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Electives

We're not exactly sure who determines what are electives and what are "core" subjects, or why. Okay, maybe math is more useful than tracing your family tree because you can't balance your checkbook using scions and second cousins. But what about your family history, and the history of, say, Guam or Haiti? Is there something inherently better about reading "the classics" than learning Mandarin Chinese? Why are physics part of the main coursework for high school students, while robotics is optional?

Unfortunately, we aren't qualified to answer those questions, but we can defend electives on another level. Electives are essentially those subjects best suited to a student's personal interests, talents and abilities. In that sense, they're almost more important than core subjects, though we aren't going to make an argument that you should learn French before mastering English grammar (as long as you live in an English-speaking area, that is). We are arguing for advances beyond the necessary "standards," however, and for a broad curriculum that is child-specific.

Some electives are more important than others. Learning to manage one's money, how to interpret the Bible, and (these days) how to operate and understand computers are all more important than taking an acting class (though the acting class will be very important for some on a different level altogether). Technically, none of these are required courses, though for Christians particularly the first two are essential for a proper education. There are plenty of similarly important topics as well, though each family will need to prioritize.

There seems to be a move toward less specialized education. As our society becomes increasingly homogeneous, we spend less time focusing and more time absorbing "the big picture." We ignore either one at our own risk. We must have a larger framework in which to fit the smaller pieces, but take away the framework and you're left with relativity and chaos; the smaller pieces, and you have only an impersonal and meaningless ideology. Electives are a way to assert the need for both, and to have fun doing it.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.
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54 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 7th grade (Ages 12-13)
20 Exciting Plays for Medieval History Classes
by Dean Bowman
from Walch Publishing
for 7th-9th grade
in Middle Ages (Location: HISW-MID)
$25.00
20 Plays for U. S. History Classes
by Dean R. Bowman
Revised from Walch Publishing
for 7th-9th grade
in Theater, Drama & Film (Location: ELE-THEAT)
At Play: Teaching Teenagers Theater
by Elizabeth Swados
from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 7th-Adult
in Theater, Drama & Film (Location: ELE-THEAT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Better Than a Lemonade Stand!
by Daryl Bernstein
from Aladdin Books
for 4th-8th grade
Child Star
by Lydia Weaver
from Viking Press
for 4th-7th grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
DK Eyewitness: Film
DK Eyewitness Series
by Richard Platt
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
History Reference for 4th-8th grade
in Theater, Drama & Film (Location: ELE-THEAT)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Down & Dirty
by Ellen Zachos
1st edition from Storey Publishing
for 7th-Adult
in Gardening for Kids (Location: SS-GAR)
$16.96
Gardening With Children
from Brooklyn Botanic Garden
for 3rd-8th grade
in Gardening for Kids (Location: SS-GAR)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
by Laura Amy Schlitz
from Candlewick Press
for 5th-9th grade
2008 Newbery Medal Winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$11.04
How Not to Lose a Million Dollars
by Sheila Bair
from Albert Whitman & Company
for 6th-12th grade
$16.99
Jesus of Nazareth
by William Barclay
from Collins
for 3rd-7th grade
in Theater, Drama & Film (Location: ELE-THEAT)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Kate Greenaway's Language of Flowers
by Kate Greenaway
from Gramercy Books
for all ages
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
Language of Flowers
by Kate Greenaway
from Dover Publications
for all ages
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$6.95
Lifepac: Art - 10 Lifepac Set
from Alpha Omega Publications
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 1
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
$11.50
Lifepac: Art - Book 10
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 2
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 3
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 4
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 5
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 6
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 7
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 8
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Book 9
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
Lifepac: Art - Boxed Set
LIFEPAC Electives
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 4th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
$108.00
Lifepac: Art - Teacher's Guide
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in AOP Art & Drawing (Location: ELEDRA-AOP)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Lifepac: Civics - Resource Guide
AOP LifePacs Civics
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 7th-12th grade
in Government & Civics Curriculum (Location: GOV-CUR)
$14.50
Lifepac: Health Quest - Book 1
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$11.50
Lifepac: Health Quest - Book 2
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$11.50 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Lifepac: Health Quest - Book 3
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$11.50 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Lifepac: Health Quest - Book 4
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$11.50 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Lifepac: Health Quest - Book 5
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$11.50 $5.00 (2 in stock)
Lifepac: Health Quest - Set
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$74.25
Lifepac: Health Quest - Teacher's Guide
from Alpha Omega Publications
for 6th-8th grade
in AOP Lifepacs: Health (Location: CLE-LIFEPAC)
$26.75 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Little House Cookbook
by Barbara Walker
from HarperCollins
for 2nd-8th grade
in Little House Materials (Location: LIR-LHM)
$14.99
Man's Search for Meaning - Young Readers edition
by Viktor E. Frankl; foreword by John Boyne
from Beacon Press
for 6th-12th grade
in Holocaust (Location: HISW-20WW2H)
$10.19
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer & Cinerama Present How the West Was Won
from Random House
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Money Matters Family Night Tool Chest
by Allen Burkett, Jim Weidmann, Kurt Bruner, Larry Burkett
1st edition from Chariot Victor Publishing
for Kindergarten-Adult
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Money Matters for Teens
by Larry Burkett
from Moody Press
for 7th-12th grade
$11.04 $2.40 (16 in stock)
Money Matters for Teens - Workbook (Ages 11-14)
by Larry Burkett
from Moody Press
for 5th-8th grade
$12.74 $7.60 (1 in stock)
Money Matters for Teens - Workbook (Ages 15-18)
by Larry Burkett
from Moody Press
for 7th-12th grade
$15.29 $8.00 (1 in stock)
My Family Tree Workbook
by Rosemary A. Chorzempa
from Dover Publications
for 4th grade-adult
in Genealogy (Location: XFA-GEN)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Naming of Flowers
by Anne Halpin, illustrated by Rob Proctor
from Harper & Row
for 6th-Adult
in Botany & Mycology (Location: SCI-BOT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Nanook of the North
by Robert Flaherty, edited from the film by Robert Kraus
First Printing from Windmill Books
for Kindergarten-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$19.20 (1 in stock)
Saint George
by Katherine Miller, illustrated by Wallace Tripp
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-9th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by Tasha Tudor
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett, illustrated by Tasha Tudor
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 4th-9th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$16.99
Secret Garden Notebook
from David R. Godine
for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Shakespeare of London
by Marchette Chute
1st edition from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
St. George and the DragonS Drama Skits
by Rebecca Locklear
for 6th-Adult
in Theater, Drama & Film (Location: ELE-THEAT)
$21.25
Through the Eyes of Your Ancestors
by Maureen Taylor
from Houghton Mifflin
for 6th-Adult
in Genealogy (Location: XFA-GEN)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Voyage of the Mimi
by Richard M. Hendrick, head writer
from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 6th-8th grade
in Theater, Drama & Film (Location: ELE-THEAT)
Warner Bros. Presents My Fair Lady
from Warner Brothers
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Write Your Roots - Student Workbook
by Carole Thaxton
from KONOS
for 6th-10th grade
in Konos Writing (Location: WRI-SING)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
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