The other day I was talking with my
sister about my school – First Foundations Academy LLC. She was giving me feedback on what I had put
together and suggested that maybe I not put such a heavy emphasis on teaching
values and religious viewpoint and instead focus more on the academic aspect. Saying that many parents may feel
uncomfortable allowing their children to be taught those things away from home,
and they probably felt that was more of their responsibility than the schools.
At first, I tried to explain that
academics is the major aspect of the school however the form she was looking at
(an explanation of FFAL philosophy) was outlining the worldview the academics
would be coming from and the desired outcome of the students. You know, like all good beginnings - The WHY
or ‘start with the end in mind’ objective of the child’s education. The purpose of their academic study was not
only to give them cultural literacy and the ability to compete in the world but
to help the student establish those first foundations of faith and the character
necessary to experience genuine happiness while become a positive contributing
member of society.
She was still trying to
compartmentalize them as separate objectives, when it finally dawned on me –
She thinks they CAN be separated.
And even worse, she thinks they had been separated in her and her
children’s education experience. I guess
the discovery of their union had happened so gradually and over a span of time,
I’d forgotten when I was operating under the same pretense.
There was, however, a time I recall when I
actively chose to use resources that were explicitly “valueless” or free from a
religious point of view, thinking I didn’t want my children to be unfairly
influenced by someone else’s agenda – so I wanted the information to be
strictly and only… knowledge.
I believe it wasn’t until I learned
how the founding fathers viewed the importance of education [in the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787 - Article 3] as necessary for good government and mankind’s
happiness, that I began seeing it differently.
They said that schools and education are comprised of three components.
1)
Religion
2) Morals
3) Knowledge
At first
I thought that was their planning strategy – to include all three of those
components – but as I began observing one area, I noticed that it actually internally
possessed the other two. Maybe not as visibly
as one might think, but it was
there.
Learning
a religion - it always had moral training along with knowledge. Moral training - included a religious
viewpoint and is taught through knowledge.
And the same thing came with secular knowledge. If a subject appears to be devoid of a
religion – it would fall into an atheistic or humanistic viewpoint (even the
courts ruled this as a religion). If it
appears to be without any moral message – you got it. That was the moral training taking
place.
And
because knowledge appears to be absent of religion and morals, like it is
simply barebone information – it’s easy to assume they can be separated. The campaign to learn academics at school and
religion and morals in the home is really a way of promoting a dual training
(which leads to confusion, I might add) to be trained in atheism and/or humanism
for six to eight hours a day and a small token of time on the family’s
preferred moral/religion at dinnertime and the weekends. And we all know how with homework, friends,
media, and other outside influences, it is probably even less time than
that.
It’s no
wonder so many are struggling with “cognitive dissonance” and feeling they have
to abandon their faith in order to come to any peace of mind. If so much of what they see and experience is
understood as being “without God” and very little learning involves “with God” it is
not a holistic or consistent worldview.
So yes,
First Foundations Academy LLC, focuses on the first foundations of (1) Religion (2) Morals & (3) Knowledge. It strives to
identify “What is Truth?” within those components in a unified mindset rather than
a cynical or contradictory approach. The difference between this school and say
public school, is the philosophy is right out front and center – so parents can
see exactly what religion and morals are attached to the knowledge.
