Welcome to Our Checks and Balances Homeschool Social Studies Course

Course Sample for Our Checks and Balances Homeschool Social Studies Course

Lesson One: Government and the Executive Branch

What is a government? Let’s take a look at the definition of government. Oh, not in today’s dictionary. Let’s travel back in history and use Noah Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828:

Government, n. Direction; regulation. These precepts will serve for the government of our conduct.

1. Control; restraint . . .
2. The exercise of authority; direction, and restraint exercised over the actions of men in communities, societies, or states; the administration of public affairs, according to established constitution, laws, and usages . . .
3. The exercise of authority by a parent . . .
4. The system of polity in a state; that form of fundamental rules and principles by which a nation or state is governed, or by which individual members of a body politic are to regulate their social actions; a constitution, either written or unwritten, by which the rights and duties of citizens and public officers are prescribed and defined . . .

Discussion

Let’s discuss some of the great principles found in these definitions.

1. Where does government first start? That’s right—in the direction, regulation, control, and restraint in our own life.
2. Where should the precepts for our own self-government come from? Right again—God’s Word! Parents have the responsibility to teach and train their children in these precepts (Deut. 6:7) and govern their children well.

“The most perfect maxims and examples for regulating your social conduct and domestic economy, as well as the best rules of morality and religion, are to be found in the Bible . . . The moral principles and precepts found in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. These principles and precepts have truth, immutable truth, for their foundation . . . All the evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible . . . For instruction then in social, religious and civil duties resort to the Scriptures for the best precepts.” – Noah Webster

Christian self-government begins internally with our thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and habits. Our self-government shows externally through our actions and words.

“He knows not how to rule a kingdome, that cannot manage a Province; nor can he wield a Province, that cannot order a City; nor he order a City, that knows not how to Regulate a Village; nor he a Village, that cannot guide a Family, nor can that man Govern well a Family that knows not how to Governe himself: neither can any Govern himself unless his reason be Lord, Will and Appetite her Vassals: nor can Reason rule unless her selfe be ruled by God, and (wholy) be obedient to Him.” – Hugo Grotius

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