Posted on 10/21/2003 4:15:33 PM PDT by SLB
My oldest son, Seth, was homeschooled the entire time he lived at home. This past summer, as he and I were discussing his upbringing, I had a realization about this movement we all call "homeschooling," and I said to Seth, "When you have kids, they will not be public schooled. They won't be private schooled. They won't be Christian schooled."
"And," I concluded, "your kids won't be home schooled, either."
The realization I had while talking with Seth is that God had begun something twenty years ago that came to be called “homeschooling,” but which really wasn’t about schooling at all. Here's what I mean.
THE COLLAPSE OF THE FAMILY
For thousands of years children have grown up in what today would be considered an unnatural place—the home. In this setting, parents never thought of themselves as "home schoolers." There was no alternative to children spending their days at home, having knowledge, experiences and character passed to them by their parents and extended family. What children needed to know, they learned as part of their daily lives: sowing and reaping, weather, how a business works, how to treat customers (and everyone else, for that matter). Life was their education.
Throughout history, small, homogeneous groups have attempted to provide a common education for their youth, yet it wasn’t until around the mid 1800's that entire nations decided to take children out of the home and “school” them. I will briefly mention the two main causes for this dramatic change in the way we began raising our children. Interestingly, both occurred at approximately the same time.
First, in the mid-1800’s the Industrial Revolution began. The new factories needed laborers and the siren call went out for men to leave their homes and be paid a salary (something new for most men). The possibility of being able to increase one’s family's standard of living was the draw that caused men to cease being patriarchs of a family enterprise and become employees.
Around this same time, another movement was taking shape: The Common (Public) School movement. The leaders of the Public School movement were, for the most part, humanists who were concerned about two things they believed endangered America’s future: The continuation of what they called religious superstitious beliefs and the influx of illiterate immigrants seeking jobs and a better life in this country. These leaders believed that realizing their two-fold goal of ridding our society of religion and providing an education for immigrant children mandated compulsory education for every child. Soon, the various states were passing compulsory attendance laws and children began to be public schooled en masse.
So, as dads were leaving home with a promise of employment, children were also leaving home with a promise of being made employable for the next generation. Within a very short period of time, the family unit that had been tightly held together for generations, became a set of individuals going their separate ways. To the factories went the dads. To the schools went the kids. Where Mom went is the subject of another article.
It wasn’t long before people forgot what it was like to be a family with Dad as the head of a "family enterprise" and the whole family working together as co-producers. In one generation, the cultural memory of children growing up at home was forgotten. Children belonged "in school" during the most productive hours of their day, learning whatever would make them employable, becoming independent, establishing strong friendships that replaced the bonds of family. And what had been a lifestyle of learning became "book learning" as learning became separated from real life. Of course, there was always a small group of families whose children never attended public school. Typically, these were American's wealthiest whose children received exclusive private educations in areas intended to prepare them for leadership in government, education, science and business. Most Americans don’t realize that public school was never intended to prepare leaders. It has always been intended to prepare employees. [For a fuller understanding of this subject, read John Gatto's books, The Underground History of American Education, A Different Kind of Teacher, and Dumbing us Down].
HOW SHOULD WE THEN SCHOOL?
In the 1950's—one hundred years after the of the public school movement began—some middle class parents began to desire an educational experience for their children whose curricula was more individualized. It was at this time that the private school movement began. I attended one of these schools in what should have been my fourth grade. It was little more than an experimental school run by one man who was also the only teacher. He didn’t like having one fourth grader, so I was skipped to fifth grade where there was one other student. I don't remember learning much, but it was more fun than public school!
During the Civil Rights years, the Christian school movement began along with its own particular brand of curricula which was mainly "Christianized" public school material. The concept remained that children were to be brought out of their homes and taught by educators, (presumably Christian), who, because they were “professionals” would do a better job of training children than could the children’s parents. It seemed that parents would now get the best of both worlds: a public-style education that was also Christian.
