Collaborative

The collaborative model of education is known by several names, including blended, university-style, and hybrid model. Collaborative education means that the student’s instructional time is divided between classroom and home. In collaborative education, classroom instruction occurs 2 or 3 days per week and is led by a professional educator. On non-class days, the student remains at home to complete his or her lesson plans under the guidance and instruction of his or her parent. The lesson plans for the entire week are developed by the classroom instructor and are made available to the parent at the start of the week, so that the parent and classroom instructor work in tandem to complete the requisite lessons.

Collaborative education is consistent with the biblical mandate for parents to retain the primary responsibility for the education and training of their children. The scientific community is beginning to recognize the importance of a sustained parent-child bond in the healthy development of the child—a bond which is prematurely eroded in a full-time school environment. Closely related to the parent-child bond, collaborative education also allows for vertical relationships among siblings to be maintained. Full-time school often results in each child developing friends exclusively within his or her own grade, resulting in a breakdown of natural friendships among siblings.

Collaborative education provides families with consistent access to educators with both disciplinary and classical credentials. With collaborative education, parents also remain the primary role-models for the child, and maintain primary responsibility for discipleship and character development. Regular non-class days provide flexibility for field trips, service-based learning, etc. Another major benefit is that classes are offered a la carte so that if a student has a proficiency in Math, for example, they are encouraged to enroll in higher level classes.