I’ve let it be known that I use the ABeka curriculum. I picked it when my firstborn was entering 1st grade as I liked the cute, colorful illustrations and the systematically advanced, imho, way of teaching. And I agreed with the ideology as I was Protestant at the time. I still use it for the first reasons, but it’s amazing to me that in the last 3 years since discovering Orthodoxy how much my ideology has changed, I mean, been corrected. To name a few changes:
I no longer believe people were retarded before the Reformation,

That slavery and genocide were necessary to convert the black people and the Indians,

That the printing press made more exemplary and correct Christians in the west

And I no longer believe in a utilitarian evaluation of people’s, or other created things’ worth.

Yesterday Rebecca’s 2nd grade reader promoted the idea that God generously and graciously made bobcats so that we wouldn’t have rabbit overpopulation. So if rabbits weren’t so fertile, we wouldn’t need, so there wouldn’t have been, any bobcats? And what makes rabbits worthwhile – too many dandelions? They have lost touch with the Orthodox teaching of the intrinsic goodness of creation. Since our vacation, I’ve gotten a little rusty on the precise theological explanation of the created order that I’ve mainly been studying on this blog and which I look forward to getting back to. It has been so nice having resources that match with my natural intuition and inclination about communing with nature. I want to give the “Indians” a bit of a break in regard to the accusation of Pantheism. The logoi, God’s energies, in created things involve them in our worship of our Creator in a unique way according to each after their own kind. I look forward to studying these things again soon.

Meanwhile, I’m glad that Abeka has helped Rebecca know how to read the words, “bobcat” and “rabbit”, and for the learning opportunity to talk about our different perspectives, so I’ll keep using this curriculum for now.

Note to self – also want to study God’s will in carnivorism. “Madagascar” presented that it’s ok to eat fish to save your mammal friends but where does that leave “Nemo”? I’m not a strict PETA person, but I’m glad that Orthodox save some cows by refraining from meat about half the year. And I know animals weren’t meant to be raised on a conveyor belt, so a look at more traditional farming methods would be profitable for health and stewardship reasons. Oh, and I want to think more about mining – God gave us buried resources for a reason, but haven’t we gone too far in polluting the atmosphere and in greedy consumption? The Ochlophobist has some food for thought on this topic in his post, “during the Dormition Fast, August 14; receiving words, part four”.