Education and Faith

Education and Faith is built around Amos Tarfa, who introduces himself as the director of Lifestem Academy, a homeschool hybrid program in Moorhead, Minnesota. He also calls himself a math curriculum writer, mentions a book of his called Tools for Mastering Mathematics, and cites a bachelor's in chemistry and a master's in medical physics. Put together, the show is a science-trained school director working out, out loud, what education is for. The sharpest thread is a numbered run titled Education Revolution. In 'Education Revolution | Ep. 1 My Story' the premise is blunt: after more than twelve years in education, and after watching motivation shift once smartphones arrived, he wants American schooling to go back to scratch. He calls the K-12 model outdated. His fixes are concrete, including math all the way through twelfth grade and American and world history at a high school level as early as sixth grade. In the critical race theory talk he argues that America's deeper problem is vision rather than funding, citing Thomas Sowell's book Discrimination and Disparities along the way. Telling a young person that their past is a reason not to excel, he says, is simply untrue. His evidence is personal. He grew up in northeastern Nigeria, where he says one in two boys is illiterate, and he is grateful for a move south and for parents who valued learning. The science episodes change key. Here he tells stories: Kepler and Galileo setting the stage, Newton enrolling to study law because, as Tarfa puts it, there was no Newton yet, and Euler and Gauss following on. Michael Faraday, born into a household that stretched one loaf of bread over seven days, is his case for teaching the history and philosophy of science alongside the subject matter. James Clerk Maxwell gets a roll call of achievements, from the rings of Saturn to the first color photograph, before Tarfa quotes Maxwell's wish to serve God in his generation as David served God in his. That line becomes the hope he sets for students in a science program carrying Faraday's and Maxwell's names. Faith runs under everything. At Lifestem, he explains, chapel meets on hybrid class days, including international chapels where people have shared about India, Nicaragua, Nigeria and Angola. Chapel then flows straight into logic tied to apologetics, and evolution is flagged as a big biology topic for the year. So the apologetics here lives in a class schedule rather than on a debate stage. He speaks directly to parents too, telling them to examine what they are doing right now, and invites anyone hoping to start a co-op at a church to reach out. A family update titled 'Texas Update 1 & STEM Education' sits among the lectures, starting from a song of children singing on a city street that reminded him of his upbringing. The register is warm and teacherly, with asides like 'Isn't that interesting?', and the talks tend to sign off with a blessing.