Giving Students the Whole icture

by Pat Franklin
Editor: This is an example of what some of the families at Chalcedon Presbyterian Church are doing.
When the sixth grade students at Cornerstone Preparatory
Academy study shipwrecks, they not only study the history
of the Titanic, Lusitania, and the Empress of Ireland, they
also read fiction (The Swiss Family Robinson and The Cay)
about people who were shipwrecked and nonfiction about the
discovery of shipwrecks in their literature class. In science
they study oceanography, buoyancy, and Boyle's Law. They
simulate an oceanographic research team that uses clues
from a note found in a bottle to locate a stranded family who
has been shipwrecked on an uncharted island. Everything
is studied from a Biblical worldview, including character
issues related to the captains and crews on the ships that were
wrecked. An integrated curriculum at every grade level is the
hallmark of this University Model School, just beginning its
second year in Acworth, Georgia.
The University Model School is designed to assist parents
who want to homeschool their children, but want some
support, accountability, and direction. While the parents
remain their children's primary teachers, the school provides
two days a week of at-school-instruction for elementary grades
and three days a week for secondary grades. Parents are given
curriculum and lesson plans for school and home instruction
days.
Why an integrated curriculum? As a student at Covenant
College, the education department stressed (and still does)
the importance of an integrated curriculum as a picture of the
unity of truth and creation that exists in Jesus Christ. "He
is before all things and in Him all things hold together. All
things were created by Him and for Him." Colossians 1:16, 17
Students need to connect truth between subject areas in order
to see "the whole picture." In addition to the Biblical basis for
an integrated curriculum, the student's motivation and interest
in learning increases as well as their retention of content
mastered.
After nearly 20 years of experience teaching in private
Christian schools, a colleague at Eastside Christian School and
I began writing integrated units for our sixth graders. We had
such a positive response from our students and parents, we
began to dream of a brand new school that would be structured
around an integrated curriculum for each grade level. After
approaching a former administrator and spending many hours
in prayer, Cornerstone Preparatory Academy opened its doors
in August 2004. The Lord provided a location and a top notch
faculty of certified, experienced teachers. In one year student
enrollment has jumped from 100 students to over 170, and the
faculty and staff has nearly doubled in size. It is exciting to be a
part of this ministty assisting parents in the education of their
children.
Pat Fl'anldin is the wife of State Rep. Bobby Franldin and the
mother of Robert, Mary Beth and Kathlyn. The Franldins have
been members of Chalcedon for about 17 years.
the COUNSEL of CHALCEDON 26