THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES by Chris Davis
[email protected]
This was posted to another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read
for new Unschooling parents and those struggling with not using a curricula.
It is long but worth the read. See below:
Laura D
Mom to:
Dustin 12
Cassidy 4
Nicholas 18mo
EDD 5/3/04
THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES
Email | 21 Oct 03 | Chis Davis
Posted on 10/21/2003 7:15 PM EDT 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
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
for new Unschooling parents and those struggling with not using a curricula.
It is long but worth the read. See below:
Laura D
Mom to:
Dustin 12
Cassidy 4
Nicholas 18mo
EDD 5/3/04
THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES
Email | 21 Oct 03 | Chis Davis
Posted on 10/21/2003 7:15 PM EDT 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
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
-=- thought this would be a good read
for new Unschooling parents-=-
Because it's not real history, I think it's NOT a good read for new
unschooling parents.
<< 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. >>
This is nonsense.
Most of those early schools were HEAVILY Christian-based, and part of
enculturation in the 19th century was learning to live as Christians or to shut up if
you weren't Christian.
<<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.>>
That article is Christian revisionist, simplified history. Before the
industrial age, LOTS of kids were put out of the home, either to work (labor or
apprenticeship) and rich families were sending their kids to schools or to live
with richer families to increase their exposure and opportunity. SOME kids
stayed at home to learn the family trade, but it wasn't a happy peaceful existence
from much of the records and reports, but harsh forced labor with physical
punishments.
<<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.>>
This kind of nostalgia for the agricultural past is called "pastoralism," and
it's existed for hundreds of years.
<<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. >>
A large group, actually; not so small in some parts of the country. And not
exclusively an American situation, but a long-time fact of educational life
back before there was a U.S.
<<Most Americans don’t realize
that public school was never intended to prepare leaders. It has always
been intended to prepare employees.>>
"It" when referring to John Taylor Gatto's American school history has to do
with industrial cities on the East coast in the waves of immigration in the
1880s. Gatto's view of history is a New Yorker's view of New York history, in
my opinion. In the ACTUAL pastoral parts of the U.S. the schools were to
promote literacy and citizenship. This is documented out the wazoo, but Gatto
didn't address the local one-room-schoolhouse models which existed in most of the
U.S.
<<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. >>
This talk of "movements" is another falsehood.
<<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.>>
He's talking abut educational reform, if he's talking about experimental
schools. School reform wasn't "a private school movement." That was the research
and activity out of which unschooling came.
<<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. >>
Parochial schools were already strongly established (though they took MUCH
legal wrangling to get the government to relax about) so that Catholic kids
werne't being subjected to the Protestant-leaning curriculum which already existed.
The "Christian school movement" he's talking about is another lie-with-terms.
They wanted whites-only schools. How many African Americans were not
Christian? But calling it the "White Christian school movement which wants their
kids not to be with Jews or black kids" sounds so... honestly what it was!
<<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. >>
This just made me shudder.
"Cultural memory" is another white supremist buzzword.
-=-[For a fuller discussion on this, see our article, "Identity-Directed
Homeschooling"]. -=-
"Identity" is another one.
-=-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. -=-
I didn't teach my kids what to say. Y'know what they say?
"We don't go to school."
-=-Many parents
purchase prepackaged curricula because they don't understand what God
originally intended when He began this movement over twenty years ago. -=-
I'm really not comfortable with this list being a conduit for what someone
thinks God intended, and being from New Mexico where there were alternative
schools since the 60's and where alternative education was taught at the
university in the late 60's and early 70's, I know for a fact that the unschooling this
list has been about is NOT part of anything that guy's God might have
"originally intended" over 20 years ago.
That whole article is part of the Christian propaganda base of that
"movement" which some people even on this list still don't seem to believe exists.
-=-. . .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. -=-
Maybe you could bring some links to this list so people who are interested in
"the Kingdom Community" could go somewhere else and read about it, because it
gags me to have it here.
-=-Dad's heart must turn toward his children and the hearts of the
children must turn toward Dad.-=-
Where's mom?
Probably doing what dad says to do.
If you look into the Christian homeschooling stuff further, they refer to
dads and the principals and moms as the teachers.
Let's talk about how kids can learn from the world WITHOUT tying it in with
God's personal movement to restore the families to Bible Belt fundamentalist
Christian values.
