PrincipledMom™

Dr. Carole Adams, Executive Vice President of the Foundation for American Christian Education (and editor of the Noah Plan), was gracious enough to participate in a phone interview with Elijah Company's Chris Davis last night. Some interesting things happened during that phone call that I thought I'd share. I also want to share some of the things I gleaned from her conversation with Chris.I was really looking forward to this call because you don't often get the chance to hear from someone of her position. I had my pencil and paper out and was ready to soak up everything she had to say.

As the conversation progressed I'm embarassed to say I thought to myself, This sounds just like their Web site. I've heard all this before. I read that in this book here and read that in this book here. Then I got excited. As with learning a foreign language, there comes a point where you hear natives speaking in a conversation and you realize you can understand them. WOW! I actually understood what Dr. Adams was saying. It made sense to me and was comfortable and familiar.I realized that with God's help I have truly begun to transform my thinking. The Holy Spirit is retooling my philosophy of education and I "get it" more than I thought I did. That was almost an epiphany for me. I was more convinced more than ever when I listened to Dr. Adams speak that I am using the right form of education for my family. She inspired me to continue in my pursuit of excellent education.She said many inspiring things in her conversation and a few stand out to me, even now.

• On the Hebrew idea of education: The Hebrews made knowledge sweet for their children. They enjoyed the sweetness of studying Divine Truth. They were liberated to God's method of learning in order to possess it.
• On teaching your children with the Principle Approach: you discover the uniqueness of your child and tailor education to make the best expression of learning. (That is definitely what I'm working to do right now.)
• God's methods of learning:
  Recurring principles form a unity of truth
  Break apart each subject and find the truths within
  Not focused on content or rote facts
• Use of Providential history
• 4 R'ing is a natural way of learning, not a formula that must be followed. Researching, reasoning, relating and recording are a natural progression as one seeks to master a subject.

She also discussed at great length the history of the Red Books and the Principle Approach Philosophy. I didn't include that here because you can get that from their Web site and from the wealth of resources they offer. Chris will make this interview available on CD in the near future so you can contact Elijah Co. about it.

Thank you Dr. Adams, for your inspiration and challenge to provide my children with an excellent, Biblical education that embraces our unique American Christian heritage. You rock!

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