Especially for "Wednesday With Words"

Think about this great quote about 'conversation' from Caring For Words in a Culture of Lies, a wonderful little book recommended by my friend Tina in Colorado:

Words are entrusted to us as equipment for our life together, to help us survive, guide, and nourish one another.... A large, almost sacramental sense of the import and efficacy of words can be found in early English usage, where conversation appears to have been a term that included and implied much more than it does now: to converse was to foster community, to commune with to dwell in a place with others. Conversation was understood to be a life-sustaining practice, a blessing, and a craft to be cultivated for the common good. (p. 2)

How excited I was when I began to read this book a few days ago and realized that someone else had been thinking about the historical and root meaning of our word 'conversation.' I just recently researched the etymology of the Latin conversatio since I was using the term to name what we are hoping to do at the Harvey Center! As I wrote there a few months ago: "the most important factor in developing the minds of our young people is to provide them an atmosphere of learning in humility to God. It is a life that must be modeled and passed on with love and care. This best happens in a place like a family, or a small school, where the student is known and loved as a whole person. We want to encourage the parents and other members of the extended family to study along with their students, and to read and discuss great literature together." Yes, we want to encourage thoughtful, life-changing conversatio!

During the Middle Ages the term conversatio morum was used by the Benedictine monks to refer to their life of constantly turning together toward God.  Conversatio morum is a vow to a continual change of heart, a daily reshaping of the mind and heart according to God’s will.

I like to think of the idea behind our English word "conversation" by focusing on the meaning of the Latin, conversatio:  a constant turning together, a way of life. To quote again from McEntyre's book, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies:

When we converse, we act together towards a common end, and we act upon one another. Indeed, conversation is a form of activism--a political enterprise in the largest and oldest sense-- a way of building and sustaining community. (p. 89)

The Whirligig Is No Place For a Life of Love!

Over the years I've sought true fellowship with other Christians, but have found that this is very difficult. It is much easier to do things with non-Christians, because it seems that Christians are always very busy doing "important things." There are always so many good reasons for people to be rushing around. I realize that most people are on the 'merry-go-round' so that they can find people to talk with, but there isn't much opportunity for true conversation there. Yet, when you stay off the "merry-go-round" of constant go-go-go, life then gets very lonely. You watch all of your potential friends speeding past you on the whirling platform, while you enjoy the sunshine and the picnic table all by yourself. Perhaps you can wave and throw a few words of encouragement as they speed past, but that's about it. Some say that you must work side be side on the whirligig in order to have an opportunity for more exchanges.

The Latin term  conversatio means  a life of thoughtfulness, or a process of turning an idea around with others. Its roots mean: con (cum) with & versat turning around. The word came to mean turning ideas and thoughts around with each other. I've always thought that a truly thoughtful "conversation" is one of the most exciting things in the world, especially when you can get to know the people with whom you are conversing. This inspires your own mind and heart to grow and improve.  It inspires creativity and action!

Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly beloved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a s a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

~  Ephesians 5: 1-2             

In light of this verse, should we reconsider the way we live? I've often wondered how we can justify rushing about from one activity to another, primarily to make sure that our children progress in their careers. Leaving very little time for developing relationships with others. It seems to be very hard for us to put free time with nature, books and people at the top of our list. There are endless projects that we feel must be done, and they will always get in the way of living a life of love. But if we provide ourselves time for study, prayer, and reflection on God's wonders, we will be overflowing with praise, will develop sensitive hearts, and be able to practice love for others more and more. What better 'project' could there be?

Quotable for July

It is only within a particular social system that a system of education has any meaning. If education today seems to deteriorate, if it seems to become more and more chaotic and meaningless, it is primarily because we have no settled and satisfactory arrangement of society, and because we have both vague and diverse opinions about the kind of society we want. Education is a subject which cannot be discussed in a void: our questions raise other questions, social, economic, financial, political. And the bearings are on more ultimate problems even than these: to know what we want in education we must know what we want in general, we must derive our theory of education from our philosophy of life.



~from a little-known T.S. Eliot essay, "Modern Education and the Classics"  

Thankfulness and Paying Attention

The more I read it, the more I want to talk about Caldecott's latest book, Beauty in the Word! I knew I was going to love this book, since my youngest son and I were already reading Beauty for Truth's Sake--it's funny, but I can't finish that one, because my son is always carrying it away with him to read! But now, since we have two books by Stratford Caldecott, we can each read in peace.

