For those of you who want yet more conviction/courage/bravery in your personal decision to dump Classical Education in favor of a Biblical Education for your children (it is one section of our thick eBook of 2 Most Common Pitfalls in Home Schooling, and How to Avoid Them), watch the outstanding documentary video, Indoctrination. It’s an eye-opener. Get it and share it with everyone who has children. Understanding this shift is our last hope for rescuing our children.
Even the teaching of the alphabet has been hijacked by the secularists. The moral free-fall of American education can be seen from the get-go with the teaching of the alphabet. Today's preschoolers learn A as in apple, B as in boat, C as in cat—M as in monkey. Contrast that with how our founding fathers' children learned the alphabet through The New England Primer. Biblical doctrine was inseparable from the alphabet.
All knowledge comes in a context. Today's education is taught in a materialistic, empty, secular context. Dick and Jane replaced Adam and Eve, to our culture's peril. See it in the 1777 alphabet, below. You won't believe the contrast.
A = In ADAM'S fall, we sinned all.
B = Heaven to find, the BIBLE mind.
C = CHRIST crucified, for sinners died.
D = The DELUGE drowned the earth around.
E = ELIJAH hid by ravens fed.
F = The judgment made FELIX afraid.
G = As runs the GLASS [hourglass], our life doth pass.
H = My book [the Bible] and HEART must never part.
J = JOB feels the rod, yet blesses God.
K = Proud KORAH'S troop was swallowed up.
L = LOT fled to Zoar, saw fiery shower on Sodom fire pour.
M = MOSES was he who Israel's host led thro' the sea.
N = NOAH did view the old world and new.
O = Young OBADIAH, David, Josiah, all were pious.
P = PETER denied his Lord and cried.
Q = QUEEN Esther sues and saves the Jews.
R = Young pious RUTH left all for truth.
S = Young SAMUEL dear, the Lord did fear.
T = Young TIMOTHY learned sin to fly.
V = VASHTI for Pride, was set aside.
W = WHALES in the sea God’s voice obey.
X = XERXES did die, and so must I.
Y = While YOUTH do cheer, death may be near.
Z = ZACCHEUS he did climb a tree our Lord to see.
[By the way: our phonics program teaches the letters in lowercase first, and only uses the memory-hook of the shape of the letter, not a phrase about it. Read about Fast Phonics here. After learning the letters, you could teach the sentences so many in previous generations grew up on.]
