National Christian Heritage and Homeschool Curriculum

Our nation has a distinct Christian heritage. Any Christian school or homeschool curriculum should reflect that heritage. A few days ago a student in our local homeschool assistance program asked me to listen to a passage that our curriculum had required her to memorize. It was the final paragraph of President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address.

The required memorization was as follows:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

This was a requirement of a high school English III PACE. The PACE went on to express;

“Although most people determine facts only by observation, experimentation, or experience, as Christians, we know God is a fact because we can experience Him in our lives. Christians should remember that every written word, other than the Bible, is man’s word and subject to error. Only the Bible is completely true, and all other writings should be examined in light of its truth.”

The student was analyzing writing from that period.  I highly doubt that a modern curriculum encouraging critical thinking would bring such a perspective. I am glad that we can offer a curriculum that includes Biblical truth in all subjects and highlights the Christian heritage of our nation.