Then, in the late 1970's and early 1980's, a new schooling movement began. All over the country, parents began keeping their children home instead of sending them to one of the other schooling options. Some parents made this decision out of concern for their children’s safety. Others didn’t like the education their children were receiving. However, the majority decided to keep their children home simply because they wanted a relationship with them and parents didn’t think this could happen very well if the kids were gone all day long. It was quite a novel (and controversial) idea that children should be kept home during the schooling hours of the day.
So, today, parents have several choices as to how their children might be educated:
Public School Private School Christian School Home School
Note that the above choices relate to where and how the child is educated. In the past 150 years we have changed the first word, but we have not changed the last word, “School.” Each choice still emphasizes the fact that children are to be "schooled."
A MISUNDERSTOOD MOVEMENT?
I don't know how keeping our children home during the day came to be known as "Home Schooling," but I do have a theory: If I asked most adults, "What is the appropriate activity for every child, age six to age eighteen, during the days Monday through Friday?" Most adults would say, "These are the years when a child is being schooled, of course." That is why we have such phrases in our vocabulary as the "school age child." So, if a child is to be "schooled" during these formative years, the only real question is, "Where will he be schooled?" Today, the answer is, "He will either be public schooled, private schooled, Christian schooled, or home schooled."
Assuming, then, that every child is to "be schooled" during the day, if he is home during the day, he will be home schooled during the day. Hence the origin of the label "homeschooling."
Is “schooling” really supposed to be a child’s primary daily activity? It wasn’t until the advent of the modern public school movement. Schooling a child was never meant to be the "constant" with the variable being where the child spends his or her day. It has always been just the other way around.
What is so problematic with the term "Home Schooling" is what it has done to parents whose children are spending their days at home. Giving an activity a label means something to those involved in the activity. If we are comfortable with certain words in the label and not so comfortable with other words, those words with which we feel least secure will take on greater significance. Insecurity is a nice word for fear. Whatever we fear becomes a driver in our lives as we attempt to overcome our fear and feel secure again.
When we sent our children to school, we felt a sense of security that trained professionals were educating them. We didn't pretend that we could do a job which others had spent years being trained to do. We might feel that we could raise our children in some areas, but not to provide for their education.
Then, one day, we became homeschoolers. Insecure homeschooler; but homeschoolers nevertheless. However, since what we were doing was labeled "homeschooling," we, in our insecurity, actually became home-SCHOOLERS rather than HOME-schoolers. The importance of our children becoming educated (isn't that what children do during the day?) took on greater prominence than the importance of them being home. This is understandable when we realize that there is no cultural memory of what having our children home really means to the family or to society.
What did I mean when I told my son, "And, your kids won't be homeschooled"? During Seth's years at home, his academic education was never the main priority. In our home, we did have a rigid priority structure, but those priorities were first relationships; second, practical skills; and, finally, academics. Seth grew up with a strong academic upbringing, but academics were never our priority. Seth is a skilled, very competent individual of the highest character. He is also one of the happiest young men I have ever known. As I look back at Seth's time at home, I have come to realize that he was never "homeschooled." He simply grew up in a most remarkable place—his home
When our children were young we would take them with us to the store. Other kids were in school. The check-out lady would inevitably ask, "You boys aren’t in school today?" Since the boys knew we were homeschoolers, they would respond, "No, ma’am, we’re homeschooled."
STARTING OVER
If I could do it all over again, I would not call ourselves "homeschoolers." I have actually come to dislike the term because I think it creates significant problems. If I were starting over again, when the lady at the store says, "You boys aren't in school today?" I would teach the boys to say, simply, "No ma'am," and let it go at that.
In just the past year I have noticed a growing distinction between families who are homeschooling and those whose children are home, but not being homeSCHOOLED. Are the "not-being-homeschooled" children receiving a quality upbringing, including a quality education? Today enough research exists that I can honestly say an unequivocal “yes”. I would even go so far as to say that the not-being-homeschooled child is receiving an education which is superior to the child being homeschooled. [For a fuller discussion on this, see our article, "Identity-Directed Homeschooling"].
