Bob Crandall, PhD, teaches AP History and AP American History at Briarwood Christian School in Birmingham, Alabama. He has taught at Briarwood for six years, after serving as principal at Macon Christian School in Macon, Georgia, and teaching at Miami Christian School in Miami, Florida.
In those days there was no king in Israel;
Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)
It is a daunting task in the opening decade of the new century to construct a God-centered social studies curriculum. The intellectual marketplaces of the world offer no stall for such a curriculum, and Christians often equivocate over the content and rationale for one. But neither the intensity of opposition to a Truth-based curriculum, the plethora of secular man-centered options, nor the apparently sterile ground for the seed must impede our efforts to provide one for our students.
Every curriculum begins with a design, reveals a philosophy, and becomes an avenue for conveying both knowledge and perspective, as this diagram illustrates:
Diagram A
Curriculum designs that are teacher-, pupil-, or information-centered are seriously flawed. Diagram A reveals the stimulating breadth of a curriculum that is Truth based and God centered. In this paradigm, the teacher is a model, responsible to reflect God. He must be a good technocrat (he must "know the stuff") and yield his heart to the Spirit of God so that the knowledge and wisdom he transmits are clear to the students. The students are made in the image of God (Gen 1:26), and, if God has called them to Himself, are disciples responsible for learning about God and His world. A proper curriculum, then, includes studying God’s Word, for in it is the knowledge of the Father and His creation. Christians also study God’s world, a reflection of Himself. In the world Christians must practice stewardship of their abilities and opportunities to be salt and light. The Word touches everything in the world, and each life is essentially a moral odyssey. The role of the Holy Spirit in the process cannot be overstated. In Isaiah 55:8 God admonishes us to remember that my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. When we lack a biblical philosophy, we construct an instructional design that is not Truth-based, and we will not teach history in a godly manner.
Second, the content of the curriculum must be cemented in a biblical context, providing the foundation. Diagram B includes a model for a biblical concept of curriculum and places God where He belongs, in the center. All of life is designed to reveal Him and His creation, and education is no exception. This truth must be at the heart of a social studies curriculum.
Diagram B
If God is not the center, any curriculum becomes, as shown in diagram C, a potpourri of mutually exclusive bodies of knowledge minus the all-important organizing principle of the Creator.
Diagram C
What seems lacking in many instructional designs for social studies is a proper bucket in which to deposit methods, topics, and goals. Without a systematic understanding of knowledge in general, information floats unattached to a context. Any traveler needs the context of his surroundings to make the next turn and know it will lead to the right destination. A proper context is also essential for the Christian educator. It shapes biblical thinking about the larger process of education and provides biblical guidelines for social studies.
Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines social science as "a branch of science that deals with the institutions and functioning of human society...," and "a science (as economics or political science) dealing with a particular phase or aspect of human society." As far as they go, these definitions work, but the limitations of their philosophical underpinnings would distort any distinctively Christian curriculum. It has no room for the existence of God, His participation in His creation, nor His relationships with individuals and societies. This is the primary aspect of the paradigm for the Christian. Although social studies curriculums may agree on general subject areas—including sociology, psychology, philosophy, economics, anthropology, history—the perspective and process are energized for people of faith by a Creator-God who is Truth and conveys Truth. With reference to the above diagrams of a Christian philosophy of education (A) and curriculum (B), a social studies curriculum would include a study of God’s world, shown in His Word to be fallen but also to reveal His justice and grace.
Perhaps an illustration will clarify this idea. Commonly, Franklin Delano Roosevelt is deemed a great president—but by what standard? The Bible says that a great person serves others (Matthew 20:26). Perhaps FDR was a consummate politician, an inveterate social experimenter, and an uncanny motivator of people, but greatness cannot be a synonym for accomplishment apart from ethical considerations rooted in Scripture. For a Christian social studies curriculum to be distinctive, its instructional design must have a biblical foundation. Also, each subject must have specific goals; I’ll use American history to illustrate this process. C. Gregg Singer, in his book A Theological Interpretation of American History, simultaneously makes this point and the larger point:
This book is written in the conviction that only in the light of Christian revelation can American history be brought into a proper perspective; that the intellectual, political, social, and economic trends of the past and the present can be rightly interpreted only in the light of the scriptural norm.
Professor Singer’s thesis applies to philosophy, anthropology, and all other social sciences. The Bible provides a clear rationale in 1 Corinthians 10:1–13, which teaches at least the following:
- There is a bond between the past and the present: the past informs the present.
