Leflore Christian School has adopted a new Bible-centered curriculum for instruction this year.
After a half-day orientation Thursday, the first full day of classes will be Friday.
The curriculum was designed by BJU Press, a company associated with Bob Jones University in South Carolina. The company specializes in textbooks for Christian schools, for students from 4-year-old kindergarten through high school.
Leflore Christian will phase in the curriculum over two years, Principal Keith Davis said. This year it will be used in all English/language arts and math classes, Bible classes through eighth grade, and science and social studies classes from grades 7 through 12. Next year, it will be expanded to include elementary science and social studies classes and high school Bible classes.
Davis said the curriculum is rigorous and structured with a biblical worldview. He likened the Bible to a pair of eyeglasses through which academic subjects will be viewed.
For example, for biology, the school will use the book of Genesis as the model for teaching the origin of life.
“We will introduce non-biblical theories of creation, such as ‘big bang’ and spontaneous generation and things of that nature,” Davis said, “but we will do that in comparison and contrast to the Genesis account of creation.”
Davis, who has taught science classes in the past but will focus only on administration this year, said the school has always used a Christian approach to education, including chapel services, devotional time and prayers over the intercom.
The difference now is that the Christian focus will be the explicit basis of an organized curriculum with everyone learning at the same pace.
He said he doesn’t expect the teachers’ day-to-day preparation or lesson structures to change.
The curriculum is designed to “teach our children how to be men and women in society” and “make sound decisions,” he said.
“The goal of the curriculum, if you will, is to teach students in grades K through 8 about the Bible — to teach them the Bible,” he said. “And then in grades 9 through 12, we deal with issues of application.”
He explained that “application” means taking the concepts they have learned, using them to respond to social issues and defending them in response to a “divisive attitude” or criticism, he said.
“It’s not a sweeping change, but it’ll be different,” he said.
Davis said the discussion of a new curriculum started around the middle of last year. The school solicited suggestions from staff and looked at different providers. After they narrowed their choices, a Delta State University student who was doing dissertation work studied different curricula and produced a report listing the pros and cons of each one.
“We also talked to parents and got feedback from them to see what changes they might want to see and what areas they wanted to be more rigorous than others,” Davis said.
The school bought teachers’ editions of textbooks, taught from them, looked at samples of the students’ work and compared costs before making the final choice. Leflore Christian’s board also was very involved.
“Everybody seems to be really excited about it, and we’re anxious about where we’re headed,” Davis said.
Leflore Christian also has received some donations to upgrade its technology, including three smartboards, nine Microsoft Surface tablets and some photography equipment.
The school already has five large touch-screen televisions that can be moved around to classrooms at the teachers’ request and hooked up to computers. However, the smartboards can be used to perform more tasks.
Davis said science and math classes will receive top priority in the use of the smartboards.
One can be placed in the high school’s science and math room, one in the middle school’s science and math room and the third in another location to be determined, he said.
“We want to have smartboards in the classroom, and we’ll be working to that end,” he said. “But we will start with those three.”
He said the tablets probably will be used to create a second computer lab.
The photography equipment will be used for the school’s new digital media club, in which students will learn about photography and computer programming. Monitors at the school entrances will show scrolling announcements, information about school programs and photos from school events.
“We’ll do student recognition and teacher recognition, kind of like a digital billboard announcement,” Davis said.
Davis said last week that 107 students were enrolled, an increase over 97 at that time last year. The new total includes three students in 4-year-old kindergarten, which is being offered for the first time.
New faculty will include Whitney Christenson, who will teach math; Dawn Davis, who will teach Bible and be in charge of the library and media; Jeanne Gewalt, art, creative writing and journalism; Debbie Malouf, elementary school; and Brenda Pernell, sixth grade.
- Contact David Monroe at 662-581-7236 or dmonroe@gwcommonwealth.com.