This second book is a profound study on the significance of word, and I think that I've finally found a book on "classical education" that I might be able to whole-heartedly recommend--in fact, I think I might call it my favorite book on true education (which is a better term for what we wish to pursue). But let me finish it first; I'm about halfway through. Caldecott even quotes from Marshall McLuhan's book, which I'm also reading now. By the way, that is another one I can't wait to write about: it is fascinating to see McLuhan immersed in the writings of classical authors, and obscure ones at that!

But back to Caldecott, here are some of my latest underlinings:
"Truth is not a quarry that can easily be pursued without the help of others, because our thoughts have a tendency to run in circles. Our friends ...are given to us as 'helpers' in that quest, which leads
ultimately to God." p. 81

And then there's the section starting on pp. 29-31 about the concept of attention. Wish that I had
time to just type up all three pages of it, but here are a few quotes:

"If attention to the child is the key to the teacher's success, it is the child's own quality of attention that is the key to the learning process... 

Attention is desire; it is the desire for light, for truth, for understanding, for possession..... The attentive concentration on that which is sought and desired unites teacher and pupil through the presence of a 'third' which is the living truth (the content if you like) not yet possessed and yet somehow invisibly present, implicit in the relationship itself.

The relationship is what makes the truth flow. We learn because we love."

"Chesterton said, 'Thanking is the highest form of thought,' ...because it penetrates to the highest truth about things: that they do not simply subsist in themselves but in another....

This is what we saw as we sat on our back deck last week!

 to thank the Giver, the Origin, is to arrive at the ultimate truth of things, the truth that is sought in logical thought, the truth of what things are; for in their deepest nature things are expressions of the love that moves the stars." 
 ~  p. 82 in Beauty in the Word.

Yes!! A writer who goes from Chesterton to Dante. 
 

Glorifying the Lord By Imitating Him

This is one of my paintings from long ago (seems like another life). I hang it in the kitchen, inspiring me to cook food everyone can enjoy! Though sometimes it is necessary to put away the poetry and the painting--they are luxuries, after all, not something that will bring in the bacon--but when we have the chance, we should pick up the brush and canvas, and the pen and paper. So this is what I'm doing this summer. It's been many years, because I was a little busy with three sweet boys to help educate. The other day I went to see an old friend and noticed a painting that I had done many years ago hanging in the living room. I snapped a shot of it...

What is closer to imitating God than attempting to be a creator? (Even though what we do is such a paltry imitation!)  When do people feel most alive and fulfilled except when they are creating something and imitating Him. Think of your carpenter husband creating a fine piece of furniture that he designed himself, a seamstress creating a costume, an artist painting a special picture, or a poet weaving words together to express a moment. Anyone who has ever created something feels that ecstatic sense of love whenever they've created something to share with others.

In Ephesians 2 we read, "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do....(and in Chapter 5) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."  Ok, maybe it's a stretch to interpret this as meaning: go thee and paint pictures of God's creation, but to me it is a way of loving God and your neighbor!

If you have time for reading blogs like this, then you have time to write a book, or learn to paint! Here's a loose paraphrase from an article by C.S. Lewis, "Learning in War Time:"

If we don’t spend our free time reading great books (or blogs!), we’ll just use the time reading bad ones--or reading ridiculous tweets and silly things on Facebook. If we don’t use our time to pursue aesthetic pleasures, we’ll end up in sensual pleasures, such as drinking too many Hazelnut Macchiatos. We are cultural beings. If we abdicate our responsibility to engage in artistic endeavors for the glory of God, we will end up living in a barren, ugly culture.

And this is exactly what has happened. 

To know what we want in education...

"To know what we want in education we need to know what we want in general. We must derive our theory of education from our philosophy of life." T. S. Eliot  in an essay entitled, "Modern Education and the Classics."

 

            In the classical education movement the struggle we have is with the mindset that promotes physical comfort, science, power through things (i.e. money) --these are the dominant values of our time. Many Christians don’t know how to reject this without just dropping out of culture altogether. For over a century we Americans have been permeated by a spirit of “pragmatism.” How do we convince ourselves that literature, art and poetry have real value? We can “sell” a literary education by pointing out the ways in which a deep language study helps a student in those highly valued professions of doctor, lawyer, preacher, or any professional career.  And most will acknowledge that its sort of nice to have a few Christian scholars who will teach humanities or philosophy in the universities.  But overall, we are swimming upstream in the culture of 21^st century America. 

