Our philosophy of education provides insight into the foundation of lesson plans written by the Education Resource Group.

Lesson plans are important because they are evidence of education objectives, content, process and structure. And, they tell you and others what, where and how the process of education will be executed. Furthermore, they become a record of what should have happened.

Our lesson plans encourage discovery motivated by the students own natural curiosity and the scientific method is the inductive method. It is this method that is most like child's play. Whereas, the deductive method requires advanced reasoning and logic and for that reason, it is our opinion, that it is best left for late high school and college.

The authoritative method is occasionally the method that is best used by the educator. Its occasional use is advisable for multiple reasons: it is an efficent way of transferring information quickly when time is limited. However, you must be ever mindful that the authoritative method conflicts with the scientific method.

"To me, the worse thing seems to be for a school principally to work with methods of fear, force and artificial authority. Such treatment destroys the sound sentiments, the sincerity and the self-confidence of the pupil. It produces the submissive subject."

"It is comparatively simple to keep the school free from this worse of all evils. Give into the power the fewest possible coercive measures. So, the only source of the pupil’s respect for the teacher is the human and the intellectual qualities of the later."

• Premise: The foundation of learning are the gradual integration of knowledge and its meaning. The process requires the patient presentation of knowledge in layers; each layer serving as the foundation for the next layer of knowledge. with time, patience and experimentation being the source of meaning and its integration.
• Premise: The responsibilites of the teacher are to learn the knowledge, create a nurturing learning environment and to guide the student.
• Premise: There is a basic Western set of knowledge [cognate] that has evolved over time from a Greek/Arabic/Egyptian root.
• Premise: Genetics [nature] is the source of the potential to be educated. Learning is a instinctual reflex. However, the teacher provides content and structure to this instinctual reflex.
• Premise: Knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next through a process called education.
• Premise: The responsibilities of the student and the teacher is learning. However, the student does not have a responsibility to teach. Whereas, the teacher is responsible for both learning and teaching.
• Premise: The teacher is senior and is an active leader that guides the student through the educational process.
• Premise: It is the responsibility of the teacher to create an environment that nurtures the student's learning of the cognate.
• Premise: The Western cognate is the super set of all knowledge that has a Greek/Arabic/Egyptian root. This super set consists of the intellectual set: language skills, natural science, math, history, social science, philosophy, art, economics and learning skills.
• Premise: In addition to the intellectual set, there are the sets of trade and living skills. The trade set contains all trade and craft skills. The living skill set contains all skills relevant to living prosperously, effectively and in harmony with community standard in the 21st century.
• Premise: The students cannot be expected to know what they have not learned. (Instinctual behavior being the only exception.)
• Premise: Knowledge is ordered. Consequently, students need to fully understand some concepts and develop appropriate skills before they can effectively understand the next step.
• Premise: The students that has not mastered the learning process are not competent to lead their own educational development.
• Premise: Knowledge is expanding on every front. The student must, however, begin with the fundamentals and build into the future.
• Premise: Learning is the most important activity students can perform and it is their highest responsibility.
• Premise: The students will comprehend the meaning of a label if they are first placed in a situation where they discover the concept that is the source of the label.

When I was 12, my parents took me to Virginia Military Institute (VMI). We arrived at VMI shortly after graduation ceremonies. Graduation is when the graduates throw their hats into the air. The grounds keepers had picked up the hats and stored them at the welcome center. I was given one of those hats.

My brother is 4 years younger than I and was not on the trip. However, he played with the hat and must have thought about its source. It had a lasting impression. Consequently, when he was 15 he expressed a strong desire to go to VMI.

Premise: Little things count, sometimes unexpectedly.

"I have been compelled by curiosity," said Mrs. Leakey. Her discoveries helped form modern theories about the origins of mankind, yet she never finished high school. Source: St. Petersburg Times, 12-10-96.