The Principle Approach: The 4 R’s of Learning
In God’s Providence, the first church service we ever ministered as Elijah
Ministries in early 1986, a California pastor gave us two special books. At the
time, we did not know how special they truly were and therefore, they
registered low on our priority list as a family and ministry. As the years
progressed, however, we began to see how the Lord went before us to equip
us as a family to homeschool our children.
In 1986, homeschool, as a movement, was just beginning to find a footing
to develop in our nation. In some ways, our family was helping to break up
the fallow ground and spread the vision and mission. Through the years of
serving the Lord on the frontline of the battle for the souls of men, the lives
of babies, and the future of our beleaguered nation, God blessed us with 13
children to raise in the fear and admonishment of the Lord.
As we studied the Scriptures, God opened our eyes, understanding, and His
Word to convince us that education was not just a learning issue, but more
importantly, a jurisdictional one. There is nowhere in Scripture where God
holds the State responsible for the instruction of children. God holds family
government as the responsible jurisdiction to educate their young. The
church can help supplement that education, but never replace the family in
that godly duty.
The church of the living God errs greatly in this regard. Our lack of
obedience when it comes to the education of our young is one of the leading
causes that reveal our pitiful and pathetic plight of darkness we suffer as a
nation. Once Christians reject their responsibility to train their children in the
way they should go and cede them to the state to train in their stead, the
state illegitimately replaces the role of both parent and their heirs.
Moreover, we are taxed to death to prop up the oppressive “messianic”
impulses of the state. When Christians willingly allow the state to assert
itself in realms where God forbids, it increases the state’s tyrannical power
over the life of its citizens. Welcome to “Amerika” where Christians allow
their children to become good little statists that props up an oppressive
regime, instead of discipling them to fulfill the Great Commission.
Once that that realization was learned, we rolled up our sleeves to
homeschool all 13 children. We called our homeschool, The University of
Righteousness. Through the years, we employed a lot of different Christian
curriculum to prepare our children for their future stations in life. We found
much of them were not exactly rooted and grounded in a Biblical worldview
of life.
They pretty much adopted the teaching model of the world, true and false
questions, fill in the blank, and multiple choice options. The world, of course,
teaches students what to think rather than how to critically think. We did not
want our children to become indoctrinated with this philosophy of education.
We also became convinced that we did not want our children’s education to
be a guessing game and we certainly did not want them discipled by the
spirit of the age. We wanted to consciously and deliberately give our children
a full orbed Christian education that rooted and grounded them in a Biblical
worldview of all of life. It was an educational model that reflected Noah
Webster’s dictionary definition of education in his 1828 edition.
“The bringing up, as of a child, instruction; formation of
manners. education comprehends all that series of instruction and
discipline which is intended to enlighten the understanding, correct the
temper, and form the manners and habits of youth, and fit them for
usefulness in their future stations. To give children a good education in
manners, arts and science, is important; to give them a
religious education is indispensable; and an immense responsibility
rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.”
We judged from this definition that one of the most foundational purposes
for education was to establish in our children a godly character. Therefore,
we invested much of our time teaching, training, instructing, and disciplining
our children to produce godly fruits in their lives. We sought to cultivate the
fruits of the Spirit, which are, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22).
After trying several different methods and various Christian curriculums to
achieve these goals, one day, I came across the two books that the
thoughtful pastor from California gave us as we were beginning our journey
as a family and ministry. Lo and behold, it was two books promoting the
Principle Approach. Immediately, we began reading these books and
researching the Principle Approach, Noah’s Plan more thoroughly.
We discovered a treasure chest of Christian curriculum that was far superior
to all that we had previously employed. Their course of study reaffirmed our
Biblical obedience and commitment to homeschool our children. They traced
every subject back to God and His Holy Word and it applied a Biblical
worldview to every topic learned.
The Principle Approach also restored the 4 R’s to teaching and learning.
These 4R’s are Research, Reason, Relate and Record. Based upon this
foundation of education, we understood that we needed to search the Word
of God as the basis of every subject which we taught our children.
This process helped us to grow and learn as a family. We encouraged our
children to search out the truth by diligent inquiry and examination. From
there, we called upon them to exercise their reasoning abilities by
distinguishing truth from falsehood, and good from evil. After this process,
now it was time to for them to relate what they had learned. They had to
both orally and in written form convince us as parents they had mastered
the materials they studied.
We wanted them to be persuasive in their ability to debate and thus fulfill 1
Peter 3:15, which states, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and
always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for
the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.” Once they drew proper
conclusions, it was time for them to record them. We always encouraged our
children they would not always be the student, but they would become a
teacher of good things themselves. It would be good to have a record to
pass on to their children.
We trained them in the understanding of the importance of delegated
authority as well. God was, is, and always will be the Supreme authority and
for His glory and our good, He established three primary human
governments, which are family, church, and civil spheres of authority. All of
them, when functioning properly, are to discipline our children in the
importance of self-government, which is the key to liberty.
Another important Biblical principle we sought to inculcate in their lives was
to have authority, we must submit to godly authority. We convinced them
their ability to obey godly orders as children, would prepare them to give
godly orders as adults. We did not want them to neglect their duties in life,
but neither become tyrannical in the discharge of those duties.
Well, that is enough for now. We will be sure to cover the importance of
Biblical education in future podcasts and blog posts. Included in this blog
post, however, is a link to the Principle Approach, Noah’s Plan. It is for you
or others you may know that are considering homeschooling their children.
We highly recommend this model of learning to raise up the next generation
of Christians, who will be salt and light and leaders a time like this demands
in Jesus’ name!
IN KING JESUS’ SERVICE,
Rusty