            But the Bible tells us that God created us in His image and tells us to imitate him.  Shouldn't this involve “being creative” in whatever way we can as humans. As Romans 12 says:

“Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. That ye may prove what is that good acceptable and perfect will of God.”

We can learn more and more about how to do this to His glory by studying the art and literary masterpieces of the past.  We can become wiser by understanding history thoroughly. And as CS Lewis put it, we can see the world and human experience through other people's eyes....hundreds and  hundreds of different eyes. We experience another human being's view of the world in many different eras of times and places.

The true ‘art of communication’ or rhetoric, in its classical sense, is developed by understanding the human condition and by understanding language. The word is more important than the quantifiable subjects, more essential to growing up in Christ, because it connects us to others. We believe these are important endeavors in order to become a truly loving Christian in this world.  The value of true Christian relationships with other homeschoolers is essential to making progress in restoring education. We need to take the time to laugh, and cry, with others about life, because as Ephesians 5:1-2 says: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

  

What in the World Is the Trivium?



Asphodel

My heart rouses
        thinking to bring you news

                         of something
that concerns you
        and concerns many men. Look at
                         what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
        despised poems.
                         It is difficult

to get the news from poems
         yet men die miserably every day
                          for lack

of what is found there.

             ~ from Asphodel- That Greeny Flower  

                 by William Carlos Williams

 

'"Teach the Trivium." This has been a catchphrase of the classical education movement. Most people can tell it means three of something. But most people I encounter in our homeschooling circles are still very confused about what exactly ‘classical education’ or trivium mean. The Latin word trivium literally means “three roads" and was used to mean where three roads meet. The original use of the term for education was as an indication of the unity of the three aspects of the art of communication: the verbal arts.   

Many people now define the term trivium as a method (I am reminded of Ellul’s book on the modern rule of techne)--a technique of teaching that uses developmental stages, which I won't detail here. I'm sure you've probably heard the concept a few times. But throughout the centuries, since the Middle Ages, there were two 'stages' of education, the trivium and the quadrivium. The three subjects of the trivium were "grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric." When these were mastered a student went on to study the quadrivium--the four subjects: geometry, astronomy, music and arithmetic.  Together these made up what were known as the "seven liberal arts." Obviously (with the changing times) we need to change or add to some of the subjects, but when it comes to the first three, there seems to me to be something essential to education about these three in one...

1- Grammar: pursuing the parts of language so that a thought may develop. The first is working with individual words, phrases, and sentences. Doing such things as naming the different parts of speech, learn the meanings of words, and writing a sentence.

2- Dialectic/Logic: pursuing the syllogism, study of sentences and their relationship to each other, so that a new thought may be asserted. It is learning to put together units of thought (syllogism official logical terminology for the sake of the audience).....Taking a few sentences (premises) and coming up with a thesis and a conclusion.

3- Rhetoric: the pursuit of communication: turning these ideas around with others, in order to develop those new thoughts into a culture. This is the culmination of the use of language. And this is where the group comes in, and others to connect with is so crucial! Once a student has gotten a mastery of the first two, he or she can begin to effectively communicate and create ideas with others. We ultimately want to communicate with people in the flesh, but the student does not often have an appropriate friend or mentor to exchange ideas with, so this is why books are so important. The “others” may often be “other minds” via literature, this has been the most effective medium of communication of ideas in our culture for a long time. (more on this later)
 

Now, compare this process above with the rudimentary forms of these subjects that are left in our contemporary curriculum. We have divorced the study of vocabulary from any study of grammar or sentence analysis. We have taken a few principles of composition to make a quick and easy writing lesson. We are content with having quickly gotten the kids to cover this, so that we can be sure to spend many hours attempting to cram lots of data about many subjects in the child's head. Is this supposed to be more interesting for them? Is it supposed to show them off to the world? See what I know? Has a trivial pursuit been substituted for the pursuit of the trivium?

A Parent's Pursuit of Learning is a Powerful Model

So I've been thinking some more, about my question of the other day:

What did we do right as homeschoolers?

