The Principle Approach

The Principle Approach®

The Principle Approach® to education focuses on consistent and ordered teaching and learning. The goal is to build a student’s Christian character and sense of self-government, Christian scholarship, and Biblical reasoning for lifelong learning and discipleship.

 

Classical Curriculum

The Principle Approach employs a classical curriculum that includes logic, rhetoric, hermeneutics, Latin, classical literature, and the providential view of history. A Principle Approach to education embraces the liberal arts as a means of forming the whole person through studies in the sciences and humanities.

Beyond the regular school curriculum, the Principle Approach specifically examines and instructs students in the biblical principles of government, teaching them to think governmentally, from cause to effect, from internal to external.

Students recognize that the degree of liberty individuals enjoy in our nation is directly connected to the degree in which the biblical principles of God’s Word are embraced and followed.

 

Historical Method of Education

The Principle Approach is the kind of education that prevailed during America’s first two hundred years. This method produced men and women who were able to reason from biblical principles of government to form the world’s first Christian constitutional federal republic—The United States of America.

This great experiment was built upon the Christian ideas of God, man, and government, and it afforded the greatest degree of liberty for the individual experienced up to that time.

 

Seven Principles of Liberty

1. God’s Principle of Individuality

  • Doctrinal Application: Our God is Himself an Individual who made us in His image for a providential purpose.
  • Personal Application: My unique individuality has a purposeful destiny that can only be fulfilled through Christ’s redemption.

2. The Principle of Christian Self-Government

  • Doctrinal Application: Knowing God through Christ teaches me to obey Him and enjoy liberty with law.
  • Personal Application: I am only properly self-governed when governed by Christ.

3. The Principle of Christian Character

  • Doctrinal Application: As my character is forged by Christ, I reach my fullest expression and enjoy harmony with others.
  • Personal Application: My character predicts the success and happiness of fulfilling my destiny.

4. Conscience is the Most Sacred Property

  • Doctrinal Application: Righteous law protects life and property; consent is the title to conscience.
  • Personal Application: My stewardship of property, both internal and external, has consequences.

5. The Christian Form of Our Government

  • Doctrinal Application: The form of government proven to best protect life and property is a Christian constitutional federal republic.
  • Personal Application: As I learn to think governmentally, I can balance the three powers of government to avert the tyranny of self in my personal conduct.

6. Planting the Seed of Local Self-Government

  • Doctrinal Application: Education is the cause to effect multi-generational maintenance of a Christian republic.
  • Personal Application: I continually sow seeds in my thought, speech and action; consequently I continually reap the results.

7. American Political Union

  • Doctrinal Application: The internal gives rise to the external.
  • Personal Application: Internal unity spawns external union.

Learn more

Consider taking the Seven Principles of Liberty course. This course uncovers and discusses each of the Seven Principles that undergird our U.S. Christian Constitution. You will become an influencer, able to readily defend our liberty and restore light to our nation.

Learn More and Register.

Resources about the Principles Approach

The Notebook Method

The Notebook Method is the method of scholars. It is counterintuitive to today’s culture of quick returns, instant information, and learning at the surface. It takes discipline and work ethic.
The Notebook Method is a product of the student’s creativity and a permanent record of his productivity. It assists parents and teachers in overseeing progress and visually demonstrates the character development, diligence, and responsibility of the student.

 

A Providential View of History

There are two ways to view history: through the secular lens or through the lens of God. The secular view of history holds the view that man is in control. The opposite view is that God is in control and is actively involved in the lives of men. The latter is often referred to as the providential view of history.

Our study of history becomes truly Christian when students learn to recognize the hand of God as the cause of events. From this perspective, students understand that God has a plan for each nation…and each person. Students learn to see that because God used ordinary people in the past, He is doing the same now. Students learn to ask, if that was God’s plan for these people, then what is His plan for me