Do We Shelve the Academic Requirements?

The emphasis the Heart of Wisdom approach places on the Bible does not detract from basic skills and traditional school subjects. God forbid. We are stewards of what God has given us. God gave us our children. We are responsible for developing their minds to their fullest potential.

Once you view the intellectual depth of the Heart of Wisdom curriculum you’ll understand that we want your children to learn academics, but more importantly, we want them to learn about life. We want them to be prepared to face the challenges of the world.

We want them to learn all about God’s great Creation, not merely to pass a test, but for greater understanding.

We want them to learn:

• Science—All about God’s Creation
• Math—About God’s order
• History—About His-Story, His plan for the world and the redemption of His people
• Government—How God has established human government for specific purposes
• Language Arts—How to tell others about God’s truth (both writing and speaking)
• Literature—To read of how He has affected other lives
• Economics—To understand stewardship, God’s rules about money
• Arts—To appreciate God’s gifts of music, drama, dance, and art, as forms of worship to Him
• Health—To learn of God’s plan for nutrition and health

It is our personal responsibility to teach our children to read, study, research, and reason, including how to read, understand, analyze, and apply the Bible in a way that does not compromise or distort the intentions of the biblical author or the real meaning of the biblical text.

We, ourselves, must learn and then teach our children how to ground our reasons for doing what we do in a clear and sober analysis of what Scripture actually teaches.

Otherwise we will lack judgment; we will be blown about by every wind of doctrine. (Mulligan) Academic subjects can be taught in a way that helps us understand God’s Word and God’s world, and this should be the motivation for teaching academics. Unfortunately, however, the current motivation for including academics in Christian education is that they mean school to us—learning and education.

We continually slip into the mode of measuring with the world’s measuring stick. The assumption that we automatically know what real education is without pondering it constitutes the intellectual barrier we must cross to arrive at a wisdom-centered curriculum. God’s wisdom has practical aims. James says that God’s wisdom leads humans into a daily application of knowledge. He says, But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere (James 3:17). Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom” (James 3:13).

Dr. John Garr explains that the spirit of improvement is biblical:

Continual improvement in the earth is the goal of a biblical education as man works in partnership with God for the improvement of his environment—physically, socially, economically, and spiritually. When one understands this holistic approach to life, he cannot have one set of ethics for the “spiritual realm” and another for the “secular realm.” He cannot abuse his environment, his society, his government, or his religion.

The dedication to improvement of the human lot is in [the] context of God’s command to Adam and Eve to subdue the earth. This is an ongoing work that is generational and universal. Working in concert with God is such a massive job that no one person or no one generation can ever accomplish his plan. Working continually to improve is the essence of the spirit of perfection, which is enjoined upon believers. Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect, is the command of Jesus. This perfection is not the achievement of some plateau or apex; it is the continual walking with God to make improvement, which requires continual study.

God has called man into a partnership with himself to work at [the] improvement of the planet to which man has been assigned. If continual improvement is to be made by each succeeding generation, then the knowledge acquired in each generation must be passed on to the next. This was one of the primary reasons for which Yahweh had chosen Abraham, the first Hebrew, in the beginning: For I know [Abraham], that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment (Genesis 18:19). Biblical perspectives on learning, then, involve both the acquisition and transmission of knowledge.

The word education comes to us from the Latin ex ducere, which means to be led out. It is a simple fact that learning leads us out of ignorance, out of darkness, out of superstition, out of misery, out of suffering. Learning the wisdom of God leads us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

We are not working for the school board, or even for the children, but for God. Our first desire is to inspire students to become hearers and doers of God’s Word, and to encourage students to search the Scriptures and apply them to everyday situations. Our second goal is to teach them a love of learning that will last a lifetime.

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