Tue 2 May 2006
One of the reasons I homeschool…the way that I homeschool….relates back to yesterday’s post on not separating the secular from the sacred. For several years now I have been trying to wrap my mind around why I believe in a strong liberal arts education.
It would almost seem pedantic for me to state my reasons if it weren’t for the fact that the obvious so easily slips away in the atmosphere of education we see on all fronts today.
How naive it would sound for me to say that I believe in educating the “whole man.” After all John Dewey said something remarkably similar. I believe Dewey was wrong, very wrong.
It isn’t that we should educate the whole man: send the boy out camping and call it a school day; it is that we should not be separating the mind from the soul.
To teach “subjects” in the way that they are now taught almost universally is to strip the glorious creation of God down to the barest facts and call it education. Ha, I am not original. Didn’t someone really smart once say that,
“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful.”
Yes, I believe it is just too easy for homeschoolers to castrate and then bid the geldings to be fruitful. More and more of us are doing that everyday.
This all brings me to why in many ways our homeschool is so weak in some areas and so strong in others. I just cannot bring myself to compromise the soul of education in order to fit in the dry bones. Even so, I am a long way from the mark. Every year I strive to find more and more ways to feed my children’s souls.
This does not mean I shy away from rigorous study. I love rigorous study. It is just that I don’t confuse taking a test with learning. I try not to forget the things that can’t be measured: poetry in the heart, deep discussions, time for thoughtful reflections, love of beauty, the fellowship of suffering, the euphoric feeling of using the right word, honest toil, gentle breezes and warm days.
None of this is original; Charlotte Mason said these very things a hundred years ago, “Education is an atmosphere, a discipline, a life,”
it is just so easily lost as the train we are on barrels on towards unifomity.
I hope this little drop of water will remind not to get too carried away with that homeschool catalog. You can’t buy souls for your children.
Recommended Reading:
Norms and Nobility
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Cindy,
Let me be the first to thank you for that moving reminder! It’s so easy to caught up in the dry facts and forget the Father of Truth who created everything beautiful and gave us the ability to appreciate that beauty!
Comment by KimC (May 2, 2006 @ 10:17 am )
“A great curse has fallen upon modern life with the discovery of the vastness of the word Education.” (”A Grammar of Shelley”…) - GK Chesterton
I often think that the wall we hit our head against over and over is this idea/lifestyle that makes education is an end in itself. (It reminds me alot of the pursuit of perfect doctrine.) This pursuit takes on a life of its own and in the case of our present culture (and much of homeschooling culture) we are often carried far off course by the tornadic winds of a “good education”. What is our chief end anyway? Milton’s idea that learning is a way to regain a right knowledge of God I appreciate along with CS Lewis’ thoughts on education (Surprised by Joy particularly)
Unfortunately I am still quite cowardly when it comes to admitting what I have been doing all year with the boys’ education…reading and long walks filled with enjoyable questions, etc.,etc….They don’t even know that tests exist yet!!!
Love, K
Comment by karen (May 2, 2006 @ 1:15 pm )
This was such an encouragement to me. We are wrestling with a very big decision and we keep coming back to the hearts and souls of our children. What could be more important.
Comment by Janet (May 2, 2006 @ 2:42 pm )
This was so easy with my first-she took to reading like a duck to water and I didn’t feel like I had to spend much time on the basics with her. My next one is 12 and he’s just starting to read for pleasure. Really just started reading with understanding in the past couple years. And his spelling…He really works hard on it-he wants to do well. But it is such a stuggle for him. On one hand I want to have more time to do other things, but I also know he compares himself to the other kids at church. It’s hard to find a balance these days.
Comment by kerri (May 2, 2006 @ 11:16 pm )
“You can’t buy souls for your children.”
Excellent, worthy, woman. Thank-you.
Comment by Deputyheadmistress (May 3, 2006 @ 7:47 pm )
As always, you give me food for thought. Please think about doing a follow-up post on ways to feed our children’s souls. You said every year you try to find more ways to do this. Do tell. I’m all ears. : ) God bless you, friend.
Oh ~ did you find a car?
Comment by Laura (May 3, 2006 @ 9:16 pm )
Laura,
I had a vague idea of maybe trying to log in each day (on the blog) something I had done to feed my children’s souls. This sounds sort of oxymoronic but what I was thinking is that it would help me to think more in those terms and help others to look for ways.
Yesterday evening I had a rare quiet moment with just my little boys. They were sleepy and I didn’t really feel like reading them a book. So the three of us cuddled up on the couch while I recited a few poems that I know by heart: Wynken, Blynken & Nod, James, James,Morrison, Morrison etc. We ended up by singing our family bedtime song: The Lord Bless You and Keep You (Michael Card version) and I just sat there thinking how much I loved those two little gifts from God.
Those types of things have to be grabbed in moments and so many times I let them slip.
I hesitate to record them because it could sound like bragging which it would certainly not be.
Comment by Cindy (May 3, 2006 @ 9:32 pm )
Thank you for so succinctly putting into words what I’ve felt. You are so right.
Comment by Anne (May 4, 2006 @ 10:41 am )
folding foam chair and bed
As always a good post
.
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