                                           And I think that I'm beginning to understand what it was...

Perhaps it's because our family came to the simple realization that "true education," of the ancient and enduring kind, is not something for the school years, K-12, but is for life. And I know that most people give lip service to this concept, but what I mean is that we actually dared to implement it. We decided to totally reject all years of the current prevailing curriculum, rather than simply drop a few years of it and try to fit our children back into the society's educational track. This had great power to enliven the quality of those things we did pursue, because we pursued their study because it was something that we valued. And the unwritten part of this whole approach was to give time and freedom to think, plan and create.

We also believed that, if there was a subject that was valuable for a young person's life of the mind, then it was just as essential or valuable for the parent's. While my husband did not have the luxury of pursuing the study of Logic or Vergil during those years, I did. (And, though he had a desire for the first, he didn't share my desire to pursue the latter! He desired to study more technical subjects which applied to his career, and since he had a very small amount of time, this is what he did.)

In "The Training of the Orator" Quintilian writes:

I should prefer the parents to have as much education as possible. And I'm not referring to fathers only. For it was Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, who according to tradition contributed much to their eloquence... Parents who have not themselves had an opportunity for education should not on that account pay less attention to teaching their children; let them for this very reason work all the harder at it.

And so, the modeling of an approach to life and learning was a huge lesson for our sons. But the freeing of concern for what society believed the boys should study gave us time to discuss whatever books we read. To come up with an approach to learning subjects we valued. This allowed the boys to focus like a laser beam on creative projects and discover things that they knew were valuable. Their motivation to learn and read soared as soon as they were away from the compulsion of a curriculum.

Many of these lessons I learned by accident--Providence! ...

 

The Medium is the Disconnect

Many years ago, McLuhan said, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.” And now we have so many tools and gadgets to keep us "connected with others" that we can't keep track of who we are. I am well aware of the irony that I'm using one of these new media to spread my ideas! But here I go.... The plethora of our 'means to connect' has overwhelmed us--they have us all stumbling around and falling into holes. So much for connecting with other humans!

After a lifetime of moving about every three years, we finally have a home, and so I've been unpacking boxes of books that haven't seen the light of day in 30 years! I found my old yellowed copy of Marshall McLuhan's book, Understanding Media, and as I skimmed over the pages I found passages that speak just as cogently today:

Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot. For the content of the medium is like the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.

I remember being fascinated by this book, written by the man famous for saying "the medium is the message" and then allowing the typo on the proof copy of this book: The Medium is the Massage remain as the title! As I look at some of my under-linings I begin to realize the relationship of those issues of 'community' I was fascinated by in the 70s relate to our need for integration in education:

The rush of students into our universities is not an explosion but an implosion. And the needful strategy to encounter this force is not to enlarge the university, but to create numerous groups of autonomous colleges in place of our centralized university plant..

I remember being intrigued by many others in the box: The Lonely Crowd by Riesman, The Technological Society by Ellul,  The Culture of Narcissism by Lasch, and The Abolition of Man by Lewis. It was the 70s and I was studying philosophy, sociology, art, literature. I majored in one thing after the other for about seven years, until Grandpa begged me to plug into one major and get a B.A. so that he could see me graduate before he died. My family begged me to major in Math so that I could make lots of money counting it. I wanted to study people and life, and get a degree in the Humanities, but colleges didn't offer this major any more, so I ended up graduating as an English major.

Another book from the box which I discovered later in the 1980s it was my favorite book for that decade: Habits of the Heart by Robert N. Bellah, et al. I remembered how brilliantly it discussed the issue of extreme individualism and the loss of any real community in our lives. But as I skimmed over it the other day, I was surprised to find quotes that were so apropos to our struggles in education today. In its discussion of the problem of fragmentation in our lives:

These developments in the realm of high culture have had devastating consequences for education. Here, particularly in higher education, students were traditionally supposed to acquire some general sense of the world and their place in it. In the contemporary multiversity, it is easier to think of education as a cafeteria in which one acquires discrete bodies of information or useful skills.

Earlier the chapter had quoted a writer who understands the profound disintegration in our society:

The poet and critic Wendell Berry has described the consequences for the place of poetry in a culture of separation and specialization. Since science specializes in the external reality of the world, the poet is consigned to speak about his own feelings. He is himself his chief subject matter and 'the old union of beauty, goodness and truth is broken.'

