Philosophy of Education
Star Homeschool Academy believes that each student is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), with a special blending of spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and physical gifts (Psalms 139:13-16), and possess the unique abilities to create, communicate and reason. These abilities were marred by sin when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. Only by God’s grace given to us when Christ died for our sins is man able to experience God’s healing from sin’s destruction (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9). We also believe that God has specific good works in mind for each of us to accomplish (Ephesians 2:10).
This biblical perspective offers a magnificently firm foundation for interactive learning that is engaged, vibrant, and open to new ideas. The Christian approach to learning is also comprehensive and integrated. Learning is a pursuit of knowledge acquired through experience, study, wonder and/or being taught, which facilitates application, communication and transformation in the learner.
We operate on the principle that learners regenerated by God are open-minded, eager, inquisitive, those who desire subject mastery, creative and innovative, assimilators, scholars, cooperative, teachable, disciples, prepared, actively engaged through listening and participating, and are able to create, communicate, think and reason critically. We understand that there are numerous ways by which students can experience learning, including within a small group, in collaborative learning with peers, in one-on-one instruction, independently with individualized pacing, online, within a flipped classroom, in both a traditional and Socratic lecture discussion environment, in an experiential environment which includes experiments, field trips, activities, projects, using technology, portfolios, interviews, speeches and presentations. We also understand that students may learn best from a hybrid of any of these positive teaching environments.
We believe that God entrusted parents with the education of their children (Deut. 6:4-9), therefore, parental choice, involvement, and facilitation are key to the success of education that tailors learning to the individual abilities and needs of each child. We purpose to come alongside Christian parents in their God-given responsibility in the raising and training of their children in the fear [reverence] of the Lord toward Christian maturity.
We serve a God who creates, redeems, liberates and transforms, thus we teach with hope, imagination, creativity, and passion. We aspire to think creatively, and to communicate well. Our teaching is conducted in a manner that fosters in our students a desire to explore further. We understand that students learn in various ways, thus, we seek to appeal to auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles.
Believing that this is in the best interest of our students, Star Homeschool Academy employs a variety of pedagogical tools. Using textbooks, assignments, labs, activities, appropriate videos that enhance learning of course content, integrating the use of technology when appropriate, and incorporating active learning strategies and critical thinking we are confident that our students achieve our challenging learning outcomes and are prepared to flourish in life.