The availability of what has come to be known as “prepackaged curricula” is helping manifest a separation of the two types of families who were once grouped together under the one term: “homeschoolers.” Many parents purchase prepackaged curricula because they don't understand what God originally intended when He began this movement over twenty years ago.
What do you think your children should be doing all day now that they are home? Probably the most obvious way to determine what you really believe is to ask yourself, “Is my child the constant or is my child’s education the constant?” Look at the materials you use to bring learning into your child’s life. Do you use graded, prepackaged, curricula? Is your child in a grade as he would be if he were in an institutional setting? Do you follow the institutionalized Scope & Sequence educational model? Or, have you stepped completely out of the lock-step, institutional way of raising your child?
This article is not intended to discourage, but to give hope. In most parents’ hearts is the desire to reprioritize their lives around what is truly important to them: having a relationship with their children. To bring your children home can be an immense lifestyle change. For some, making this change has to be done in stages. If you have brought your children home it may have been necessary (for a season) to place before them the ever popular “curriculum-in-a-box.” Hopefully, that season will be short. Our children never went to school, were never in a grade, and we never used a prepackaged curriculum. Nevertheless, it took us a while to learn all that I am sharing with you here. Be encouraged. You are allowed to do what your heart tells you is right.
IF WE AREN'T HOMESCHOOLING, THEN WHAT ARE WE DOING?
Right now, nearly two million children are spending their days at home rather than “at school,” thus putting an end to a 150 year "detour" which began in the 1850’s and which seriously harmed family life and Kingdom community as God initially intended them to be lived. As families leave this detour and turn onto the road whose name is “Life As It Was Intended To Be,” we will see vistas we have only read about in books. Let me offer some suggestions.
1 | Don’t send your children to school. Any school. Bring them home. Raise them to be the individuals God has created them to become.
2 | Don’t bring the school, any school (along with its "efficient", but arbitrary, grade levels, scope & sequence, and boxed curriculum) into your home. Allow your children to learn through life and the relationships around them.
3 | Learn how to awaken curiosity in your children. (This is the subject of a future EJournal.)
4 | The only thing that should be prepackaged is your child. By this I mean your child was born with all the talents, giftings, and callings put into him or her since the foundation of the world. Find out what these are and let your child become truly good at what you find. [For a fuller discussion of this, order the Davis' tape, "Identity Directed Homeschooling"]
5 | Dad's heart must turn toward his children and the hearts of the children must turn toward Dad. Ultimately, this may bring Dad out of the corporate workforce to come home. This final step may take another generation to be fulfilled. But, for it to be fulfilled, Dads must at least begin moving in that direction (ie. Giving his children the option of becoming entrepreneurs).
6 | In your own home, let "homeschooling" die. In other words, don't homeschool your children.
God has asked us to raise a generation prepared for the future by becoming exactly what He intended each person to become. This will be different for each and every child. Your home is the place where the acorn can become the oak tree. Or, the seed can become the maple tree. Or, the other seed can become the pine tree. Plant your children squarely in their own home and allow the individual God created to grow.
Chris Davis is the founder of the Elijah Company and a father of 4 children.
Markets fail to provide public goods, and that is what the governments are supposed to do
"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." - I dunno, nothing about the providing "public goods" here.
After all I've shown, if you deny that Mann was:
you're either in denial or you are merely gainsaying my statements of fact.
Too bad ole Horace never met Mohammed Atta.
In 1774, Pierre Samuel du Pont, at the request of King Stanislaus-Augustus helped organize a national education system both in Poland and in the United States. It was the goal of the Masonic/Illuminati goal to control education and take it out of the hands of sincere Christians.
Public schools are nothing more than mental institutions designed to force secularized "religion" down children's throats. By the time that child graduates from college, they haven't a clue who they are because the school system has already "molded" them into something they are not.
Not true...what one needs is Jesus.
It's harder to explain than it is to do, but it does require a relatively large investment of time.
Here's the Readers Digest version:
1. Make sure the child is always involved with some project that he/she is interested in at that point of their life, (something valid, meaningful and mutually agreed to, of course).