Another quote about education from Habits of the Heart:

If our high culture could begin to talk about nature and history, space and time, in ways that did not disaggregate them into fragments, it might be possible for us to find connections and analogies with the older ways in which human life was made meaningful.... help us find again the coherence we have almost lost.

And further on in the chapter:

And while our universities are under greater pressure than ever to emphasize pragmatic results--technological achievements and career oriented skills--there are voices calling for a reaffirmation of the classic role of education as a away to articulate private aspirations with common cultural meanings so that individuals simultaneously become more fully developed people and citizens of a free society. Eva Brann has recently given an eloquent defense of this understanding of education in her Paradoxes of Education in a Republic she argues that in education at present the choice is either tradition or technique, and that technique has become far too dominant.

Since it has proven impossible to reform the institution of education at any level, the movement of home schooling is the force that is making a difference in our society. It is one of the few places left in our society where the student can be loved and cared for as a whole person, and therefore trained in true values. Our education system doesn't believe there is a truth to seek. For what purpose does it exist? The post-modern mind does not believe in the possibilities of human communication.

I now see how these books helped form my thinking during my college years and helped me to understand the power of the trivium in education. Because of our American pragmatism and love of technique, it is so natural for us to reduce classical education to a technique. But the trivium is not a technique, it is the union of three aspects of language--an understanding of human communication as a seeking for understanding of life and people, an integrated whole.  And this is a reflection of the ultimate truth of the communion in the Trinity.

I found out a few years ago that Marshall McLuhan was always fascinated by the Trinity and the trivium. Before he ever wrote anything about media, his doctoral dissertation at Cambridge was The Classical Trivium. I see that it has recently been published, so I am ordering it today!

Et in tota anima tua

Now that I'm "retired" from homeschooling, I find myself looking back on those days and wishing that I could do it all again. Now that I have some hindsight! But only with hindsight (and perhaps for just a couple of hours). I also find myself wondering what we did right? All of the many ways it went wrong are so obvious. The guys ended up with a homemade transcript that was full of major holes. I never even finished teaching them a full two years of Latin!  And that is my main love. They didn't do any science labs --at least not any officially planned labs. Yet our sons are loving and responsible citizens, with great relationships; and they are not being held back from any of the things they wish to pursue, including college and beyond. So what was it that we did right?

Funny thing is that those of us who really want our children to have a first class education often try to cram so much learning into those first twelve years--there are so many subjects that must be covered--that sometimes our students' minds close up like a steel trap. Especially when the mom is all stressed about it.

This is where it seems to me true Christian relationships with other homeschoolers are essential to making progress in restoring a vigorous, not a rigorous, education. We need friends who will help us keep our perspective, and not let the educational rat race get in the way of real learning! It takes some relaxed quiet time (in other words a different sort of lifestyle) to really assimilate new ideas well. The value of experiencing and appreciating literature and art is worthy of time; it is worthy of time spent discussing these things with friends.

As Aristotle wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics (Book 8),

...friends enhance our ability to think and act.

Too often we let the educational ‘rat race’ draw us away from the sort of learning that truly develops the mind. We chase after measurable and certifiable educational activities that can be listed on a transcript--and we can’t even think of a reason not to do that. But as Christians we are called to live a life of love, to develop our minds for the glory of God. This takes thoughtful time and it requires relationships. For how do we learn to love truly and deeply unless we can communicate that way?  A lively literary way of life includes deep and lasting relationships with others.

As Aristotle said in the start of the Nichemachean. Ethics, “the Good of man is the active exercise of his soul's faculties in conformity with excellence or virtue, or if there be several human excellences or virtues, in conformity with the best and most perfect among them. Moreover, to be happy takes a complete lifetime; for one swallow does not make spring.”

I find my heart heavy when I see the direction that homeschooling has taken. So many co-ops are formed in which the teachers and students do not have relationships with one another. The family's agenda of working towards a fully filled out transcript above all, doesn't leave time to build relationships with other teachers and students. When I ask my grown sons what they remember as the most valuable parts of their homeschooling, they refer to the reading aloud of certain good books and the discussing of ideas.

