Philosophy of Education

People often ask about our philosophy on education and the materials we use. Since one’s philosophy on education will determine one’s success in educating, we feel that the right one is something crucial to home schooling, so we felt it was important to devote some space to that question. We believe that one of the responsibilities God has given us is to educate our children in such a manner that they will be able to become responsible, competent adults able to take their place in this world when they have matured into men and women. Of course, first we believe that an education should be godly, hence, we believe that nothing should be taught to children which is contrary to the Word of God. Second, we believe that if we are going to give our children an education, it should be an excellent education. Excellence means thorough and comprehensive. Next, we believe that this excellence should extend into not only the academic areas of knowledge, but should include the practical and basic knowledge needed to function well in everyday life. And, of course, we believe that excellent character habits are a vital part of maturing into godly, educated, competent adults.

We only have our children for a few short years. When they leave us, they should be able to make a living, or care for a family. Of course, our highest goal, is that we would have been able to impart our faith in the living God to them, and that they will continue to live for Him until He calls them home.

It is with succeeding at these goals in mind that we have chosen the academic materials found in the Curriculum section coupled with telephone support to help insure that success. In the Family Reading section, you will find excellent books for extra-curricular reading, and in the Resource Books and Craft section, you will find a great deal of practical, "hands-on" information and projects for the whole family.

For quite a number of years now, we have been disappointed with two continuing trends in the home school market. One is the high (and still continuing to escalate) prices of materials to school children at home. We have heard about folks who have simply put their children back in public school because of cost factors, and it dismays us. It seems to us that this situation ought not be. The second is copying the current public school trend of lowering the standards of education, letting the child decide what he learns, eliminating testing and other feedback mechanisms needed to insure that the child is learning, and doing just whatever is easy for the teacher and makes the child feel good about himself. When the focus is on making things easy on the teacher, that ease is usually paid for in terms of student knowledge. We realize that any teacher has a limited amount of time. That is why comprehensive teaching materials that stress the completeness and fullness of that process are so important.

We feel the four most important factors to be considered in choosing curriculum materials are embodied in the following questions. 1.) CONTENT—Are there things in these materials (though they might even be produced as Christian materials) that may adversely impact my child’s daily working relationship with his or her Savior? 2.) QUALITY—How good an education will my child receive if I use these materials? 3.) EASE OF USE—Does it provide enough ease of use to make it usable for myself and my child? 4.) COST—Are these materials affordable?

The first one, content, is the most important, though it is so easy to become totally engrossed in the educational merits of one program versus another. It is good to always take a time of prayer before (and during) such decisions. At the prospect of preparing a child for success in this life, one can lose sight of the fact that at death it will be a happier person who is spiritually prepared, even if that person has spent this physical life in abject poverty. Keep in mind, though, that such a trade-off is hardly necessary in our present society.

Also, materials that teach a particular subject and contain no spiritual or religious influence are not unacceptable. They still allow you to teach math at math time, and Christianity as a way of life. It is the curriculum that mixes in things like mythology or theoretics that would make us wary. Should we forget that the modern home schooling movement was based on the belief that one’s children could, and should, be educated without having immoral, unethical or disagreeable concepts forced upon them?

Secondly, how fully do you want your child to be educated? Is the program that you are considering complete? Learning a skill with holes in it is a handicap to the student. How will your child progress with this curriculum? By this, we do not mean how many books will be completed, or how many of the program’s grade levels will be traversed, but how much will the child actually know upon completion of the program? This can be measured in two ways—breadth and depth. The meaning of breadth (or amount) is obvious. Depth is how thoroughly that amount has been learned. Will the curriculum simply cover the basics? How many important bits and pieces that make the student the true owner of the knowledge will be left out?

For instance, in learning to read, depth would measure one’s ability to recognize and read each new word encountered instantly because of one’s utter familiarity with phonetic rules (and exceptions) as to make the right reaction instinctive. When this happens, the reader, instead of struggling along trying to identify words, is free to comprehend the content, and simply absorbs the new word on the fly, gleaning at least some of its meaning from its use in the passage.

This brings us to the issue of reading comprehension, which, of course, is a matter of reading depth. Some people like to break the subject into "reading" and "reading with comprehension," but the reason that one reads at all is to comprehend ideas presented by others. So, comprehension is the real test of literacy. Therefore, if the brain must focus on the words, little or no reading is taking place.

We feel that the McGuffey programs for communicative skills, and Practical Arithmetics or Ray’s Math for math skills, achieve high levels of both breadth and depth. They compare quite favorably to other programs in amount of learning. Many of those who switch to these reading and math programs from other programs find their child’s level of learning to be that of a lesser grade than it was in the previous program. As a matter of depth, many parents switching programs also prefer to retrace previous steps because of numerous elements covered in these curricula that were not present in their previous materials. These elements are not so obviously missed at an early elementary level, but the lack of foundation causes frustrating problems as the education process progresses.

Thirdly, ease-of-use can be a deceiving term. "Ease of use" and "easy" are not the same thing. In schooling materials, greater ease of use allows learning in greater amounts and depths in the same amount of time. However, the amount of work required on the parts of the student and teacher may be the same or greater. Today, we are being bombarded with scads of notions for learning without any "work" or "drudgery." However, though learning need not be drudgery, it will always involve some work. Real value is gained only with real effort. "Learning" is on the part of the student, but "education" requires work on the part of an educator. So, we tend to be wary of claims to eliminate "education" from the process.

Thus, the primary concern for a home educator is whether a program contains enough "breadth" and "depth" while being reasonable to administer. Making the process effortless on either part will shortchange the student.

And, finally, there is cost. While cost should not usually be the primary factor here, one also cannot teach with what one cannot afford. However, "most expensive" does not equal "best." In hard goods, an item made of higher quality materials often costs more. This is because, in cases such as tools and machinery, the customer can count on the unit lasting due to that quality. This evaluation does not hold true, though, with educational materials. Some of the highest costing curricula, though high quality "hard goods," are not the most effective teaching tools.

So, the idea here is to use what really works. When we are unsure about such quality issues, we tend to lean toward the line of thinking that "most expensive" equals "best." Unfortunately, marketers are fully aware of this tendency, and often offer flashy products that they claim "are expensive because they work." In truth, sometimes products offered for a fraction of that cost work far better, but it will take research to know that.

Sometimes, one provider will do very well in one area, but another will have more acceptable offerings in a different area. Again, one cannot know how to discern between the multitude of choices without research.

This is what our curriculum section is about—finding educational solutions acceptable for Christian families that are truly usable, and produce quality results at a reasonable price. It is an offshoot of the idea behind our reading offerings. As many of you already know, at least one person (often more) on our staff reads every book that we sell in the reading section from cover to cover. Because the most healthy-looking book may have concealed within it some subtle philosophy or information which could be damaging to a young reader, and because we know that every parent cannot manage to read every book that is purchased for the children, we read them before we sell them. Rather than selling all books and forcing the customer to wade through the mess, we sell only books that we think you will find safe for your children. To see the major guidelines that we use to determine this, see How Do We Pick?

For quite some time we have been receiving requests to do the same thing with curriculum materials. It is fair to say that it is a real dilemma to peruse, review and decide the best of the multitude of schooling materials being made available today. It is a large task, and it has taken us a number of years to assemble what we have thus far. Our purpose is to expend that effort to find a suitable basic set of materials that fulfils the four points explained above so that each family does not have to duplicate that same trial-and-error effort themselves. The idea is that a family can, without searching and testing for years, begin schooling with materials that are acceptable for Christians, do indeed provide quality education, are not only usable but supportive, and are reasonably priced.