6 Principles Woke Educators Fear Students Might Learn

by Jul 26, 2021

Foundational Principles Woke Educators Try to Deny

All people, even the most extreme woke educators, live by some code of conduct that approves certain things to be right and good and other things to be wrong and immoral. The choice made by different textbook authors as to what principles they value will lead to vastly different content. This becomes a huge problem when private schools and homeschools choose to use material originally developed to comply with government regulated standards. It also shows itself in the answers required in many AP tests. To equip students to be informed citizens capable of recognizing good life choices and workable policy options it is essential they learn history, government, and economics with curriculum built on a solid foundation of universal principles.

1. One triune God who created all things is our reference point

For us at Boundary Stone, our moral compass is rooted in the belief that the triune God of the Bible is the Creator of all things and that He providentially rules over His creation. For us, this gives rise to several additional principles that make up the foundation for everything we do. Let’s consider five more of these necessary principles. Because of the truth of these principles, even many who do not hold to this view of God will see the truth of the following natural law principles.

2. EVERY human being has dignity and inherent value

The fact that all people bear the image of God means that everyone should be treated with respect. The main way to respect others is to deal with everyone we meet in mutually beneficial ways. That is, we should voluntarily interact with other people and when we find opportunities to trade, it should be in mutually beneficial ways that advance humanity. In fact, we believe that God has commanded us to interact in this way as the primary means of pursuing His command that human beings should take dominion over the earth.

3. The universe has inherent order that is governed by discoverable natural laws

Using our senses and our ability to reason, we can discover patterns in the nature that can be harnessed and used as we make our way in this world. We continue to learn new ways to use the natural laws of physics, aerodynamics, mathematics, etc. As we do so, we develop new technologies and ways to utilize the resources available to us to make our lives easier and richer in ways previous generations could never have imagined. Natural laws can be discovered in the ways people act and interact with one another. Understanding these principles of human nature is fundamental to determining how to structure our institutions. We can learn lessons from history as people have at times acted in harmony with these natural laws and at other times have tried to act as though these principles do not exist. Viewing history through these natural law principles is essential to determining the best paths forward for our future. When we determine certain things need to be remedied, our solutions need to bring our laws and institutions more in line with this natural law.

4. The best government is limited government

We also believe in limited government. If history teaches us anything, and if our own personal experience gives evidence of anything, it is that people have a tendency to abuse each other in numerous ways. Jealousy, envy, greed, hatred, and rage are as old as human history as best we can observe. Put simply, we are not what we should be. It is for this reason that some form of government is needed to punish the worst offenses of person against person in order to secure a modicum of civility in a fallen world. Namely, governments should be instituted among us to punish murderers, rapists, and thieves. However, government should not be thought of as an institution that has the ability to provide for our needs. It simply has no such power to do so and any thought that it can will soon lead it to be a source of murder, rape, and theft.

5. Human ills are best solved by private enterprise and charity

Making our way through this world is challenging for all of us. As such, we believe that people left free are most motivated and best able to find new and better ways of dealing with the difficulties of life. Put simply, innovations and new products and services are best left to entrepreneurial human action. In addition, it is a fact that there are many people among us who suffer from various ills that they cannot overcome by themselves. In such cases, people of good will rightly desire to help alleviate their pain as best they can. True charity in this regard is best defined as voluntary sacrifice motivated by love. That is, charity is a very personal act of choice and is never a matter of governmental action. Simply put, charity cannot be demanded or forced. Any attempts to do so will not promote charity. Instead, it will promote injustice and promote hatred rather than love.

6. Protection of private property is essential for a productive society

Finally, mutually agreeable voluntary human action cannot be maintained without respect for and protection of private property. We inhabit a physical world and were given a task by our Creator to take dominion of it and to rule over it. In the process of doing so, it is our nature to create property. From raising herds of livestock to growing crops or producing any number of goods and services to benefit other people, we create property. As such, we ought to respect the property that other people create and if we wish to acquire something that is possessed by someone else, we can enter into a mutually agreeable trade for it. Therefore, our Creator has tasked us with the duty to be productive as best we can and to use the rewards of that activity to engage other people. In doing so, we promote the welfare of society.

In all of our educational materials, we adhere to these principles. They are the foundation on which our books, videos, and articles are based. They provide a framework within which we explore history, economics, and other social studies. Hence, they provide for our worldview.

Boundary Stone Curriculum

Boundary Stone produces quality high school curriculum for history, government, and economics written by the late historian Dr. Clarence B. Carson and economist Dr. Paul A. Cleveland. Dr. Carson’s textbooks have been used by thousands of homeschools and Christian schools over the years. We are committed to keeping this unparalleled material available for the next generation. Dr. Cleveland also continues to develop articles and videos related to economic issues of the day that can be used to supplement this curriculum.

These resources include:

Textbooks

Online Resources

  • Self-paced government and economics courses to accompany our textbooks with daily assignments and links to videos from many great sources
  • Teacher’s guides for each textbook with study guide answers, daily assignments, and additional teacher resources
  • Budgeting Mini-course for economics and Policy Mini-course for government
  • Articles and videos

Paul Cleveland

Boundary Stone was started by Dr. Paul Cleveland. Working as a professor for over 35 years has allowed him to study and think deeply about issues of political economy. He has discovered ways to communicate these sometimes illusive concepts to today's students, often through story telling, which makes understanding these principles more accessible to all of us.

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