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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Christian Parents Should Give Careful Thought to the Education of their Children, July 19, 2006
This review is from: Upgrade: 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child (Paperback)
Kevin Swanson believes that a successful education is achieved when a child is prepared to make maximal use of his God-given talents and abilities in the accomplishment of the child's calling. With great passion, he writes a series of 10 principles for achieving the best education for our children. Swanson's list of "10 Time-Tested Secrets for a Successful Education" are:
1. The preeminence of character
2. Quality one-on-one instruction
3. The principle of protection
4. The principle of individuality
5. The routing in relationships
6. The principle of doing the basics well
7. The principle of life integration
8. Maintaining the honor and mystique of learning
9. Build on the right foundation
10. The principle of wise, sequential progression
It is obvious that Mr. Swanson favors homeschooling as the best option for living out the ten principles. However he is still able to challenge those whose children are in other schooling environments as well as teachers themselves. Some of these principles would have really helped me out when I taught in a Christian Academy a few years ago.
This book gives adequate critique of the problems in modern education, and also supplies many solutions to those problems. There is an obvious indebtedness to the teaching of Doug Phillips of Vision Forum Ministries. Although he only references them one time, he gives the same analysis and historical understanding of the sickness of modern education. You may not agree with all of Mr. Swanson's conclusions, but you will appreciate his passion for providing students with a distinctively Christian education that captivates the mind and heart of the students. I heartily recommend this book as a resource for Christian parents in determining how they can best educate their children.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended, August 25, 2006
This review is from: Upgrade: 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child (Paperback)
This book is a concise, highly readable description of ten principles to guide the education of children. One of the great strengths of this book is that by stating principles the author mostly avoids making recommendations in terms of curriculum, teaching styles, or other specifics. In fact one of the principles is the "Principle of duality" which states that any one method or focus will not work with every child.
This book is written from a Christian perspective, although I believe that all parents and educators could learn from the principles of this book. If you are a Christian you will appreciate the Scriptural foundations provided for each principal.
The author, Kevin Swanson, is the Executive Director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado. Although he certainly encourages home schooling as an advisable option for most families, I feel that he does not go over the line on pushing this as an agenda and even acknowledges that home schooling is not the best option for every family and situation.
As a Father with his first child entering preschool next week, I found this book to be very beneficial in providing a focus and clarifying my thinking on educating my children. I highly recommend it.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a teacher's shot in the arm, October 31, 2007
This review is from: Upgrade: 10 Secrets to the Best Education for Your Child (Paperback)
If you are a teacher or a parent who is passionate about the education of your children, you must read this book. His definition of education as "the preparation of a child intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and physically for life and for eternity" made a lot of sense to me, as a homeschool mom of five, and to my husband who is a school headmaster. We are not just looking for our children to ace the SAT, but we are preparing them for so much more- life here and life in eternity. What will that kind of education look like? Read this book and find out. Encouraging and challenging. One to go back to over and over.
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