Ten Commandments for Homeschooling Moms

From Karen Braun over at the SpunkyHomeSchool Blog, Monday, February 20, 2006:

I am the Lord your God, Thou shall have no other curriculum before Me. Every homeschooler wants to find the perfect curriculum. God's word is the best one around. Best of all most of us already own it.

Thou shall not make a graven image of the perfect homeschool family. There is no perfect homeschool family. We all have sinned a fall short of the glory of God.

Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Don't be a slave to your duties. Take time to rest and enjoy your children and husband.

Honor your father and mother. Even if your parents are not believers or supportive of homeschooling honor them. It isn't easy, but the example you set now will pay dividends down the road. If they are deceased talk often of your parents and build bridges from the past to the future.

Thou shall not destroy thy children's spirits. Keep a tender eye toward their heart to make sure that their relationships with the Lord, you, and each other remain strong.

Thou shall not compare yourself one to another. Trust me, you'll always come up short and discontent.

Thou shall not commit "adultery". Stop cheating your husband of the respect he desires by comparing him to other homeschooling dads, speakers, or authors; and then wishing your husband would be different. Love the man you married not the perfect image in your mind.

Thou shall not boast about your accomplishments. Scripture says, "Let another praise you and not your own lips." The fruit of your work will be raising a generation of servants for the Lord. And the best reward will be when you stand before His throne and He boasts, "Well done my good and faithful servant. Enter now into the joy of my rest."

Thou shall encourage other families to good deeds, not judge one another harshly. We all make mistakes and have things we wished we had done differently. Seek to find ways to build one another up not tear each other down.

Thou shall not steal the joy of your family. The joy of the Lord shall be your strength. As you delight in the Lord your household will become delightful as well.

I don't pretend to do any one of these things on a consistent basis. God is still working on me but I press on to the high calling that Christ has set before me.

Libraries v. Schools

John Taylor Gatto's "Books: The Difference Between Library and School Editions" is a short, worthwhile essay that packs a powerful point: When you take the free will out of education students lose power to see where their own best interest lies.

An excerpt where Gatto compares public libraries with government schools:

One way to see the difference between school books and real books like Moby Dick is to examine the different procedures which separate librarians who are the custodians of real books from schoolteachers who are the custodians of school books.

To begin with, libraries are usually comfortable, clean and quiet. They are orderly places where you can read instead of just pretending to read. People of all ages are found working there together, not just a pack of age-segregated kids. For some reason libraries are never age-segregated nor do they presume to segregate readers by questionable tests of ability any more than farms or forests or oceans do.

The librarian doesn't tell me what to read, doesn't tell me what sequence of reading I have to follow, doesn't grade my reading. The librarian trusts me to have a worthwhile purpose of my own. I appreciate that and trust the library in return because it trusts me.

Some other significant differences between libraries and schools are these: The librarian lets me ask my own questions and helps me when I want help, not when she decides I need it. If I feel like reading all day long, that's okay with the librarian who doesn't compel me to stop reading at intervals by ringing a bell in my ear. The library keeps its nose out of my home, too. It doesn't send letters to my mother reporting on my library behavior, it doesn't make recommendations or issue orders how I should use my time at home.

The library doesn't play favorites, it's a very democratic place as seems proper in a democracy. If the books I want are available I get them even if that democratic decision deprives someone even more gifted and talented than I am of the books.

The library never humiliates me by posting ranked lists of good readers for all to see; it presumes that good reading is its own reward and doesn't need to be held up as an object lesson to bad readers. One of the strangest differences between library and school is that you almost never see a kid behaving badly in a library even though bad kids have the same access to libraries as good ones do.

The library never makes predictions about my future based on my past reading habits, nor does it imply dishonestly that things will be rosy if I read sanitary prose and thorns if I read Barbara Cartland. It tolerates eccentric reading habits because it realizes free men and women are often very eccentric.

How to Provide "Socialization"

Too funnies recently came my way along the same vein: the merit of public school socialization should be re-considered. These are light-hearted sillies, not a serious look at socialization (I'll provide this for you in other posts).

The first, from the Kolbe Little Home Journal, Fall 2005:

PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIALIZATION

"When my wife and I mention we are strongly considering homeschooling our children, we are without fail asked, 'But what about socialization?' Fortunately, we found a way our kids can receive the same socialization that government schools provide.

"On Mondays and Wednesdays, I will personally corner my son in the bathroom, give him a wedgie and take his lunch money. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, my wife will make sure to tease our children for not being in the 'in' crowd, taking special care to poke fun at any physical abnormalities. Fridays will be 'Fad and Peer Pressure Day.' We will all compete to see who has the coolest toys, the most expensive clothes, and the loudest, fastest, and most dangerous car."

"Every day, my wife and I will adhere to a routine of cursing and swearing in the hall and mentioning our weekend exploits with alcohol and immorality. And we have asked (our kids) to report us to the authorities in the event we mention faith, religion, or try to bring up morals and values."

And this one I picked up from homeschooling dad Chris O'Donnell (not the movie star!). The Reluctant Atheist wrote a post asking for advice on whether or not she should homeschool her children. One reader, Moosejamal, left a comment begging Relectant Atheist not to mess up her kids socially by homeschooling them, saying the children would miss out on much socialization. O'Donnell left this reply:

Why should I homeschool my kids? Moosejamal is right. If you homeschool your kids they will miss out on getting bullied on the playground, and shaken down for their lunch money. You'll be depriving them of the opportunity to sit in a sterile, institutional building all day in the care of government employees who really don't have any emotional investment in their well being. They will be missing out on the watered down, overly politicized curriculum in 8 year old textbooks that were chosen because that is the publisher that provided the best kickbacks to the school board textbook committee. They will be missing out on the wonderful opportunity to learn how important it is to speak only when spoken to, how to stand in a line quietly, how to hold it all day long because they are afraid to go into the bathrooms, and how to look interested in class when they are bored out of their minds.

Fellow homeschoolers, we aren't missing out on too much. Almost everything socially worthwhile one could obtain from school can be obtained outside of school without too much trouble. Here's to socializing our kids, socializing them with real people and preparing them for the real world!

Outsourcing Parenthood

An encouraging article that will make you think about how common and acceptable it is to "outsource parenthood" in many areas of life:

http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2005/03/outsourcing-parenthood.html

Carnival of Homeschooling

Here's a fun blog --

full of links to meaty and interesting articles on homeschooling!

At the Carnival of Homeschooling, you can visit the Information Booth, the Parade, watch the Performers, eat at the Food Court, play in the Fun House,listen to a Traveling Preacher, or check the Lost and Found (possibly for an extra child or two!)

This Old Schoolhouse Has New e-book For Sale!

Click Here!

Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

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I have yet to read this book, but it looks interesting.
Available online as a free download. You can't beat the price!

Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

Here's one newspaper review from a few years back (when the book was first published):

The Washington Post
Page A2 / Wednesday, December 8, 1999
Culture, et cetera

Deliberately dumb

"Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt's new book, ' the deliberate dumbing down of america' is without doubt one of the most important publishing events in the annals of American education in the last hundred years.

"John Dewey's 'School and Society,' published in 1899, set American education on its course to socialism. Rudolf Flesch's `Why Johnny Can't Read' published in 1955, informed American parents that there was something terribly wrong with the way the schools were teaching children to read ...

"But Iserbyt has done what no one else wanted or could do. She has put together the most formidable and practical compilation of documentation describing the well-planned 'deliberate dumbing down' of American children by their education system.'"

Samuel L. Blumenfeld, writing on "Deliberately dumbing us down,"
Dec. 2 on World Net Daily at worldnetdaily.com