If you want to read more about what that guy believes, here:
http://www.elijahco.com/help/index2.htm
(And YES! He has something to sell.)
A quote:
-=-Christians don't speak much of "destiny" anymore, mainly because it has
become a catch-word among humanists and New Agers. But we need to look again at
the concept of destiny. The Bible is full of hints that each one of us is
created for a specific time and purpose in God's unfolding plan. Ephesians 2: 10
even says we each have "good works which God predestined for us" before the
world was ever created. Before time began, God had your son or daughter on His
mind, He chose your child, and He prearranged a life for him or her to live. So
parents, those teenagers in your home are not just biological events. They are
beings pre-determined by God and destined to, just as the Bible says of
David, "serve their generation well."-=-
So he understands "catch-word" problems, yet he's using "cultural memory"
(one step from racial memory) and "identity," both of which triggered me to think
of KKK and such.
-=-A special plea to fathers: I am convinced that one of the most important
responsibilities a father has is to identify his children. What do I mean by
"identify?" I mean that he helps his children know who they really are.-=-
Here's what he says about "identity," though. It's something fathers do.
That stuff is about Christianity in quite a political way, not much about
unschooling.
Sandra
for new Unschooling parents-=-
Because it's not real history, I think it's NOT a good read for new
unschooling parents.
<< 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. >>
This is nonsense.
Most of those early schools were HEAVILY Christian-based, and part of
enculturation in the 19th century was learning to live as Christians or to shut up if
you weren't Christian.
<<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.>>
That article is Christian revisionist, simplified history. Before the
industrial age, LOTS of kids were put out of the home, either to work (labor or
apprenticeship) and rich families were sending their kids to schools or to live
with richer families to increase their exposure and opportunity. SOME kids
stayed at home to learn the family trade, but it wasn't a happy peaceful existence
from much of the records and reports, but harsh forced labor with physical
punishments.
<<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.>>
This kind of nostalgia for the agricultural past is called "pastoralism," and
it's existed for hundreds of years.
<<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. >>
A large group, actually; not so small in some parts of the country. And not
exclusively an American situation, but a long-time fact of educational life
back before there was a U.S.
<<Most Americans don’t realize
that public school was never intended to prepare leaders. It has always
been intended to prepare employees.>>
"It" when referring to John Taylor Gatto's American school history has to do
with industrial cities on the East coast in the waves of immigration in the
1880s. Gatto's view of history is a New Yorker's view of New York history, in
my opinion. In the ACTUAL pastoral parts of the U.S. the schools were to
promote literacy and citizenship. This is documented out the wazoo, but Gatto
didn't address the local one-room-schoolhouse models which existed in most of the
U.S.
<<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. >>
This talk of "movements" is another falsehood.
<<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.>>
He's talking abut educational reform, if he's talking about experimental
schools. School reform wasn't "a private school movement." That was the research
and activity out of which unschooling came.
<<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. >>
Parochial schools were already strongly established (though they took MUCH
legal wrangling to get the government to relax about) so that Catholic kids
werne't being subjected to the Protestant-leaning curriculum which already existed.
The "Christian school movement" he's talking about is another lie-with-terms.
They wanted whites-only schools. How many African Americans were not
Christian? But calling it the "White Christian school movement which wants their
kids not to be with Jews or black kids" sounds so... honestly what it was!
<<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. >>
This just made me shudder.
"Cultural memory" is another white supremist buzzword.
-=-[For a fuller discussion on this, see our article, "Identity-Directed
Homeschooling"]. -=-
"Identity" is another one.
-=-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. -=-
I didn't teach my kids what to say. Y'know what they say?
"We don't go to school."
-=-Many parents
purchase prepackaged curricula because they don't understand what God
originally intended when He began this movement over twenty years ago. -=-
I'm really not comfortable with this list being a conduit for what someone
thinks God intended, and being from New Mexico where there were alternative
schools since the 60's and where alternative education was taught at the
university in the late 60's and early 70's, I know for a fact that the unschooling this
list has been about is NOT part of anything that guy's God might have
"originally intended" over 20 years ago.
That whole article is part of the Christian propaganda base of that
"movement" which some people even on this list still don't seem to believe exists.
-=-. . .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. -=-
Maybe you could bring some links to this list so people who are interested in
"the Kingdom Community" could go somewhere else and read about it, because it
gags me to have it here.
-=-Dad's heart must turn toward his children and the hearts of the
children must turn toward Dad.-=-
Where's mom?
