Last week, I spent about an hour on the phone with a homeschool friend of mine consulting with her on the fall strategic plan. She recently read Trivium Mastery and desperately wants to give her five children an authentic classical education; however, she is facing one giant obstacle. She is having such trouble letting go of the public school paradigm. Her hubby is an assistant principal in the public high school, so she is somewhat confined by that (it is illuminating that he wanted her to pull the kids out of the system…). My friend is in a pickle because she has inadvertently taught her kids over the years that if they are not using a textbook, participating in a co-op, or paying a professionally educated teacher, it’s not real school. Now that she is trying to shift gears toward an authentic classical education, her older kids are balking.
This grieves me to no end because this public school paradigm imprisons her, her children, and grandchildren if her kids continue the cycle. This is NOT how most educated men and women in the West learned (Do you hear me preaching??). This paradigm is a fairly recent phenomenon. Classical education revolves around ideas – not curricula. Small groups of students casually gathered to study the ideas espoused in oral traditions, scrolls, or books (Moses, Aristotle, Augustine, whomever), and that source formed the foundation for learning. We can do the same, and it will liberate us. We just have to trust the Holy Spirit to give good counsel, act upon that word, and watch our kids blossom. That what I really want to do – encourage Christian parents to throw off the shackles and trust the Loving, Living God to show them the way in this new adventure of classical education. I hope that you find this website a constant encouragement with teaching resources to make your path easier. “Real” school can happen 24/7 with classic kids’ books, and a willing partner like a parent or older sibling to discuss ideas. Cast off the old, and put on the new!
I, too, find it VERY interesting that a principal thinks it’s a great idea to have his own kids not participate in the system! Reminds me of one of our school board members, whose kids all went to private school. I talked to her about it one time, and she said, essentially, Catholic education is important to her husband and to her, so her kids went to public schools through 8th grade, then switched to Catholic high schools.
I know some home-school parents who do an absolutely phenomenal job. They are creative, and resourceful and make it work for the whole family.
I’d like to make a quick recommendation for a book home schooling parents — and actually all Christian parents might like, because it takes a position of a God-created universe. This book is “Ben’s Big Bang Botheration,” by David Millette (a Christian educator in a public school system). Ben’s teacher says everything comes from nothing; Ben worries his parents’ teachings are wrong and God may not even be real. So he questions and learns and begins to see why God is the most logical explanation for the existence of our universe. . It’s short, east to read and to the point. And it’s the first in a series!
I see . . . study ideas. Period.
Thank you.