 

Passing on a love for people and a love for learning go together. Jesus summed this up in the two greatest commandments, which I can't resist having my students memorize in Latin:

...diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo et in tota anima tua et in tota mente tua.....hoc est maximum et primum mandatum. diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum.

                                                                                                                    ~Matthew 22: 37- 39

 

A Burst of Glory



 















Shortly after we were blessed with this home on 3 acres near the center of Charlotte, we woke up one morning to look out the kitchen window and saw this rose bush pushing up through a dense overgrown hedge bush and shooting for the sky! 

This is the 3rd spring that it has gotten bigger and bigger and more lush, even though we haven't had time to do anything more than trim back the hedge it emerges from! Don't ever tell me that God didn't invent symbolism!

 

Parents First

C.S. Lewis says the following in "Learning in War Time:"

Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has

always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important than

itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were

secure, the search would never have begun. ... The only people who achieve much

are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are
still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come.

This essay, which is found in the book The Weight of Glory, is one of the most inspiring discussions on why Christians ought to pursue the intellectual life that I have ever read. What does it mean to love the Lord with our whole mind?

The answer to this should excite both children and parents to pursue education. In homeschooling, it seems to me, our first order of priority should be for the parents to begin a pursuit of learning. To discover the important things we missed in our so-called education, and then we will know what we are leading our children into. They will follow, if they see the excitement that comes from stretching the mind. But if, by our actions and lifestyle, we prove that the knowledge we say they need and must rigorously pursue, is not important for our own minds, then what are we communicating?

I look forward to discussing with you the methods and forms of organization that we create, and how they relate to our philosophy of education. What is it that we are ultimately seeking in "classical homeschools?" Is it just entrance into a great college? I know that most will say "no," yet the primary focus on transcripts seems to say something different. I hear so many say that they want to train their children well, so that they can be influential in the top echelons of culture. But how will that happen, if we sacrifice a thoughtful study for a harried attempt at impressing secular college admission people with an impressive list of activities and courses? Why do we break free of the secular system's parameters for elementary education only to succumb to them for high school?

To seek knowledge for truth's sake, rather than for success in the world, requires a lifestyle of learning.

 

A Lively Literary Life

As a Latin teacher I cringe whenever I hear "rigorous" describing a course of study, since this is derived from the Latin term rigor which means a "board-like stiffness." You've heard the phrase, rigor mortis? Instead I like to use the word "vigorous," which comes from the Latin term vigor meaning "fullness of life." A Christian homeschool family we have the freedom to educate in the creativity of the Spirit; may ours be a wholesome and invigorating lifestyle of learning.



God has called us to live a life of love, and this calls for creativity--and balance.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. ...Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.  (Ephesians 5:2-10)

 



In the Harvey family, during our twenty years of homeschooling, we sought a vigorous literary curriculum in the early years, surrounding our children with wonderful literature and lively discussion. Later we added more structured courses in the intellectual disciplines gradually as they matured. As the mom and teacher I was passionate about learning and reading great literature. As little boys my sons were not so enthusiastic, but they were obedient and desired to please most of the time, so we got a little bit of 'schoolwork' done. And when they were young, as long as they had some play dough or blocks in hand they would absorb the words and the stories.

 

When we finished those years, to tell you the truth, I felt like a total failure as a 'schoolmarm.' I hadn't gotten them through all of the standard courses, although we had read and discussed a lot of books together! Hoping that somehow they would be smart enough to make their way through college, or find a skill to pay their way in life, I prayed that God would help my intense love for them to 'cover a multitude of sins' in this area. He answered my prayers most graciously!

 

While they spent most of their school hours building forts and creating clubs, I spent most of our homeschooling years teaching myself and studying what education meant. Intrigued by Latin and the medieval ideas of the Trivium, I studied everything I could get my hands on about these things, including medieval history and Latin. The more I improved my own education, the smarter my sons seemed to get! Its almost as though they learned to study by simply seeing me doing it! I long to help more homeschoolers give up the educational rat race, and learn to love God's gift of language, to cultivate it with meditation on the Word and more.

 

The ultimate purpose of a deep study of language is not just to do well in college and land a great job--nor is its ultimate purpose to win an argument--although both of these may be fringe benefits of this sort of study. Language is God's gift to the human, for the purpose of leading us into fellowship with one another about great ideas, so that we may build a life of love on the foundation of the truth and goodness of God.