Global Christian ministry Answers in Genesis has launched a new Christian school curriculum. TheTwelve Stones Curriculum program targets Bible classes in Christian schools, providing students with apologetic and worldview resources. The inspiration for its name comes from the book of Joshua in which God tells the Israelites to build a memorial of 12 stones to remember when they miraculously crossed the Jordan River.
Christa Ebert, manager of Curriculum Production & Design at Answers in Genesis told The Christian Post that the program was created because “a student’s Biblical worldview begins in the early years of life. Therefore, a child’s education should be grounded in the truth: the authority of God’s Word, starting in Genesis chapters one to 11 and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our desire is to help students develop a solid Biblical foundation and proper worldview in which they understand God, His Word, and the Gospel to prepare them to stand firm in their faith.”
The curriculum is already available for kindergarten to second grade with the first orders being shipped out this month. Ms. Ebert said work on the third-grade program is “wrapping up” and the curriculum team will begin working on the fourth-grade content shortly with the aim of preparing specific programs for all school levels up the grade 12.
“Our Twelve Stones Curriculum integrates critical thinking skills, engaging activities, and flexible strategies in an easy-to-use format for teachers and students — all of which take time and resources to develop well. [It] also incorporates additional instructional illustrations, printables, manipulatives, and digital resources to equip teachers with various student engagements,” she explained to The Christian Post
The Executive CEO of Answers In Genesis, Martyn Iles, has previously told Vision Radio that his ministry plans to revolutionise Christian education so that it survives and thrives. He believes authentic Christian schools are doomed in Australia and many other Western countries.
“There is going to be a time when we are beyond Christian schools. I hate to be the bringer of bad news. But I’m not someone who dwells on bad news. You know, even if I talk about the way the culture’s changed negatively, I always want to say to people: Yes, but it’s always in times like this that God raises up a remnant, does an amazing work. How about we be part of that? I want to bring the solution to the table and point people in an optimistic direction,” Mr. Iles declared.
“The answer that we’re looking at, at Answers in Genesis is creating an education movement that enables Christian education to be available to families beyond Christian schools. And the way we would do that is we would kind of create a hybrid model of homeschooling and collective instruction with professional teachers. And you can do that under the law within certain limits.”
“So children are at home for some days and they come together to be taught as a group on other days in local community cooperatives around the country. We would probably have professional teachers and we would have a very sophisticated digital curriculum platform backing that up, to equip and resource parents and educators across the nation with a Biblical worldview, science, history and various other curriculum things. It would be an incredible thing.”
“It’s going to take a few years to put together. We’re against the clock because of the changes that are happening in the legislation for Christian schools, but really we want to create that at Answers in Genesis and we’re looking for people’s support to get that done,” Martyn Iles explained to Vision Radio.
Answers in Genesis may have been motivated to expedite its plans for a Christian-based school curriculum by a recent study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University which found that most children aged 8-12 reject one or more fundamental Christian beliefs. Only one quarter of them said they trusted the Bible “because it is completely true” and personally relevant to their lives.
