In high school I had several notebooks. Most of them were filled with plans for this or that contraption, house design, observations, rough art sketches, random ideas, and so forth. In particular, I partially filled a notebook on education and education ideas. I came across it recently while searching for some other documents. Reading it and looking back, I realize that at the time I wrote, I did not understand the why for much of what I attempted to describe or intuitively thought to be true. Now, I have the understanding of the why behind much of what I wrote; although I still find that I agree with many of my previous conclusions. I share a couple of the better excerpts here.
Homeschool Education
There are several types of homeschool education systems. To start off with, there are the radically independent homeschoolers. These are not often part of a support group. There is also the state-run education system. In this system homeschoolers watch interactive courses over the internet or on CD’s. Other homeschoolers rely extensively on their umbrella groups for education. Others rely on video correspondence courses or satellite TV courses. While the results of these have been well demonstrated, I would like to focus on my own method of teaching.
I was raised first with the Calvert correspondence school curriculum. This changed about the time I was in third grade. We switched to radically independent status. We combined books, made up our own assignments, and did our work when we felt like it [some artistic license added here]. Our family was just about as unschooled as one could be and still claim to have an education [partially true]. We even threw out whole entire subjects, because we decided that since none of us were emotionally imbalanced, abnormal psychology classes simply didn’t appeal to us. Paper work was kept to a minimum and was usually regarded as “unnecessary busy work”. For sciences, nature became our classroom. We would learn things hands-on. We would observe trees and animals. It was then our family learned what true education really was. Make a child sit for hours, churn out book work, and learn meaningless social skill: He will learn nothing. Give a child direction, impart to him a love of learning, do not discourage him, and he will educate himself.
The next was a short essay that I wrote in four parts. Again, excerpts from the original.
My Way of Education
Do we need an education? Well, yes and no. The question is somewhat perplexing. To begin with, let’s look at the kind of education we all need. This is the education from God’s Word. God himself commands us to do this (Deut. 6:7). This is the all-important tenet of education. It is the base of all else. No other branch of education is so vastly essential. This is what provides the basis of all other interests. God merits our continual study and learning about Him….
I am simply saying that an education is not needed to be successful. Indeed, an education cannot even give success. What you do with your education is the key to success.
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How will it be done? I have a feeling much of this has already been covered in the last two sections. There are two main schools of thought. The first is education in the home. Another is public/private school education. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Education in the home is definitely the most godly thing to do. This is because God entrusted the main task of education to the parents. The maximization of a child’s potential in the home is incredible; however, many homeschooled children never take it fully. The downside of home schooling is often the slow pace, lack of drill, and isolation from other people. The public/private school has its advantages, but the environment is often one of sin and anti-Christian. Yes, there are Christian schools, but some of the greatest academic flops happen at these places. Schools today are often focused on socialization and basket weaving. I think the bad at many of these schools outweighs the good. That is why I choose school at home.
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What really matters? In view of certain things education is not really important. Being true to God and bringing him glory is what really matters. In the light of eternity, education will not matter. That is why the only valid reason for an education is to learn about God or his world and to bring him glory. What really matters is that the young man or woman or child know God. All else can fail but this. Yet, if this fails all education is in vain.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.
Prov. 1:7
*Title image of The Lake School, Clear Lake, SD, ca. 1898. My great-grandmother was born in this town in 1908.
