Category: Teen Empowerment
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The Separation of School and State
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We’ve all heard the term, “The separation of church and state.” This principle is a fundamental tenet of American democracy. Its function is to prevent any one religion from dominating American political life. Understood differently, it also prevents the realm of culture from dominating that of legal rights. However, this boundary should go both ways.…
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The 250th Fourth of July
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The Fourth of July celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence. This year marks the 250th anniversary of that event which founded a new nation in rebellion against tyranny. This was to be a nation with limited government powers, such that We, The People, would be free to become ourselves with as minimal interference…
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The Crux of Being Human
In this article, we will examine the crux of being human. This entails grappling between our eternal and temporal natures. While this post focuses on parents, we will also explain how it applies to the homeschool curriculum. First, however, let’s explore reality as it is. I look outside my window in the morning. The golden…
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The Basis of a Spiritual Education
In this post, we explore the basis of a spiritual education. At first glance, that may raise some eyebrows. “What does he mean by a ‘spiritual education,’” some may wonder for an academy that claims to be secular. I challenged the term “secular” in an earlier post, arguing it’s not well-defined. That to me seems…
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Human Stewardship
Human stewardship means the human being is a/the steward of nature. This is most often found in theological ideas who believe God has entrusted and endowed us with the capacity to steward nature effectively. Growing numbers of adults and students resist this idea. In fact, some look at humans as a virus that, perhaps, the…
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The Danger of Materialistic-Reductionism in Education (and What to Do About It)
It goes without saying that the physical is part of reality. We wouldn’t get very far denying that. However, is the physical all there is? Many people these days would answer “yes” or “probably” to this materialistic reductionism. It is the trend of modern cultural life, particularly in the West, and it has destructive, deadening…
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Developing Forward-Backward Thinking
In this post, we are going to discuss forward-backward thinking and how our curriculum – especially our Creative Writing and science classes – develops this. Now, you may be asking yourself, “What does he mean by forward-backward thinking?” Let me explain. Typically, we only think forwards because that is what we use to navigate the…
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What We do in Teen Empowerment
Enkindle Academy offers a weekly Teen Empowerment Class to students in 6th Grade and above. We began offering this class over a year ago out of the pressing need to give young people a safe and supportive place to become themselves. We lack such spaces in the West today. Most, if not all, traditional and…
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Explaining AI to Students Part 1 – How Does AI Function?
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In this post, we will focus on explaining AI to students by explaining it to you, the parents. This will be part one of a two-part series. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is not as new as many people think. Aircraft autopilots, automobile GPS’s, website algorithms to calculate airfares, Google searches, scientific research processes, and more have…
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Should You Homeschool for High School?
Should you homeschool for high school? Historically, this has been an unpopular choice since teenagers’ social needs increase. (This shift is well documented in Kim John Payne’s book The Soul of Discipline.) Consequently, there are few curricular resources available at present for homeschool high schoolers. Yet, I hear more and more parents asking about it…