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.