and Webster’s 1828 Dictionary; the searching out of Biblical principles; leading ideas; the 4 Rs of research and the Notebook Approach; the Chain of Christianity in addition to other timelines; the ‘key charts’ related to individuals, events, institutions or documents; and the tenets and principles of the Principle Approach such as individuality, conscience as property, and self-governance. I believe the other tools and methods overlap with Christian Classical methodology.