Probably doing what dad says to do.
If you look into the Christian homeschooling stuff further, they refer to
dads and the principals and moms as the teachers.
Let's talk about how kids can learn from the world WITHOUT tying it in with
God's personal movement to restore the families to Bible Belt fundamentalist
Christian values.
If you want to read more about what that guy believes, here:
http://www.elijahco.com/help/index2.htm
(And YES! He has something to sell.)
A quote:
-=-Christians don't speak much of "destiny" anymore, mainly because it has
become a catch-word among humanists and New Agers. But we need to look again at
the concept of destiny. The Bible is full of hints that each one of us is
created for a specific time and purpose in God's unfolding plan. Ephesians 2: 10
even says we each have "good works which God predestined for us" before the
world was ever created. Before time began, God had your son or daughter on His
mind, He chose your child, and He prearranged a life for him or her to live. So
parents, those teenagers in your home are not just biological events. They are
beings pre-determined by God and destined to, just as the Bible says of
David, "serve their generation well."-=-
So he understands "catch-word" problems, yet he's using "cultural memory"
(one step from racial memory) and "identity," both of which triggered me to think
of KKK and such.
-=-A special plea to fathers: I am convinced that one of the most important
responsibilities a father has is to identify his children. What do I mean by
"identify?" I mean that he helps his children know who they really are.-=-
Here's what he says about "identity," though. It's something fathers do.
That stuff is about Christianity in quite a political way, not much about
unschooling.
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 10/24/03 11:02:50 AM Central Daylight Time, HMSL2@...
writes:
This was posted to another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read
for new Unschooling parents and those struggling with not using a curricula.
It is long but worth the read. See below:
Laura D
Mom to:
Dustin 12
Cassidy 4
Nicholas 18mo
EDD 5/3/04
##############
I don't know if this really is the best thing to have new unschooling parents
read. But me saying that smacks of censorship <g> I guess what I should say
is that MY personal opinion is that there are hidden-read-between-the-lines
things in this article that makes it not as innocent as it seems.
################
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
<snip>
First, in the mid-1800’s the Industrial Revolution began. <snip>
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.
##############
While some of the public schools may have been started by so called
humanists, most if not almost all were started by small communities across the nation,
largely christian. One room school houses sometimes also the church (only
church) in town as well. Single female teacher hired by the male *school board*
and boarded by a family near the school. My own great grandmothers diary reads
something like this; *A good strong, God fearing community. Asked if I would be
attending church services locally, I had no problems answering in the
affirmative. I only asked that I be boarded by a good Lutheran family, and the large
man laughed jovially as if there were any question in the matter. Of course I
will not be seeing Otto for the term, teachers do not go out with gentlemen
and certainly do not announce an engagement of marriage.* My g-grandma was
certainly not a humanist nor were the men who hired her.
#################
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.
##################
Yes, we won't be reading much about Mom in the rest of this article. Where is
Mom?
##################
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.
########################
This idea of yesteryear being the ideal didn't start after this so called on
generation. There is a word for this, it slips my mind now. As for this idea
of cultural memory, he also brings up another term of identity-dirrected
homeschooling, both which leave me thinking of nazism and racism. Chills.
########################
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!
#####################
He is talking about educational reform. Not some middle class movement.
Schools across the country tried this or something like this for a year or two and
then someone else came along with a new idea. He spends his entire article
trying desperately to have us believe he doesn't believe in school=learning and
learing=school and brings the whole facade down in one small sentence. "I don't
remember learning much, but it was more fun than public school!" Even he
still equates school with learning and that one year, failed attempt didn't work,
i.e. he didn't "learn" the unsaid words here are *what he was supposed to.* as
in what he implied, but didn't write is; "I don't remember learning what I
was supposed to, 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.
##################
WRONG! He really needs to reread his copy of Gatto! I think he must have
missed a chapter or five. Schools were until this time largely christian.
##################
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"].
##############
Here he tries to get the reader to believe that this *Identity-Directed
Homeschooling* would be the same as unschooling. Notice he never uses the term
unschooling, yet tries to imply to the reader that that is what he intends. One
should never equate identity-directed with unschooling, ever.
##############
This article is not intended to discourage, but to give hope.<snip>
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.
#####################
White supermacist propaganda. "Kingdom community" "As God intended..." "Life
as it was intended to be" No Blacks in our neighborhood, no Jews in our
clubs.. If people seriously don't believe there are christians out there
homeschooling their kids in this way, they really need to do some reading. No, not all
christians, but many.
