Mechanics of Biblical Principles Teaching

Here is a very sketchy outline for learning to teach everything through a Biblical view. I’m not including much how to do each of these things. I’ve written other articles on such – or will. 🙂 This is just to give a very simpliefied “form”.
1. Develop a Biblical view of education – renew your mind.
This is the key. You must start here. It is the foundation for all you do. You must change not only what you think, but how you think. This is a process and will take time, but that is no reason not to start, nor to give up when it doesn’t come as quickly as you’d like. I’ve written plenty elsewhere on this.

2. Wisdom is the principle thing.
To plan and teach your studies, start here. Find the Biblical foundation for all your studies. Utilize vocab of subject through Webster’s 1828 dictionary if needed in addition to your concordance and Bible.
From this Biblical research, gain understanding – determine the underlying principles that form the core of the study. These are the seeds you will plant at every age and stage, from which all knowledge will spring forth. The seed contains the whole – just as wisdom is not just an aspect of learning, but contains the whole. This “whole” is the “big picture”, God’s perspective on the topic. This is the foundation on which all their learning will rest. It must be solid on the Rock.

3. From the Biblical roots trace the history of your topic of study.
Every created thing has a history. and a purpose. How did God use this to advance the Gospel and liberty, or how did the advancement of the Gospel and liberty advance this thing. What individuals did God use? How did He prepare them? and so on.

4. Teach the truths, details, facts in relation to the principles.
Our “seeds” are sprouting and taking root. As they grow, knowledge (these “facts”) are the leaves on the tree. This aspect is usually the beginning and the end for most other types of education. Though it is not unimportant, it is not the principal (most important) thing. Most important is giving them the seed that contains the whole.

5. Utilize the Mashal to teach.
In teaching principles -> knowledge, teach through the mashal – the story, analogies. This is real life education with meaning that touches the heart, not just the mind.

6. Utilize other natural methods for study.
This is as opposed to un-natural methods such as true-false, multiple choice, fill in the blank type workbooks. Basically, our natural methods are discussion for reasoning and Notebooking. Some of the primary means we use in Notebooking are: Copywork, narrations, key sheets, essays. There are many more, but the key is for the students to reason Biblically for themselves. To internalize and “own” their study so they are capable of teaching it to another.

Well, how’s that for a simplified, in a nutshell, “how do you do this?” intro?

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