Speaking of credits...

[CAMom]

Do you award any credit for "Bible" to your students? My plan was to award a half a credit a year for Bible especially since our study is academic vs. devotional for this subject.

 

Thoughts?

 

TIA,

[Cedarmom]

Yes, I give him credit for half a year. He does it all year long but only spends about 30 mins. a day.

[Liza Q]

I don't (because we are devotional vs. academic here) but I can't see why you shouldn't. It seems like a valid elective!

[Pamela H in Texas]

No, as I mentioned in the credit thread, though my daughter does extensive studying and reading, we do not give credit for it for a couple reasons:

 

I personally would guess that colleges don't put a lot of stock in it anyway.

 

She already has so many credits that not everything she does can count for credit. Arts, fitness activities, indepth Bible study, etc are things we left out.

 

To the extent she does it, it would be more than a credit's worth per year.

 

I just feel funny about it. It seems to devalue what it really is, imo.

 

COMPLETELY JMO,

[CAMom]

Thinking aloud here...;)

 

On his transcript, would you list this as "Bible" or "Theology"? Seems like theology would be a valid discipline to list on a transcript; similar to philosopy. He really is doing systematic theology and spending a lot of time so I think he deserves the credit.

 

I think I understand the arguments for and against. I'd also appreciate any further feedback.:)

[mktkcb]

Absolutely. The ISP that we are with requires a whole credit (or 10 credits in CA) every year.

[Sharon in MD]

Thinking aloud here...;)

 

On his transcript, would you list this as "Bible" or "Theology"? Seems like theology would be a valid discipline to list on a transcript; similar to philosopy. He really is doing systematic theology and spending a lot of time so I think he deserves the credit.

 

I think I understand the arguments for and against. I'd also appreciate any further feedback.:)

 

We count Bible as .5 credits for each of 4 years. First our academic oversight, homeschool academy, recognized by the state as a private school, has a two credit Bible requirement for high school. We are free to choose how we approach the credits, they can be academic or devotional as far as our oversight is concerned.

 

Second, I feel that if the study is more academic in nature it is no different than giving a credit for a philosophy or comparative religions course or other cultural/sociological or even psychological type of course.

 

For our first two years we did indepth studies of different books of the Bible, doing one from each testatment, for a total of four books. For our second two years we are doing a World view course, which is really much more like a philosophy or comparative religions or even sociology course.

 

So in our case, we "need" 2 Bible credits, but I would probably have counted what we have done even if we were not required to count it.

 

I think that if my dc was taking a course like you've described that was more of a systematic theology course....that is just what I'd call it.

 

HTH

[Chris in VA]

I do give credit, and ours is a mix of devotional and academic.

 

I haven't done a final determination of what to call it, but probably will name it

Bible 1: Doctrine and Theology

Bible 2: Comparative World Religions

Bible 3: Worldview Studies

Bible 4: Missionary Studies

 

He read his one-year bible devotionally each year (and so read it 4 times), and then we added different books in each year. I'll list them on his booklist.

 

{Fwiw, we used Omnibus the first two years. Then we added in---

 

Bible 1: Paul Little's Know What You Believe and Know Why You Believe, and a bible survey book that told how to use a concordance, look up verses, what the books in the bible talk about, etc.

 

Bible 2: Memorize This, World Religions 101 by Bickel

 

Bible 3: Understanding the Times (didn't finish, but got a lot done)

 

Bible 4: Missionary stories from the Irian Jaya book and other sources}

[Gwen in VA]

We don't for several reasons, but the TOP reason is

 

1) We are trying to teach the kids to study the Bible and read theological books and do devotions because it's part of living.

 

If we give credit and grades for it, my kids will want to stop in June when we stop the rest of school! We wanted to separate Bible and say that Bible study is a life skill and not related in any way, shape, or form to what school you do or don't go to.

 

Bible study is more like chores or brushing your teeth (though much more interesting and rewarding) -- you do them because it's part of living. When you graduate from high school we still expect you to study your Bible!

 

Other reasons include --

 

2) My kids have enough credits as it is.

 

3) My kids were applying exclusively to secular schools, and we didn't want the Bible studies to look "odd" or raise any hackles in the admissions process.

[Laura K (NC)]

There are different ways to approach the Bible. You can look at it as literature, which is how it was viewed in my class at OSU, and see the different storytelling and poetic devices used by the Hebrews (a fascinating study). You can also look at the Bible as history and see it along with Josephus' history and Herodotus' history, to see how the characters in these stories were real, live people who interacted with some pretty well-known leaders outside the Holy Land. The Bible can of course be read devotionally also.

 

I don't give credit for devotional reading, just like I don't give credit for going to church. Next year I will give a whole credit for Bible history because we're going to look at the Bible somewhat analytically. I'm not going to give a whole other credit for looking at the Bible as literature, but in this next year we will look at a few of the books of the Bible from a more literary perspective (The Greenleaf Guide to Ancient Lit will be used for both Genesis and Daniel.) I really hope to have him look at the book of Job also... I think one could spend years on the book of Job.

 

I have found, personally, that an analytic study of the Bible is both a danger and a blessing. It's a danger because modern Catholic and Protestant and atheist scripture scholars often take the assumption that God didn't inspire the scriptures as much as the writers' cultures did, and you can get into some dangerous humanism there, especially if you believe that the scriptures are the Word of God. Studying the Bible in depth is also a blessing, though, because it is the Word of God, and no matter how much you study, there is always something more to learn and more to marvel at God's wonderful works.

 

The Bible is part of cultural literacy, no matter if you're Christian or not. Many of the folks in my Bible as Literature class at Ohio State were not Christian, and the professor was very careful to make the distinction between analytic and devotional reading.

[carol]

I will have a ninth grader next year. I've been struggling with weather or not to give credit for Bible also.

My son may possibly attend the local private school, which requires 4 years of Bible. I am not ashamed to have it on a transcript weather my son ends up going to a private or secular college. I hope by having it on his transcript that colleges who are unfriendly to Christians will not accept him. I want him to be challenged in his faith so it can grow, but I also want him to be in a place

that he can find Christian friends. I have been places where this did not happen. I do not consider going to church/Sunday School part of the credit.

 

Carol

[CAMom]

Thank you all so much for the well thought out replies! They give me much to think about.

 

Gwen, your top reason is one that I have considered and struggled with. Yes, I do want Bible study to be just a part of daily life. I don't give allowance for certain basic chores. Family members need to do them just because they live here. Every Christian needs to be studying the Bible every day just because they are a member of God's family.

 

However, I also think of all of the folks I know who have gone to or are currently going to seminary. Their academic pursuits in studying the Scriptures are "credit worthy." These classes are seperate from the devotional reading and studying that they do.

 

I also see your point about the secular colleges. My son is also looking at secular schools as a biology major. The thing is, if we're spending as much time as we are on the academic study of Scripture (detailed study of confessions, a systematic theology course, etc.) then those classes take just as much time, if not more, than any other course work that we do which eliminates time that could be spent on other courses. But, I don't want to miss out on the theological courses simply because we need to get credits for a more "legitimate" class.

 

Anyway, just thinking through it aloud and appreciating all of the input here!:)