2. Do step # 1 thoughtfully and you automatically have their full attention and focus, as opposed to "watching the history channel" at a mandatory time when their attention is far removed, (daydreaming).
3. Do the project/activity with the child.
4. Connect the project/activity to real world, real time instruction. For example, (albeit an extreme one), I once taught a killer geometry class while fishing. Taught my then six year old all about angles while angling. Living the good life and learning at the same time.
5. Enjoy and cherish the time you have together.
I hope this is somewhat understandable.
I think this is a common misconception with homeschooled children. The only "socialization" they miss out on is the "socialization" that would have happened while they were in school (and I don't believe that is positive, in most cases.) Other relationships that a child would normally experience in his life remain intact.
My son is an only child. We live two doors away from my sister. She had 6 children, her oldest was 12 when he was born, her youngest was born 2 years after my son. So his "sibling" relationships have been with his cousins. Now these relationships extend to my older niece and nephew's families who also live very close to us. They have toddlers and babies, so he's also getting experience in babysitting, LOL.
However, apart from the cousins, he's always had interaction with kids from church, the neighborhood, sports activites, and homeschool support groups.
He seems to make friends very easily, and our home is always filled with kids (we bought a pool table last year and that seems to be a major draw, LOL).
There were times when we were traveling and he did not have contact with other children for weeks on end, but we were in different countries and the culture shock and sights to see totally distracted him from that fact.
He has never complained of boredom, or lack of social interaction.
I'm not sure what the explanation for this would be (maybe the fact that they aren't isolated with only their own age group for hours on end in school.)
He's the only teenager in the neighborhood willing to play street football with the "little kids" (ages 10-12). Some of the neighborhood moms have asked me if he minds their sons coming over or views them as pests, since they are a couple years younger than he is. And I can honestly say, he doesn't seem to discrimate whether the kid is 10, 12 or his age. He doesn't think it's "uncool" to play video games or pool with kids younger than himself or help in building a fort with my nieces 6 and 3 year old sons.
And on the other extreme, he socializes in his college class just fine and when I ask him if they know how old he is, he says they never ask, they just treat me like one of the class.
Here again, I credit this to the homeschooling experience.
OK, with this I see that you're just slinging vitriolic platitudes. Tell me how on earth you surmise that the temperance movement was a libertarian favorite? If you knew even the first thing about libertarianism, you'd see what an utterly foolish and ignorant assertion you've just made.
From what I've read he is quite respectable, but I think he is overreaching to replace the "lockstep" of public education with the "lockstep" of his version of HOME-schooling.
The point is well made that each child learns differently, but he seems to think that they should all be educated in the way his children were.
Perhaps a bit arrogant...
Constitution is not economics. And, incidentally, at that time, there was no knowlege of distinction between the public and private goods. We did not know that the speed of light is maximal possible either. It's been a while, you know.
Constitution, however much I revere it, is not the place to which one turns to learn phyiscs. Or mathematics. Or economics.
I understand your point of view on Mann. I very much appreciate your detailed exposisition. I am sorry to say, however, that I did not find your arguments convinicing. Thanks again for writing.
It's irony man. Do you have trouble detecting sarcasm?
Mr. Hirsch's beliefs and agenda warrent further examination. I'll retract his inclusion in the "Hall of Shame" for the time being. Sorry for my rush to judgement Mr. Hirsch.
Tyranny has been around for a much longer. The Constitution was meant to limit government not to fertilize it. I urge you to reverence the Constitution in a vigorous and thoughtful way and not just sentimentally. Thanks for the conversation. I'm sorry I could not convince you.
"I have no quibble with homeschoolers, provided they actually have some mastery of the subject matter. "
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Mastery? I would throw out the thought....that very, very few public school teachers have a mastery ( in the true sense of the word...)of the subjects they teach.
Well...I guess you would have a "quibble" with my wife and I.......But hey, a quibble there, or a quibble here...never stopped me before. HA!!
FWIW...many of the wisest people I've ever known...weren't "well educated". And conversely some of the most ignorant stumps I've ever seen had Masters degrees hanging on their walls.
FRegards,
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