NOAH Plan/Principles approach

[GenerationCedarchip]

Has anyone ever heard of the NOAH plan or the principles approach to homeschooling?  I'm familiar with a number of different homeschooling philosophies (Charlotte Mason, classical, unschooling, etc..), but this is one I don't know much about.  I just mention it because in my area, it suddenly seems to be trendy. The most I'd heard is that it has something to do with "learning as our forefathers did" and that it was big in the 90s and is now back.  I was looking at co-ops for when my son is old enough for school, and I'd noticed a few in my area seemed to require parents to go with this plan.  Something about what I found online just didn't sit right with me, but I have never met anyone who's used the plan or grew up being educated with it.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

I've never even heard of it. Interested to hear what you learn. 

[Anonymousguest]

I've never heard of it either.

[mango_fandango]

Huh. When I google all I get is sports, or the Northeast Oklahoma Associaton of Homeschools. Don't quite think that's what you're talking about though, sorry.

[wotdancer]

I think I found the site -

http://www.face.net/?page=noah_plan

[Howl]

3 hours ago, wotdancer said:

I think I found the site -

http://www.face.net/?page=noah_plan

This sounds so much more like indoctrination, and not at all like true education. I could be wrong, but an impression from a superficial look at what is emphasized on the home page: zero critical thinking skills promoted, but unquestioning belief  required. 

Quote

The Foundation for American Christian Education presents the evidence of America’s Christian history as a blueprint for restoring to America its literacy, free-enterprise economy, honesty, morality and conservative Christian mind-set and values. Using The Noah Plan® curriculum, the Foundation believes that education will enable succeeding generations to reclaim the character and Biblical principles needed to sustain our constitutional republic and liberty with law. The Noah Plan is the educator’s tool to inculcate, instruct and impress upon the minds of students principles that will prosper a great and free United States of America, and enable the Gospel to reach the ends of the earth....

...Our publications enable you to learn and to teach the following:

America’s Christian history reprinted from primary sources to cause American Christians to remember God’s Gospel purpose for our nation

The Christian history of the United States Constitution and its central role in preserving the art of self-government for each generation

The Bible-centered Principle Approach methodology as it is applied in grades kindergarten through twelve

The use of the original Noah Webster 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language to re-establish your vocabulary on a Biblical worldview base

The subjects of the curriculum from a Biblical perspective to be taught kindergarten through twelfth grades

This seems so Gothard-y. 

If interested, you may want to check in at Homeschoolers Anonymous to see if any of the folks there had direct experience with the NOAH curriculum.  And yes, I randomly bolded words of interest. 

[louisa05]

Sounds like nationalism wrapped up in Christianity and tied with a noose. 

I would suggest running fast in the opposite direction. 

[AmazonGrace]

The dictionary is a nice touch. The word homosexual does not exist, marriage is defined as something God ordained, gay still means merry etc.

http://webstersdictionary1828.com

[Anonymousguest]

I read some about it last last night. the NOAH curriculum, and the Principle Approach , are curriculum trademarked by FACE, which is the Foundation for American Christian Education. And it's a curriculum for Christian Nationalism. The principle approach is a method of teaching that uses the 4-Rs research, reason, relate, record. Not sure how Curriculum company could get that trademarked, but looks like it could be applied to anything you are teaching. FACE just uses it to teach a Bible based Christian History. Supposedly it's a method the founding fathers used for education that had been "rediscovered". 

 

[libriatrix]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Using The Noah Plan® curriculum, the Foundation believes that education will enable succeeding generations to reclaim the character and Biblical principles needed to sustain our constitutional republic and liberty with law.

When the Foundation doesn't use the Noah Plan curriculum, they stop believing this.

 

I"m loving how founding your vocabulary on the original Webster dictionary will found you on a Biblical base. Because... his first name comes from the Bible? Because he lived in America in the 1800's and we all know that is the most Biblical time and place in the world?

[Anonymousguest]

35 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

The dictionary is a nice touch. The word homosexual does not exist, marriage is defined as something God ordained, gay still means merry etc.

http://webstersdictionary1828.com

It's commonly used in the debate circles as it has Biblical apologetic definitions. 

8 minutes ago, libriatrix said:

When the Foundation doesn't use the Noah Plan curriculum, they stop believing this.

