“Mrs. Gabbard, may we please go outside for our history lesson?” This is a question I hear quite often this time of year. Most of the time my answer is, “Yes,” since I am anxious to be out in the beautiful sunshine myself. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to conduct the lesson due to the distractions of the traffic, the singing birds or the buzzing bees. It is tempting to just forget the lesson and go play. They have learned that if they want this privileged then they must focus or we go back to the classroom. Another lesson they learned very early was that at this time of year we do not slow down the education process. There’s no slacking off, in fact, the work becomes harder since there’s so little precious time left. This holds true until the very last minute of our last day.
In II Thessalonians 3:11 the apostle Paul writes, “For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies.” The early Christians were under the mistaken impression that Jesus was going to come back in their lifetime. Some quit their jobs, sold their possessions and waited on the mountain top for His return. (We’ve seen, even in our own recent history, that Jesus has a bad habit of not showing up when man thinks he has predicted His return.) Their money began to run out and so they began to take advantage of the church’s benevolence. Paul wanted to put a stop to this so he told them, “…if anyone will not work, neither let him eat.” In this day of government entitlements, under the guise of health care reform and other programs, this is an important study. This month, after we finish up a few lessons in I Kings, we will begin our study of II Thessalonians and Titus. Our recitation will be the entire third chapter of II Thessalonians. I specifically chose this chapter for recitation in order to pursue this issue of leading a disciplined life. This is perfect for this time of year when everyone else is backing off of educational studies and gearing up for the summer vacation. These books have other important lessons for living the Christian life as well.
Most of our studies remain the same. We continue our study of Norman Rockwell, and our same studies in algebra, chemistry and grammar continue. Dr. Gabbard just finished up a study on “animal rights” in his ethics class. He continues to be impressed with the response he is getting from the students as well as the rousing and enthusiastic discussions. I know how much my students enjoy this class. It is a topic of discussion many times in some of our other subjects. We are still on the same module in biology. The C.A.T., Spring break and Good Friday put our studies on hold. In this particular module Dr. Wile, our college professor who wrote our program, warned us that we would need more time. My students and I laugh every time he says that he is only giving us “the simple explanation,” for a cell’s function or process. We’ve often said we’d hate to see the complicated explanation! We have learned over and over again that there is no such thing as a simple organism. God is certainly our amazing and mighty Creator!
Our new composer this month is Johann Brahms. We are beginning a new study in history about World War I, using the same history book I mentioned a few months ago. I will close for now and as you can see we still have much to do before school ends next month. May God bless you!
For the Children’s Sake,
Jenny Gabbard
