"What do you learn in school?" by Brian Watts



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What do you Learn in School? by Brian Watts 161 pages. Published by Destiny Image Europe www.eurodestinyimage.com

It’s not what you know. It’s how you think about what you know. While the public schools fill students’ minds with a secular worldview, Christian education should teach our children to think from a biblical worldview. This calls for a radical change in the way we approach curriculum. We must stop drawing from the world’s curriculum and make the Bible our true foundation. Brian Watts provides insightful guidance regarding how to create a truly biblical curriculum. Home school parents and Christian schools will find this a helpful resource in equipping our children for a life of service as they view the world through the lens of God’s Word. “What do you Learn in School?” may be ordered through your local Christian Book Store (ISBN: 88-89127-05-8). Or, it is available from The King’s School (Ph 604 888 0969 / e-mail: school@tkc.com) for $12US / $12 Cdn, plus s&h.

To give you a taste here is the Introduction

What do children need to learn in school? The word “school” conjures up a clear picture in our minds, an image drawn from childhood experience: chalkboards covered in exquisite cursive writing in 1st Grade, and incomprehensible scientific equations in 12th Grade. But where was the Word in the words?

As Paul told us, we are in urgent need of a radical renewing of our mind. That means, among other things, that we need to start to change our thinking about education. A biblical curriculum is different from a secular curriculum. Since “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7), we should expect to find in God’s Word all the leading ideas to direct the development of every branch of learning. In this book, we look forward to the day when our educators start with the Bible rather than the scope-and-sequence laid down in the government-run school system.

Most of the subjects in a traditional curriculum will appear. But they may appear in a different context and with different priorities, and perhaps with different names to represent those distinctions. How about a timetable made up of subjects like Communication, Dominion Studies, Heritage Studies, Worship, Health, Government? These are subjects explored in the early books of the Bible, which was, after all, the first text-book of Jewish children in biblical times.

As we start to view curriculum through a Christian lens, we address some of the unsettling questions that emerge:

If Jesus is “The Word”, what do the Language Arts look like?
Is it significant that History (His story) has been reclassified as Socials (our story)?
If the Bible introduces Art in the context of worship, does that mean that art as self-expression is all about worshipping self?
Could we count the number of apples in a basket if God were not a Trinity?
Does the Bible teach us about building cities as well as churches? About money as well as faith?

…In these chapters, our subject is what to teach. …We take a look at curriculum and examine how subject matter that is taught from a thoroughly biblical worldview will differ from the material presented in secular schools. What we learn should equip us for a life of victorious service for our King in whatever sphere he calls us to work.