 

I"m loving how founding your vocabulary on the original Webster dictionary will found you on a Biblical base. Because... his first name comes from the Bible? Because he lived in America in the 1800's and we all know that is the most Biblical time and place in the world?

Because it is contemporary to the constitution and other founding fathers writings it defines the words as they would have used them. 

 

[smittykins]

OK, what is "American Christian mathematics"?  Do I really want to know?

http://www.facebookstore.net/product_p/mcg.htm

[kpmom]

55 minutes ago, smittykins said:

OK, what is "American Christian mathematics"?  Do I really want to know?

http://www.facebookstore.net/product_p/mcg.htm

Eg., If an employer refuses to pay for a health care plan that covers birth control or abortion, but does cover Viagra how much treasure will that employer store up in heaven?

[Chocolatedefrauded]

This sounds like they romanize the history of America. The whole "America was so great in the past,  everything has gone downhill since XXX time" mindset. Conveniently forgetting that our history was often bloody, cruel, uneducated & racist.

They would be shocked to know how many people had babies or were pregnant when they married in the old moral days.

 

[Howl]

 

2 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

It's commonly used in the debate circles as it has Biblical apologetic definitions... 

...Because it is contemporary to the constitution and other founding fathers writings it defines the words as they would have used them.

Thanks for clarifying that it has utility in the contexts you cited.  The Noah Plan Web site seems to indicate that this 188-year-old dictionary is the only one used.  Sigh. 

There were periods in American history when the sermons of important ministers were published in newspapers and widely discussed and debated.  The Second Great Awakening was happening around 1790s-1830s when religious fervor swept the nation.  But remember that this was not that long after the founding fathers codified the separation of church and state. 

But back to the Noah Plan: have we just waded into the La Brea Tar Pits of creating young culture warriors for theonomy?

  22 hours ago, @GenerationCedarchip said:

Quote

Something about what I found online just didn't sit right with me.

I think your intuitions about potentially harmful religious practices are finely honed!  Lots of red flags with these Noah Plan people. 

 

[Howl]

I somehow ended up with two posts whilst trying to edit.  Mods, please delete this if you come across it. 

[JMarie]

5 hours ago, kpmom said:

Eg., If an employer refuses to pay for a health care plan that covers birth control or abortion, but does cover Viagra how much treasure will that employer store up in heaven?

Perpendicular.  That's all the Duggars know, right?

[smittykins]

Apropos of nothing, I keep reading the link as "Facebook Store" instead of "FACE Bookstore."

[princessmahina]

This is moronic. I'm so sick of people romanticizing the founding fathers and the US. 

[AuntCloud]

I guess my pitch for a curriculum based on UrbanDictionary didn't make the cut. 

[princessmahina]

I wonder what these people would do if they found out about the Jefferson Bible? Or that many of our founding fathers were deists, not the hardcore evangelical Christians people tend to portray them as?

Mind explosion, probably.

[paganbaby]

7 minutes ago, princessmahina said:

I wonder what these people would do if they found out about the Jefferson Bible? Or that many of our founding fathers were deists, not the hardcore evangelical Christians people tend to portray them as?

Mind explosion, probably.

More of an implosion. They simply refuse to believe it, shutting their minds down even more. David Barton is a prime example. (I had a mind fart and couldn't remember Barton's name, so I googled "fake historian." Seven of the results on the first page were about him, including the first three.)

[Howl]

6 hours ago, paganbaby said:

More of an implosion. They simply refuse to believe it, shutting their minds down even more. David Barton is a prime example. (I had a mind fart and couldn't remember Barton's name, so I googled "fake historian." Seven of the results on the first page were about him, including the first three.)

OK, upvoting this eleventy.  

There is an infamous YouTube video of a chimp that scratches its butt, sniffs that finger and falls over backwards off a tree limb.  You can always find it by googling, "monkey butt-sniff video."  So yes, Barton is the fake historian version of a monkey butt-sniff video.  

[Anonymousguest]

Right, they simply don't believe it, they would say it's revisionist history. LOL! 

[GenerationCedarchip]

Yeah - everything I read about this curriculum plan really does sound like nationalist indoctrination. I've always wondered why the strong emphasis on this kind of stuff. Growing up, it seems like the kids who were taught to accept unquestioningly were the ones most likely to leave the faith.

I'm still very curious to see how this NOAH plan stuff plays out in practice as opposed to on the website, but I have yet to find anyone who actually uses this with their families or has had it used on them.