Photo by Alef Vinicius
“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. The right defence against false sentiments is to inculcate just sentiments. By starving the sensibility of our pupils we only make them easier prey to the propagandist when he comes.”
C S Lewis The Abolition of Man
"Isolating the student from large sections of human knowledge is not the basis of a Christian education. Rather it is giving him or her the framework for total truth, rooted in the Creator's existence and in the Bible's teaching, so that in each step of the formal learning process the student will understand what is true and what is false and why it is true or false."
Francis Schaefer
"The most important Christian Education institution is not the pulpit or the school, important as those institutions are; but it is the Christian family. And that institution has to a very large extent ceased to do its work."
John Gresham Mechan
After church last Sunday I caught a friend as he was walking back to his car. He teaches Sunday school every Sunday to the fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. of our church He is a very good teacher. Any way, I asked him how his class went.
He said it didn't go well and it was his fault. He was not comfortable with how the Sunday school materials had presented the lesson and because of that his lack of enthusiasm showed. I looked at the materials and asked him where the materials went wrong.
He said, "Well, look at it. The lesson isn't meant for kids" I agreed. And asked him to be more specific in why he thought these professional materials were wrong. "The way you teach children about Christ is to keep it simple", he said. I again agreed.
Children do not have the life experiences of adults. When talking about Christ, teaching is kept to the simple truths- Christ the creator, Christ the savior and Christ the Lord.
We do this without the use of any curriculums. Our teachers teach from the daily reading from the Bible. This is one of the few activities we teach as a group.
The Bible reading schedule comes from a home school program called Bible Study Guide for All Ages. Readings alternate from the Old Testament to New Testament, one book at a time.
Teachers are trained to keep discussions to the simple truths of 1) There is only one God;
2) Salvation is only through faith in Christ; and 3) The Bible is inerrant. All the student questions are answered with those simple truths in mind.
A system for memorizing scripture around topics is accomplished through a program called Memlock. I am always amazed, as our the parents of our children, how many verses the students are able to memorize.
But the important part of memorizing the verses is not the number but in applying those memorized verses to scripture in the context of our readings and through what is taught in their home and churches. Many a time a parent will come to me on a Monday and say, " My son/daughter was listening to the sermon and said he knows that verse the pastor said."
Teaching Christ is a daily goal through God's word and also through training by the adults in their lives. The future teachers I hire will be people I hope my parents can say, "I wish I had had a person like her in my life when I was that age."
We are here to support our families in the training of their children. That includes the best academic education in the state and over forty years experience training children in God's word.
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