#####################
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 (i.e. Giving his children the option
of becoming entrepreneurs).
################
Here we are again! Where is Mom? I think she is in the laundry room washing a
mountain of clothes or in the kitchen preparing a meal and sneaking sips of
the wine she tells her husband she uses to flavor that favorite dish of his.
Really though, in families like this mom is a teacher, dad is the principal, god
is the superintendent.
################
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.
################
Not really as individualistic as he would like us to believe.
################
Chris Davis is the founder of the Elijah Company and a father of 4
children
################
And he too has something to sell.
~Nancy
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Elbert Hubbard
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
writes:
This was posted to another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read
for new Unschooling parents and those struggling with not using a curricula.
It is long but worth the read. See below:
Laura D
Mom to:
Dustin 12
Cassidy 4
Nicholas 18mo
EDD 5/3/04
##############
I don't know if this really is the best thing to have new unschooling parents
read. But me saying that smacks of censorship <g> I guess what I should say
is that MY personal opinion is that there are hidden-read-between-the-lines
things in this article that makes it not as innocent as it seems.
################
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
<snip>
First, in the mid-1800’s the Industrial Revolution began. <snip>
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.
##############
While some of the public schools may have been started by so called
humanists, most if not almost all were started by small communities across the nation,
largely christian. One room school houses sometimes also the church (only
church) in town as well. Single female teacher hired by the male *school board*
and boarded by a family near the school. My own great grandmothers diary reads
something like this; *A good strong, God fearing community. Asked if I would be
attending church services locally, I had no problems answering in the
affirmative. I only asked that I be boarded by a good Lutheran family, and the large
man laughed jovially as if there were any question in the matter. Of course I
will not be seeing Otto for the term, teachers do not go out with gentlemen
and certainly do not announce an engagement of marriage.* My g-grandma was
certainly not a humanist nor were the men who hired her.
#################
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.
##################
Yes, we won't be reading much about Mom in the rest of this article. Where is
Mom?
##################
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.
########################
This idea of yesteryear being the ideal didn't start after this so called on
generation. There is a word for this, it slips my mind now. As for this idea
of cultural memory, he also brings up another term of identity-dirrected
homeschooling, both which leave me thinking of nazism and racism. Chills.
########################
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!
#####################
He is talking about educational reform. Not some middle class movement.
Schools across the country tried this or something like this for a year or two and
then someone else came along with a new idea. He spends his entire article
trying desperately to have us believe he doesn't believe in school=learning and
learing=school and brings the whole facade down in one small sentence. "I don't
remember learning much, but it was more fun than public school!" Even he
still equates school with learning and that one year, failed attempt didn't work,
i.e. he didn't "learn" the unsaid words here are *what he was supposed to.* as
in what he implied, but didn't write is; "I don't remember learning what I
was supposed to, 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.
##################
WRONG! He really needs to reread his copy of Gatto! I think he must have
missed a chapter or five. Schools were until this time largely christian.
##################
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"].
##############
Here he tries to get the reader to believe that this *Identity-Directed
Homeschooling* would be the same as unschooling. Notice he never uses the term
unschooling, yet tries to imply to the reader that that is what he intends. One
should never equate identity-directed with unschooling, ever.
##############
This article is not intended to discourage, but to give hope.<snip>
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.
#####################
White supermacist propaganda. "Kingdom community" "As God intended..." "Life
as it was intended to be" No Blacks in our neighborhood, no Jews in our
clubs.. If people seriously don't believe there are christians out there
homeschooling their kids in this way, they really need to do some reading. No, not all
christians, but many.
#####################
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 (i.e. Giving his children the option
of becoming entrepreneurs).
################
Here we are again! Where is Mom? I think she is in the laundry room washing a
mountain of clothes or in the kitchen preparing a meal and sneaking sips of
the wine she tells her husband she uses to flavor that favorite dish of his.
Really though, in families like this mom is a teacher, dad is the principal, god
is the superintendent.
################
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.
################
Not really as individualistic as he would like us to believe.
################
Chris Davis is the founder of the Elijah Company and a father of 4
children
################
And he too has something to sell.
