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Provide an example of an interactive lesson based on a Christian philosophy of education.
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Doing a word study. Having students look in their Bible dictionaries and concordances to find verses about friends and friendship. Reading stories about friendship in the Bible and discussing the character traits exhibited and the main idea of the story. Students can then reflect on those traits and stories by journaling and answering questions such as are they being a good friend and how they can be a better one.
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This year my 11th graders read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. One motif that runs throughout the story is lying. We had discussions throughout the book about the lies that were told not only by Huckleberry but by Jim and Tom and minor characters. The final questions for the persuasive essay was “Is lying ever justified?”. The students had to make a claim and support it using a biblical worldview.
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This came up when I was homeschooling my daughter when she was reading the Secret Garden. When Mary credits the “Magic” (capitalized) for her garden flourishing, I took the opportunity to ask my daughter if Mary was correct in crediting the “Magic” for the success of the garden. “Who actually makes the plants and flowers grow? Who gives life? Who created nature? Who allows rains to water and birds to pollinate?” These were a few questions I asked, and the answers all pointed back to God. I took the opportunity to read a few bible verses with her, including topics on magic, idols, and Matthew 6:26-28 (“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow….”). It is a blessing to see her lean on God and compare everything against what His word says.
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To expand, while I think it is extremely important to have a Christian curriculum, I also think it’s important to not discount classic literature altogether. We want to be able to have honest conversations with our students and expose them to certain classics. However, we also need to be prepared and equipped to have conversations as they relate to God’s word, as Dr. Black points out.
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I really enjoyed hearing Dr. Ellen Black remind us that we can integrate scripture and Godly character through Literature. It’s sometimes easy to think about intertwining scripture with science. God is our creator and the creator of all things. But the opportunity as educators to help students identify Godly character through other disciplines is a beautiful thing. There are great works of literature that are not specifically Christian based. However, integrating them into the classroom and paralleling it with scripture is a great way to model “applying” God’s Word in our daily lives.
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During a science lesson on adaptations we discussed the giraffe. We read from our book about adaptations which does approach the topic from a biblical perspective. We watched a video specific to the giraffe and its amazing adaptations. For example, the giraffe has a tough, dark tongue to help it pull thorny leaves from the acacia tree and it is dark to keep it from being sunburned. It has that long neck to reach the leaves from trees since that is its primary source of food. It had an extra strong heart so it can pump the blood all the way up that long neck to get blood to the brain. It’s fur pattern acts as a camouflage in its natural environment. It also has a long, fringed, tail to help it swat insects away and it can gulp water quickly so it is not left vulnerable as it tries to reach down for water. The giraffe can also survive on only 30 minutes of sleep a day and can sleep standing up. Sleeping would make it vulnerable to its prey since it is such a large animal and cannot hide easily. After learning about all these adaptations, we have a great discussion about how our amazing God cares about each of his animals and created them each with these cool adaptations. We read the scriptures about how he cares about the lilies of the field and the sparrow so how much more does he care about you. We talk about how evolutionists would have you believe these things happened over time, but the Bible tells us that God created all the animals and Adam named them. Then the students chose an animal to research and we share when those activities are complete all the wonderful ways God designed the creatures of the earth.