- That bond is (a) personal, (b) spiritual, and (c) national.
- History serves as an admonition to avoid the mistakes of the past, such as serving substitutes for God (idols)
- The value of history to the present is fundamentally as an object lesson designed to maintain each generation’s walk with God
In his A History of the United States of America (1836), Charles A. Goodrich says in his introduction:
History displays the dealings of God with mankind. It calls upon us often to regard with awe his darker judgments; and again it awakens the liveliest emotions of gratitude for his kind and benignant dispensations. It cultivates a sense of dependence on Him, strengthens our confidence in His benevolence, and impresses us with a conviction of His justice.
Goodrich’s summary is easily married to Singer’s a hundred years later. Two goals easily emerge: (1) a believer can know little of the truth in social studies if the material is not interpreted through the norms of Scripture; (2) history is meant to teach great moral truths, and it illustrates lethal errors that we need not repeat.
Let us consider the task of a uniquely Christian design for specific subject areas seen through the lens of Scripture. The following list is common, though not exhaustive:
- Psychology: the science of mind and behavior
- Philosophy: search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative means
- Sociology: the science of society, social institutions and social relationships
- Anthropology: the study of humans, their origin, physical environment, society, and culture
- History: the study of and explanation of past events
- Economics: the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services
- Ethics: the study of what is good and bad
- Government: the science that describes and analyzes political and governmental institutions and processes
Each area may represent a challenge for Christian thinking. In some circles, the study of these areas is controversial because this is worldly material not found in the Scriptures and thus unfit for learning. My response is:
- All truth is God’s truth; wherever truth exists we embrace it, clarify it, and screen it through the Word.
- Every believer is called to know at least two cultures, the Hebrew culture from which Christianity grew and the culture we live in. One yields the perspective of God’s plan throughout time, the other yields the knowledge needed to determine the agenda of the culture and thus be equipped to preach the gospel in a way the culture will understand. For his purpose, Paul used Greek and Cretan poetry at Mars Hill and later a statue to the unknown God; John used the concept of the "logos" familiar to Greek readers. Jesus used His knowledge of Jewish culture to engage the Pharisees and Sadducees in debate.
- Every Christian thinker must be equipped to give the reason for the hope within (1 Peter 3:15). Every avenue of inquiry offers the opportunity to discover Truth. Each subject should rest on a thorough examination of the Bible’s teaching of:
a. Biblical backgrounds
b. Biblical concepts
c. Biblical principles
d. Biblical culture
This is the spadework that yields foundational truths that will frame the discussion of human personality in psychology; the relation between humans, their origins, and their culture in anthropology; the explanation of past events in history; the law of supply and demand in economics; and the study of relativism in ethics.
In her Encyclopedia of Biblical Truths for School Subjects, Dr. Ruth Haycock began the enormous task of providing such a foundation by applying a methodology to inquiry. Her methodology may yet be the greatest value of the volume. We must take our task seriously or the culture will roll over our students and us in a great tide of pagan thought forms. That next generation will match the barbarians that sacked Rome.
How can we include these subject areas in a proper curriculum? My contention is that the order may not be as critical as the content itself. A fundamental tension in this process is the degree to which secular college entrance qualifications drive the content and shape of Christian school curriculums. Whether the course is named Philosophy or Ethics, the elementary grades are fertile years for teaching the reality of God, His world, and how that world works. The Word of God should be written in the cement of memory as content for those junior and senior high school years when students will need to interpret and implement that content. Each social science must be rooted in a biblical background and biblical concepts, principles, and culture. This method provides the screen through which each specialized social science is evaluated. Choose the areas most critical to students’ needs, and fortify the social studies curriculum at the point(s) of attack. Threads of sociology and ethics surface daily in various areas of the curriculum, triggering discussions that invite a biblical perspective and provide teachable moments.
Philosophy may be a high school course, but the groundwork for the course is laid every day in every grade. What a loss of opportunity if American history is simply an eleventh grade course and not a reference point throughout the curriculum!
Our society is flooded with technocrats but few culture bearers. Christians must not forsake the task of producing those who know our nation’s biblical heritage and guard it. Because the Bible has so little place in the teaching of the social sciences, we must salvage the carnage of Darwin, Freud, and Marx. Strike the tent! Seize the glorious opportunity!
Instructional Design Elements for a Social Studies Curriculum 5.1