~Nancy
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Elbert Hubbard
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 10/24/03 12:40:55 PM, Dnowens@... writes:
<< This idea of yesteryear being the ideal didn't start after this so called
on
generation. There is a word for this, it slips my mind now. As for this idea
of cultural memory, he also brings up another term of identity-dirrected
homeschooling, both which leave me thinking of nazism and racism. Chills. >>
I PROMISE I DIDN'T COPY OFF NANCY'S PAPER!!
(Gosh, all that talk of the good old days gave me bad school flashbacks!)
Sandra
<< This idea of yesteryear being the ideal didn't start after this so called
on
generation. There is a word for this, it slips my mind now. As for this idea
of cultural memory, he also brings up another term of identity-dirrected
homeschooling, both which leave me thinking of nazism and racism. Chills. >>
I PROMISE I DIDN'T COPY OFF NANCY'S PAPER!!
(Gosh, all that talk of the good old days gave me bad school flashbacks!)
Sandra
[email protected]
In a message dated 10/24/03 12:40:55 PM, Dnowens@... writes:
<< Here we are again! Where is Mom? I think she is in the laundry room
washing a
mountain of clothes or in the kitchen preparing a meal and sneaking sips of
the wine she tells her husband she uses to flavor that favorite dish of his.
In the past hour I have changed laundry, I have brought out and started on
food (for a potluck tonight, but still, yesterday I cooked TONS for home), and I
tasted the Triple Sec I'm going to use to steam the chicken. Then I tasted
it again. <g> Then I sat down here and found that you saw the same stuff in
that article I saw. Either YOU copied or I'm not crazy.
(No, wait--those aren't my only two options. <bwg>)
Sandra
<< Here we are again! Where is Mom? I think she is in the laundry room
washing a
mountain of clothes or in the kitchen preparing a meal and sneaking sips of
the wine she tells her husband she uses to flavor that favorite dish of his.
>>NANCY, get out of my head, you spy!
In the past hour I have changed laundry, I have brought out and started on
food (for a potluck tonight, but still, yesterday I cooked TONS for home), and I
tasted the Triple Sec I'm going to use to steam the chicken. Then I tasted
it again. <g> Then I sat down here and found that you saw the same stuff in
that article I saw. Either YOU copied or I'm not crazy.
(No, wait--those aren't my only two options. <bwg>)
Sandra
coyote's corner
Thanks so very much!! I'd like to post it on my site (eventually) in the unschooling section.....is there a place I can read the rest of this?
Janis
Janis
----- Original Message -----
From: HMSL2@...
To: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 11:59 AM
Subject: [UnschoolingDiscussion] THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES by Chris Davis
This was posted to another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read
for new Unschooling parents and those struggling with not using a curricula.
It is long but worth the read. See below:
Laura D
Mom to:
Dustin 12
Cassidy 4
Nicholas 18mo
EDD 5/3/04
THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES
Email | 21 Oct 03 | Chis Davis
Posted on 10/21/2003 7:15 PM EDT 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
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coyote's corner
I love it!! I love the way so many will 'understand' it....but hey, I've been mistaken before - show me where/how I'm mistaken?
Janis
Janis
----- Original Message -----
From: Dnowens@...
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2003 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: [UnschoolingDiscussion] THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES by Chris Davis
In a message dated 10/24/03 11:02:50 AM Central Daylight Time, HMSL2@...
writes:
This was posted to another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read
for new Unschooling parents and those struggling with not using a curricula.
It is long but worth the read. See below:
Laura D
Mom to:
Dustin 12
Cassidy 4
Nicholas 18mo
EDD 5/3/04
##############
I don't know if this really is the best thing to have new unschooling parents
read. But me saying that smacks of censorship <g> I guess what I should say
is that MY personal opinion is that there are hidden-read-between-the-lines
things in this article that makes it not as innocent as it seems.
################
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
<snip>
First, in the mid-1800’s the Industrial Revolution began. <snip>
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.
##############
While some of the public schools may have been started by so called
humanists, most if not almost all were started by small communities across the nation,
largely christian. One room school houses sometimes also the church (only
church) in town as well. Single female teacher hired by the male *school board*
and boarded by a family near the school. My own great grandmothers diary reads
something like this; *A good strong, God fearing community. Asked if I would be
attending church services locally, I had no problems answering in the
affirmative. I only asked that I be boarded by a good Lutheran family, and the large
man laughed jovially as if there were any question in the matter. Of course I
will not be seeing Otto for the term, teachers do not go out with gentlemen
and certainly do not announce an engagement of marriage.* My g-grandma was
certainly not a humanist nor were the men who hired her.
