four-year-old inquiring about enrollment. It was a visitors’
day with several high school girls organizing games with
the children while the inquiring mothers toured the school.
A few days later, the mother of the four-year-old returned
with a check for the enrollment fee saying, “I want to enroll
right now.” What prompted the urgency? She continued,
“Yesterday, I had a babysitter scheduled to play with my
son while I hosted my Bible study. The sitter canceled at the
last moment, but when I picked up the phone to cancel the
study, my son said, ‘It’s okay Mommy. I learned at that school
how to be self-governed. Let me just play in my room.’” The
astounded mother did just that and afterward drove to the
school with her check.
Yes, very young children witness to and absorb truth.
Children are created in the image of God and can identify
their own uniqueness and purpose as a property. They have
a huge capacity for love and trust. Our children’s great-
est need is to learn to direct their humanness properly
towards God. Inculcating basic biblical principles from the
earliest age sets in place the pillars of a biblical worldview
that cannot be shaken.
Biblical-classical education embodies a Christian view
of the child as belonging to God, created in His image, and
destined for immortality. It sees the purpose of education to
enlighten the mind by the Word of God, to form the manners
and habits of youth, to correct the temper, and to equip the
child to reach his or her fullest expression in Christ. Bibli-
cal-classical education rests upon providential history as the
lens through which the wisdom of the ages is identified as
the root of all knowledge. The Principle Approach is a meth-
odology of teaching and learning that puts the Word of God
at the heart of every subject in the curriculum.
Christian teachers and parents realize their God-given
privilege and serious responsibility to enter into the hearts
and souls of the children entrusted to us. We should enter
only with the utmost respect of the Holy Spirit and with
the wisdom to sow the seeds of absolute and eternal truths
that form the biblical worldview to serve throughout their
education, their lives, and into eternity. ■
90% of America’s children spend
16,000 hours of their young lives in
schools that fail to teach the truth
about God and His Word.
Give to the cause that is teaching
children biblical truth.
Your gift to Renewanation will:
Carole Adams and her husband, John, founded StoneBridge School, a Principle Approach
demonstration school in Chesapeake, VA. She now serves as president of the Foundation
for American Christian Education and is the editor of its “The Noah Plan” curriculum (face.
net). She is the author of Classic Grammar, a literature-based K-8 English program in the
model of biblical-classical education. The Adamses have a son, two daughters, and seven
grandchildren.
ENDNOTES
1. https://face.net.
2. Noah Webster, facsimile first edition of An American Dictionary of the English Language
(Anaheim, CA: F.A.C.E., 2006).
3. For a complete presentation of the seven biblical principles of American Christian edu-
cation, see Rosalie J Slater, Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History: The Principle
Approach, 88 ff.
4. Ibid., 155.
5. Ibid., 232.
• Bring the hope of Christ to many children
• Start new Christian schools
• Revitalize existing
Christian schools
• Grow our Church &
Family Ministry
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renewanation.org/give
1-855-TO-RENEW
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