Christian Heritage Academy
Christian Heritage Academy (CHA) is a private Christian school located in Del City, Oklahoma, United States. Established in 1972, CHA instructs its students in an American Christian philosophy of education through the Principle Approach methodology. Enrollment includes students from grades pre-Kindergarten through twelve.
Christian Heritage Academy
CHA
Isaiah 58:12b "and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in."
1972
Josh Bullard
Red, white and blue
Crusader
The mascot of the Christian Heritage Academy is the Crusader. The school colors are red, white and blue.
Curriculum[edit]
CHA's curriculum is based on the Principle Approach[1] developed by Verna M. Hall and Rosalie Slater.[2] This approach to education states that "the pinnacle of classical education was reached in [the United States of America]...two centuries ago".[3] The Principle Approach concept of "Providential History" maintains that "God commands us to make nations Christian" nations, that only "Providential history is true history", and that "the failure to teach Providential history has led to the secularization of America".[4]
Principle Approach uses Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language and maintains that "It will equip you for Christian leadership, strengthen your vocabulary, give you an edge in communicating your view and become your foundation for thinking and reasoning Biblically".[5] Also, it is taught that for one "to understand principles of liberty, one must return to the thought and writings of those whom God used to establish the first Christian constitutional representative Republic the world has ever known".[6]
History[edit]
Opening[edit]
In spring 1972, Sunnyside Baptist Church pastor Harry Boydstun invited Mel and Norma Gabler to speak about their work at a Wednesday night service. The Gablers, who had only one year of secondary education, had achieved outsized influence over Texas school textbooks.[7] They claimed that America was losing its Christian heritage because children were never introduced to it in schools: "Allowing a student to come to his own conclusion about abstracts and concepts creates frustration. Ideas, situation ethics, values, anti-God humanism — that's what the schools are teaching. And concepts. Well, a concept will never do anyone as much good as a fact".[8] During the service, Boydstun sensed a mission to provide education within a Christian setting for the students of southwest Oklahoma City.
Boydstun also believed the school might help white parents avoid federally mandated desegregation programs such as busing.
After further discussion, the church established a committee to investigate the feasibility of a Christian school and later to begin developing the school program.
On September 1, 1972, Christian Heritage Academy opened with 200 students, first through eighth grades, meeting in the south Oklahoma City facilities of Sunnyside Baptist Church but separately incorporated.
Toward the end of the first year, Ralph Bullard was hired as headmaster. Bullard’s first meeting with O'Brien led him to adopt the school’s educational philosophy: The Principle Approach to America’s Christian History, Government, and Education. In her office, he saw two reference volumes: "Christian History of the Constitution of the United States of America" and "Teaching and Learning America’s Christian History." He ordered a set for the school.
Among his advisors were R.J. Rushdoony; Hall and Slater, the authors of the books; and officers of The Foundation for American Christian Education in San Francisco, California; and later, John Talcott, member of the Evangelical Council for National Policy,[9][10] a director of the Ocean Spray Corporation and founder of Plymouth Rock Foundation, whose Plymouth Rock Seminars were foundational to the school’s philosophical development; Katherine Dang, then the principal of the Chinese Christian Schools of San Leandro, California, and teacher at the pilot school in Hayward, California, under the direction of CHA development contributor James B. Rose; and Ruth Smith of Pilgrim Institute. All provided advice as CHA developed its program and became one of the leaders in the American Christian History movement (see Dominionism).
Thereafter, a kindergarten was added and one upper grade each year until the school had a complete high school program, graduating its first senior class in 1977. Two senior traditions were established with the first graduating class: The American Christian Heritage Tour of the Massachusetts cities of Boston, Plymouth, Lexington, Concord, and Salem taken in the spring before graduation, and a graduation ceremony in which each graduating senior is lauded for their positive character qualities and impact within their class..
On October 20, 1978, CHA sponsored its first American Christian Teachers Seminar. During the seminar, faculty of CHA shared the Principle Approach and the American Christian Philosophy of Education with representatives from other Christian schools within Oklahoma. As of 2010, CHA remains the only Principle Approach school in Oklahoma..