Which is the basis of your education? What do your goals generally look like? Are they to learn the names and dates of Presidents and Kings or are they to understand the ways men govern and how man’s character affects his governing? Are they to memorize the parts of speech and list of prepositions or are they to communicate clearly God’s message they have to share? Rather than going on with examples I’ll just ask, do you think the goal of education is to memorize reams of information? Do you think little children can’t learn ideas such as these?
Surely you’ve heard the old adage, “Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about other people.” (I’ve seen it attributed to Tobias Gibson.) Think about what people talk about in society – the weather and other trivial facts, other people, themselves (the smallest of people surely fit here), and ideas. Can you not see that the adage is true?
Yes, religion and politics can bring disagreement in discussion, but they are the seedbed of ideas. All of life goes back to the core questions all of man has, whether he seeks their answers or seeks to avoid them, “Who is God?” and “Who is man?” and “What has God done?” and “How then is man to live?” You cannot escape religion and government in discussing ideas, because these are core to life itself. It is in the discussion of ideas that the mind grows – that society grows. And in discussing ideas, a child and a child’s mind grows.
There are educational philosophies that believe in teaching the great ideas, but — only in the later years of education. They spend the early years filling the child with facts to memorize. They believe the child will have something to think on and understand later, if he is full of facts first.
I respectfully disagree. A young child truly can reason and understand. Granted, not at the level of an adult, we grow in wisdom and understanding. But a child wants ideas; he longs for ideas; he continually asks “Why?” We’ve given a child a false misconception of value by granting our exuberant praise for rattling off a list he has memorized, rather than for his question of “Why?” Do we not see that a child who asks “Why?” has a hunger for learning. He desires growth. A child trained to rattle off information for praise has a hunger for self-acclamation. Knowledge truly puffs up. Surely we desire our children to hunger for growth in life and character more than self-acclaim and pride.
Does our basis of ideas mean we do not teach facts? Of course not! That would be impossible. As a Christian growth (not education) seminar I attended years ago taught, “Knowledge does not lead to wisdom. Wisdom always leads to knowledge.” It fits perfectly in our style of education. Information does not of itself lead to anything but parroting of knowledge. Ideas always apply to information. They are studied out in their very applications.
Learning ideas is our goal. We teach information within the context of ideas to give the information meaning. Learning is not just “knowledge.” It is wisdom, understanding, and knowledge – the proper understanding of knowledge and application of truth. As God’s Word teaches, “knowledge puffs up.” Men are “ever increasing in knowledge but never coming to the truth.” Yet, the “Lord gives wisdom, from His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” “Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge….” In my words, teach information within the context of ideas, with the understanding and application of the ideas being the goal of the lesson. That is, above all teach Biblical ideas (principles) as the foundation of all of education and life.
Wow Lisa – this so well said! I am sure you will not mind if I pass this on to family and friends – especially my homeschooling ones – understanding this was so essential to the success of our homeschool – it is one of the truths God brought me that set me free!
In Him,
Mandi
Lisa,
Thanks for reminding me… again. Unlike Mandi, I’ve already passed it on before getting permission. 🙂
Kim
Mandi and Kim,
Thanks. The Truth truly sets us Free! Spread the news!
L.
Lisa, this is a great reminder to me. Thank you! Miiko
Hi Lisa,
Thank you so much for your post! Ever since I started home schooling I have been dissatisfied with the different methods/approaches. There are some really good ones and each have good aspects which I used to help make our home education better but some thing always seemed lacking. I could not quite put my finger on it until coming across the Principle Approach a couple of years ago. Even then, it has taken me this time of studying the PA to finally be able to understand what exactly was missing.
My own education in the public school system was nothing but bare, bone facts, passing on from year to year as if it was a competition to “know it all“. Pure memorization for the sake of memorizing and knowing facts made my learning fragmented, incomplete, dark, confusing. It hindered my learning more than any thing. Our home education has been, for the most part, based on “facts/information” with a little more Bible in it but it wasn’t until finding the Principle Approach that I’ve been able to change anything. I still don’t have a problem with memorizing facts when children are younger. I have seen with my own girls memory and retention (and my own) that it isn’t what it use to be so I do think the early years are the most opportune times to *moderately* memorize *some* important things (Scripture, poetry, math tables) and because God does tell us to *remember* certain things. I also think it’s good for brain development BUT the extreme of that, the exclusion of any type of reasoning about the context of the big picture/ideas as if that can only be learned at a later age is not true and it is not the way learning takes place. After a certain point or degree, pure memorization or rote learning seems to be detrimental or limiting the learning process. I don’t have anything scientific, just my own learning experience.
On a very simple level, the Bible is a “whole” with all the fact/information within it. As you said, “Information does not of itself lead to anything but parroting of knowledge. Ideas always apply to information. They are studied out in their very applications.” From my limited study of the PA so far, I’m finding this is exactly what has been missing and what I’ve been looking for. I wholeheartedly agree with you! My RE-education began when I started home educating my daughters some 14 years ago and now I’m going through another RE-education. So this fall, with God’s help and grace, our home education is taking a completely new direction starting with the big picture ideas/Biblical truth/principles/ideas/seeds that the fact/information is a part of and come from. I’m encouraged and excited to see how our year will be. I’ve started my own blog: Principled Heart http://aprincipledheart.blogspot.com/ and I don’t have much there yet. May I link to your post in one of my own and your blog? Thanks again!
Blessings,
DJ (Deb)
http://aprincipledheart.blogspot.com/
http://letawomanlearn.blogspot.com/
http://sevenpillarsbooknook.blogspot.com/
Miiko, Thank you – for visiting and commenting.
Deb, Link away (as long as you are saying nice things 🙂
Although it is sometimes hard to explain the difference, especially to others using “other” “Christian” education, once you see it, you SEE IT! Then there is the process of learning how and developing the habit to DO it. Thanks be to God for the forerunners that labored so diligently in bringing us resources to help us begin on this path.
Lisa @ Me and My House