by Lorinda K. F. Newton
“Hey, Mommy, look at these funny-looking animals!” called my six-year-old son. Sitting on the sofa with The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History on his lap, he pointed to a page that showed fish with legs. I cringed.
Desiring our son to be educated from a biblical worldview, I had avoided exposing him to evolutionary ideas. He didn’t even know dinosaurs existed until he attended a private Christian preschool. Now, he gleefully thumbed through the history text studying the creative illustrations of prehistoric life.
I had bought the book based on the recommendation of The Well-Trained Mind (first edition). The classical education model appealed to me. So, I studied that text and purchased some of the curricula the authors recommended.
Although I planned to use these resources, I had no intention of covering those first one hundred pages that depicted the lie of evolution. We wanted to teach our son the truth that God created everything in six days.
But my son’s fascination with the fanciful prehistoric creatures concerned me. So, I searched for a history text similar to the Usborne book from a Christian point of view. None existed.
At that point, I realized that I couldn’t shelter my son from cultural lies. I had to confront them as I taught him about our world.
Thus, began my personal study of the biblical worldview, other worldviews, and how to teach my children to think biblically in a post-Christian culture. Here’s a review of one of the first books I found useful.
Title: Homeschooling from a Biblical Worldview The link is to a new copy. Many used ones are available. ISBN 0615113656)
Author: Israel Wayne
Publisher: Wisdom’s Gate (2000)
Pages: 159
In his book, Homeschooling from a Biblical Worldview, Israel Wayne, a homeschool graduate, explains how his parents intentionally passed on a godly heritage.
He begins by stating that he knows many homeschooled young people who were raised in Christian homes, yet they never embraced biblical thinking in their hearts. After growing up, these youths left the faith. To counter this risk, the author wrote this book. He seeks to point parents to the truths in Scripture as the source of guidance for raising and educating our kids.
In the first chapter, Wayne stresses the importance of having an eternal perspective when educating our children. He focused on our motivation to homeschool. Is our motivation to do better than the public schools or to obey God?
He sees training children at home as a biblical mandate and the way for God to shape the parents’ hearts so they, in turn, can shape their children’s hearts. When keeping an eternal focus, spiritual issues should take precedence over academics.
Next, he compares worldviews and describes how they shape the goals of education. An unbiblical worldview leads to unbiblical educational goals. “A successful education isn’t contingent on what a child knows, it hangs on what the child believes,” explains the author.
One’s view of truth, absolute or relative, will affect instruction of all subjects. Wayne explains how the study of history, science, mathematics, language arts, philosophy, literature, cultural studies, and cultural expressions through art and music are all affected by one’s worldview. The author admonishes us to hold all subjects to God’s standard to determine what is right.
The last four chapters cover parental rights, socialization or socialism, developing a family ministry, and a list of 13 excuses not to homeschool, which Wayne counters.
The author writes in a friendly, first-person style, yet he gives weight to his arguments by quoting others and citing several works in endnotes at the close of each chapter. His use of many subheadings makes the book easy to skim and to refer to later. Still, the book could use an index.
Homeschooling from a Biblical Worldview made me rethink my way of homeschooling.
All parents who want to develop a biblical worldview for themselves and their children will find this book beneficial.
Lorinda K.F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She blogs about faith, culture, and governing from a biblical worldview at Lorinda’s Ponderings and Lorinda’s Ponderings on Facebook. Feel free to email her with questions or comments.
This book review originally appeared in the October 2007 REACHout newsletter, a publication of REACH East, a homeschool parent support group of East King County, Washington.
