Online Christian Educ. Offers Alternatives for Families, Churches
by Jim Brown
July 1, 2005
(AgapePress) - It's being billed as the most comprehensive Christian worldview curriculum available online.Learning by Grace is an educational ministry that develops curriculum for kindergarten through twelfth-grade for delivery over the Internet, primarily to home-schooling families around the world. The curriculum is also being used by Christian schools, church schools, and private Christian academies.
Ralph Augstroze is the vice president of solution development and ministry solutions for LearningByGrace.org. He says online Christian education is the least expensive and most economical education option for families because of the ease of delivery over the Internet. A parent-led curriculum developed by his organization, he notes, typically involved a tuition of less than $1,000 a year per student.
But he explains that families also are turning to online learning because of its convenience and portability. Obviously, he says, the "interactive nature" of online learning is attractive to children. But parents also are drawn to it, he says.
"It's attractive to parents because it's a little less difficult to get their kids to sit down and study interactively on the computer than it is with books and papers and worksheets," he says. As well, he adds, more and more families who are dissatisfied with public schools are educating their children with online curriculum developed from a Christian worldview.
He also suggests that the curriculum offers a positive alternative to public education for churches that may have a desire to offer an alternative, but not the wherewithal or ability to build a brick-and-mortar school.
"The church can become a hub for a home-schooling co-op in their community," Augstroze says, "or they can actually take facilities in the church that are being under-utilized during the week, turn them into computer lab environments, and offer an online Christian curriculum similar to that offered by LearningByGrace.org."
According to its website, Learning By Grace has no specific denominational or cultural focus and is doctrinally acceptable to a broad range of conservative Christian denominations. Courses available number more than 130 (K-12) and cover the core curriculums of science, language arts, history, and math, as well as a variety of electives like P.E., art, and music.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