#################
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.
##################
Yes, we won't be reading much about Mom in the rest of this article. Where is
Mom?
##################
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.
########################
This idea of yesteryear being the ideal didn't start after this so called on
generation. There is a word for this, it slips my mind now. As for this idea
of cultural memory, he also brings up another term of identity-dirrected
homeschooling, both which leave me thinking of nazism and racism. Chills.
########################
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!
#####################
He is talking about educational reform. Not some middle class movement.
Schools across the country tried this or something like this for a year or two and
then someone else came along with a new idea. He spends his entire article
trying desperately to have us believe he doesn't believe in school=learning and
learing=school and brings the whole facade down in one small sentence. "I don't
remember learning much, but it was more fun than public school!" Even he
still equates school with learning and that one year, failed attempt didn't work,
i.e. he didn't "learn" the unsaid words here are *what he was supposed to.* as
in what he implied, but didn't write is; "I don't remember learning what I
was supposed to, 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.
##################
WRONG! He really needs to reread his copy of Gatto! I think he must have
missed a chapter or five. Schools were until this time largely christian.
##################
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"].
##############
Here he tries to get the reader to believe that this *Identity-Directed
Homeschooling* would be the same as unschooling. Notice he never uses the term
unschooling, yet tries to imply to the reader that that is what he intends. One
should never equate identity-directed with unschooling, ever.
##############
This article is not intended to discourage, but to give hope.<snip>
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.
#####################
White supermacist propaganda. "Kingdom community" "As God intended..." "Life
as it was intended to be" No Blacks in our neighborhood, no Jews in our
clubs.. If people seriously don't believe there are christians out there
homeschooling their kids in this way, they really need to do some reading. No, not all
christians, but many.
#####################
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 (i.e. Giving his children the option
of becoming entrepreneurs).
################
Here we are again! Where is Mom? I think she is in the laundry room washing a
mountain of clothes or in the kitchen preparing a meal and sneaking sips of
the wine she tells her husband she uses to flavor that favorite dish of his.
Really though, in families like this mom is a teacher, dad is the principal, god
is the superintendent.
################
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.
################
Not really as individualistic as he would like us to believe.
################
Chris Davis is the founder of the Elijah Company and a father of 4
children
################
And he too has something to sell.
~Nancy
Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.
Elbert Hubbard
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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To unsubscribe from this send an email to:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
I posted the article and I also saw it differently.
I didn't read it for the Christian parts AT ALL!
To me it was cut and dry.
What I got out of it was shake the curricula and be with your family.
As far as the Father comment I simply saw that as dahh many Mom's dont need
help spending time with their kids. I dont think I have seen one father post
about a mom that disagreed with Unschooling?
As for the word HOMESCHOOLING which was the main topic I felt he was saying
that Traditional HS puts blocks between families. Call me simple...
When I posted this it had just come off our Maine lists. On our lists many
parents are textbook Traditional Christian Homeschoolers.
In my mind and heart it hit a cord for me in my day to day dealings.
NOW, I am fully aware that the E company is well known to be firm
Christian's. BUT I read and judge how I feel about each article, topic and writer. I
dont black them out because I read one thing and now I think they are freaks in
every article they write. If I was to take in everything someone said I would
be in a bitter light as someone would be wrong, right?
I came to Unschooling before I even knew it had a name, was even done or that
someone had been doing it in their state for 20 years. I didn't change
because someone said it was a better way, I found it myself.
I dont practice any religion and I could care less about it. The bible was
forced on me as a child so I take no interest in it now. The "god" references
bugged me a bit but I saw the article not as a religious post.
I read articles all the time that go on and on about nothing. Some make no
sense to new homeschoolers/unschoolers. If a potential newbie is reading they
are searching for that one or two articles that strike a cord and get them off
their feet. To me this article spoke to new Homeschoolers about families and
bonding NOT curricula/books which is what they sell. To me it said bring your
children home, spend time as a family and dont worry about the books its not
as important. To me that is closer to Unschooling than any other type or label.
I can see if I was a remotely religious that this would have been a
calculated post. It was not that at all. What I said was--->>>"This was posted to
another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read for new Unschooling
parents and those struggling with not using a curricula."
Laura D
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
I didn't read it for the Christian parts AT ALL!
To me it was cut and dry.
What I got out of it was shake the curricula and be with your family.
