Playing at reconnaissance again, here are some other elements from the article. I guess Sarah is one of her students (it can be argued that it's possible for teacher and student to be friends).
"AiG’s philosophy of teaching children (and adults) can be summed up with the adage, “give em the old one-two!” No, we’re not advocating that you punch or hit anyone. Instead the one-two punch informally refers to an “especially forceful or effective combination of two things.”1 Notice what Paul wrote to the people in Corinth: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Corinthians 10:45).
The first “punch” comes when we show the problems with “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” Rather than shielding our children from what the world teaches, we need to point out what’s wrong with such anti-God philosophies as evolution, humanism, materialism, naturalism, and long-age ideas. Children need to be taught the difference between facts and interpretations.
As we read the book on wolves, for example, we can discuss with our children why we know the statement “wolves are 50 million years old” is wrong. We can point out the difference between the operational science (e.g., “wolves live in many different places around the world”) given in the book and the origins science (e.g., “wolves have been around for 50 million years”)in this case, the story of origins is based on circular logic and faulty understanding. However, being “anti-evolution” or “anti-millions-of-years” isn’t enough. In addition to tearing down, we also need to build up.
The second “punch” comes when we build up the biblical worldview. We need to carefully explain what the Bible actually teaches, and then what we would expect to see as a result of this teaching. With the wolf-book example, we might say something like:
We know wolves haven’t been around for millions of years because the world isn’t that old! From studying the Bible, we can figure out that the world is about 6,000 years old. In the beginning, God created the various land animals “after their kind” on Day 6. This included lots of different kinds of animals such as a dog kind, a cat kind, and even dinosaur kinds. From that first dog kind, which may have been something like a wolf, came all the different varieties of dogs that we have today. Dogs have changed over time into other dogs, but they haven’t changed into a different kind of animal. The Bible tells us the true history.
See? Not too scary. And we’ve used the statements in the book as opportunities to teach our children to be discerning.
If, instead, we were to completely shelter our children, never allowing them access to what the “other side” teaches, how will they react when they stumble upon an anti-God message when we’re not around? It’s easy to underestimate the subtle messages they get from other sources when we’re not around to “protect” them. You may have prevented them from seeing the millions-of-years message in this book, but what about the other countless books that contain the same message? What about that catchy tune on Go, Diego, Go! that promotes the idea that dinosaurs have turned into birds? What about the conversations they have with their friends?
Take, for example, the situation my four-year-old friend Sarah found herself in. According to Sarah, “My friend told me that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, but I told her that wasn’t true.” Even at four years old, Sarah was able to pick up on a false view because her parents had instilled in her the difference between what’s wrong and what’s right. Or consider the six-year-old boy in my workshop on dinosaurs who recited to me the biblical and scientific problems with the big bang ideaand emphatically stated that God created in six days just 6,000 years ago. Just as we use the Bible to teach our children morality (e.g., it’s wrong to hit, but right to be kind to our siblings), so we need to use the Bible to teach our children history by tearing down for them the wrong view of history and building up the right (biblical) view of history."
("Recited"? That exact word? I'm not sure I want to know which normal school McKeever went to. The article, by the way, is titled "Teaching Discernment to Children".)
