Integration

When Christian schools speak of integration, we are often talking about the infusion of Biblical wisdom into all the subject areas that we teach. Although we do have distinct Bible classes, we also reference scriptural facts and principles in every academic area. Cornerstone teachers have been in workshops through a variety of sources in how to do this, including our own Continuing Education classes taught right here on our campus. One out of town resource we have learned this from was Dr. Marty MacCullough, Dean of Education at Philadelphia Biblical University. Dr. MacCullough taught a workshop on our campus attended by over two hundred Christian educators from all over Southern Arizona.

Learning is also about relationships, or connections, between the traditional academic disciplines, as well. In particular, the learning style which Cornerstone has adopted is of this type. Paraphrasing nineteenth century British educator, Miss Charlotte Mason, our founding headmaster Jack Beckman once wrote, “…we mean that the child has been born in a natural relationship with many things: people, God, objects, animals, nature, etc. Learning then becomes the art (and science) of making connections between those things that have meaning, whether in literature, mathematics, writing, music, or art, to name several.”

A great example of subject matter and Biblical integration would be our Shakespeare Festival, which integrates Biblical themes of good and evil in a Christian cultural context with literary devices, historical allusions, visual art in both costuming and stage décor, period background music, and oratorical skills with stagecraft