God At Work Through Language and Logic At GCCA
Periodically throughout our school year, we will feature articles in our series, “Glimpses of Grace: Stories of God At Work At GCCA.” In this month’s article, Grace Classical Christian Academy first grade teacher, Mrs. Faith Hurt, shares how she has seen God at work both in her classroom as well as in her own home.
During our reading time in first grade at Grace Classical Christian Academy, my students encountered the word “should”. In discussing the L as being a silent letter along with the etymology of the word being the reason it was there originally, a student asked, “why don’t we just change the way it is spelled?” This led to a beautiful discussion based on our classroom liturgy:
God is the Word. We learn to write and read because God is the Great Communicator. He created us to communicate with Him and with each other. We can imitate God by learning to use language in a beautiful and orderly way. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Through this discussion, my students realized that without God’s order in language, we would all be making up our own spellings of words and have no common ground for communicating with one another, which would lead to chaos. Given the current culture, it is imperative for believers to understand that the war on words is actually a war against the Creator of those words. We must have a firm grasp on the conflict going on around us and a firm knowledge of the words to be ready for the battle. Through what we are teaching at GCCA, students are learning to seek out the truth and obtaining the skills necessary to do this.
My own children are also students at GCCA, and my husband and I are continually amazed by the family discussions we get to have based on our children’s learning and the love of learning instilled within their hearts. One instance happened recently as our 9-year-old picked up flashcards for logical fallacies that our 13-year-old had been using to study. During the vice presidential debate, he (of his own desire) was listening intently and trying to identify logical fallacies being utilized. The next morning, we were amazed as he began discussing how frequently one candidate employed ad misericordiam, a fallacy of distraction that attempts to distract from the truth or validity of an argument by appealing to pity. Later on, he began trying to think of applications for each fallacy and discussing them with his two oldest siblings. Upon encountering one that they didn’t have a firm grasp on, the 13-year-old went to his teacher to further understand it and reported the information back to his younger brother. Together, they tried to think of more examples of it being used and how to combat the said fallacy. It is truly the work of the Lord that has given my son the desire to learn and seek out truth, and we are incredibly grateful for the training our children are receiving at GCCA to give our children the necessary skills to be able to think well.
As students at GCCA, our children have a joy in learning, and our desire is for them to be life-long learners as they seek out God’s truth throughout all of creation. We are continually encouraged by GCCA’s vision to train up godly men and women who love learning and know how to think by seeing it displayed in this next generation.
- By Faith Hurt, GCCA First Grade Teacher