As far as the Father comment I simply saw that as dahh many Mom's dont need
help spending time with their kids. I dont think I have seen one father post
about a mom that disagreed with Unschooling?
As for the word HOMESCHOOLING which was the main topic I felt he was saying
that Traditional HS puts blocks between families. Call me simple...
When I posted this it had just come off our Maine lists. On our lists many
parents are textbook Traditional Christian Homeschoolers.
In my mind and heart it hit a cord for me in my day to day dealings.
NOW, I am fully aware that the E company is well known to be firm
Christian's. BUT I read and judge how I feel about each article, topic and writer. I
dont black them out because I read one thing and now I think they are freaks in
every article they write. If I was to take in everything someone said I would
be in a bitter light as someone would be wrong, right?
I came to Unschooling before I even knew it had a name, was even done or that
someone had been doing it in their state for 20 years. I didn't change
because someone said it was a better way, I found it myself.
I dont practice any religion and I could care less about it. The bible was
forced on me as a child so I take no interest in it now. The "god" references
bugged me a bit but I saw the article not as a religious post.
I read articles all the time that go on and on about nothing. Some make no
sense to new homeschoolers/unschoolers. If a potential newbie is reading they
are searching for that one or two articles that strike a cord and get them off
their feet. To me this article spoke to new Homeschoolers about families and
bonding NOT curricula/books which is what they sell. To me it said bring your
children home, spend time as a family and dont worry about the books its not
as important. To me that is closer to Unschooling than any other type or label.
I can see if I was a remotely religious that this would have been a
calculated post. It was not that at all. What I said was--->>>"This was posted to
another list I am on. I thought this would be a good read for new Unschooling
parents and those struggling with not using a curricula."
Laura D
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[email protected]
In a message dated 10/24/2003 12:15:53 PM Central Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
That whole article is part of the Christian propaganda base of that
"movement" which some people even on this list still don't seem to believe
exists.
I'm disturbed by your points (even though I agree with them) because I've met
and had an in-depth unschooling discussion with Chris Davis and I always
thought he was one of the more sane ones in that arena. harumph.
Tuck
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SandraDodd@... writes:
That whole article is part of the Christian propaganda base of that
"movement" which some people even on this list still don't seem to believe
exists.
I'm disturbed by your points (even though I agree with them) because I've met
and had an in-depth unschooling discussion with Chris Davis and I always
thought he was one of the more sane ones in that arena. harumph.
Tuck
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
HMSL2@... writes:
homeschooler would embrace some of the freedom and ideals of unschooling, and I
thank you for sharing the article.
~Aimee
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> I didn't read it for the Christian parts AT ALL!That's how I saw it too. I found it to be very heartening that a Christian
> To me it was cut and dry.
> What I got out of it was shake the curricula and be with your family.
homeschooler would embrace some of the freedom and ideals of unschooling, and I
thank you for sharing the article.
~Aimee
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[email protected]
In a message dated 10/24/03 01:54:47 PM Central Daylight Time,
SandraDodd@... writes:
PROMISE I DIDN'T COPY OFF NANCY'S PAPER!!
(Gosh, all that talk of the good old days gave me bad school flashbacks!)
Sandra
############
And I guess I should read through all the posts before I reply to the ones I
want to reply to. <BEG> But that would take all the fun out of things wouldn't
it?
~Nancy
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SandraDodd@... writes:
PROMISE I DIDN'T COPY OFF NANCY'S PAPER!!
(Gosh, all that talk of the good old days gave me bad school flashbacks!)
Sandra
############
And I guess I should read through all the posts before I reply to the ones I
want to reply to. <BEG> But that would take all the fun out of things wouldn't
it?
~Nancy
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[email protected]
In a message dated 10/24/03 04:58:14 PM Central Daylight Time,
jana@... writes:
I love it!! I love the way so many will 'understand' it....but hey, I've been
mistaken before - show me where/how I'm mistaken?
Janis
#################
Well, I thought I did show where the holes were, and I know Sandra did better
than me anyway. Maybe reread my post and definitely read Sandra's!
~Nancy
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jana@... writes:
I love it!! I love the way so many will 'understand' it....but hey, I've been
mistaken before - show me where/how I'm mistaken?
Janis
#################
Well, I thought I did show where the holes were, and I know Sandra did better
than me anyway. Maybe reread my post and definitely read Sandra's!
~Nancy
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