The Principle Approach
By Carole Adams
Printed in PHS #6, 1994.
If you want your children to become not only highly educated Christians with strong moral character but vigorous young men and women with a clear Biblical worldview -- you will want to take a good look at Principle Approach homeschooling.
It's the Biblical method of education remarkably like the one that proved so successful in the Founding era. Built on the same principles that built America, it's proving immensely effective in educating young Christians to live victorious lives today, and become leaders of tomorrow, in the church, the media, business or government-to evaluate current issues from a Christian perspective, reject the wrong, and espouse the right in both private and public arenas.
The Principle Approach is raising up men and women who understand the Lordship of Jesus Christ over every institution and aspect of society, and thus can begin to fulfill the Great Commission, "to make disciples of all the nations" -- beginning with their own.
Rooted in the knowledge and insights of The Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America by Verna M. Hall, and Teaching and Learning America's Christian History by Rosalie J. Slater, the Principle Approach reveals the Providential view of history (the view of the Bible and of our Founding Fathers), and how to reason from Biblical principles in studying every subject -- from government to economics, literature to science, mathematics to art.
For years parents have observed that the Principle Approach produced students with a superior worldview, but until recently there was no objective way to measure how much better it was. But now, a scholarly Christian organization -- which had not been involved with the Principle Approach -- has devised a scientific test that measures how Biblical, or non-Biblical, a student's worldview may be.
The Nehemiah Institute's PEERS Test measures the student's response to one hundred statements concerning Politics (i.e., government), Economics, Education, Religion (basic theology), and Social Morality. The test has been given to hundreds of students with predictable results; Christian day and home school students scored significantly higher than public school students. But last year the Institute's Director, Daniel Smithwick, was surprised to find that one kind of Christian schoolin -- the Principle Approach -- is developing students who score far higher, in Biblical worldview, than all the rest.
The results are illustrated in the chart below. Smithwick, comments: "it is noteworthy that in every category except religion, the gap in the scores between Principle Approach students and those of other Christian pupils is greater than the gap between the other Christian students and pupils in public schools!"
For more resources on this article's topic, click the link(s) below.
History Resources - Curriculum
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