What is education? How is one intelligent? Is it even possible for one be intelligent? What is intelligence? What is my goal for my children?
All are questions I have been wrestling with.
And I will tell you this: the standardization and age segregation of knowledge by the human race is crippling. To tell a specified age group: this is the knowledge we think you should know and those of you who know it the best will get an "A" and be told you know all that you need to know for your age group is a devastating embarrassment for a student. Oh, not at the time. But one day that student will graduate. She will be applauded by her class and, with eyes beaming, walk out into a world believing she, in fact, is something special due to the knowledge she holds.
But one day she will step out of that protective vessel of "equal opportunity" and come face to face with a harsh reality: the knowledge she holds is in fact not only known by trillions of people both now and before but was chosen for her to know. She is nothing special, she is a program of the public institution.
Now obviously this is not 100% true. Every human being in all of time is different and special. Every human being has unique emotions, unique ways of responding to stimuli, and unique thought processes. It points to the miraculous diversity of God: that we are made in His image and yet throughout time the number of unique human beings with unique thoughts and emotions are endless. So far. :)
Therefore, knowledge is not in vain. BUT: why the box? Why create false caps giving students 100%, patting them on the backs, and letting enough be enough? Why standardize? Why segregate? These are all reasons we have chosen to let our children learn at home. First and foremost they are children of the Heavenly Father. Second, they are members of our family and live to love and serve in the family God has placed them. But third, they live to laugh, to learn, to grow, to think, to feel, and to chase knowledge and wisdom. For they are indeed made in His image and it is their joy to think in complex ways for in thinking and in learning, little glimpses of the magnificence of our God are revealed. And isn't that our ultimate goal for our children? That they know their Heavenly Father unto life everlasting?
Posts
2 comments:
I struggled with a lot of those questions when I was teaching. We would like to homeschool, and have requested a church without a school so we can.
I think there is something to be said for sharing a general knowledge set with our children- that they know the same stories, the same kinds of skills, and have the same understanding of the history of the world. However, I think it's too hard to make this standard across our giant country with it's variety of cultural influences, and it's desire to cultivate "individuals."
But I think it's important that we are teaching our children the stories of their people and their places so that they understand why people and places have grown as they have, and can learn how to be a part of that society. I'm not convinced that's being done anymore. I'm certainly not convinced that the standardized tests that have been developed in the last ten years have done it, either.
I think it takes a type of education that has been influenced and developed by the previous centuries- the kind that has had great minds examine the stories of the world and determine which of them has impacted us in ways that can't be ignored. And it combines that education with the knowledge set of the local community- the family trees, the trials and triumphs, and the skills needed to be a part of the society.
Sorry. That was much longer than a comment ought to be!
Leah, I'm so sorry I missed this! I couldn't agree more. The older my children get the more I see their intense need to grow and thrive in their family...all day!
Post a Comment