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February 24, 2001
ALL CHILDREN ARE HOME-SCHOOLED! Those who publish curricula for
home schooling are doing a booming business. There was a time when
those who purchased materials to school their children at home
were missionaries who lived in out of the way areas and did not
want to send their children to boarding schools. Today, there are
many families who choose to home school their children for many
reasons: fear for the safety of their child, their child has needs
that cannot be met in a classroom setting, disagreement with the
curriculum of the public school system, a conviction that the
education of children is a task given by God to parents, etc.
But isn’t it true that ALL CHILDREN ARE HOME-SCHOOLED?
Virginia Satir, in her book "People Making" said:
"Parents teach in the toughest school in the world--The
School for Making People. You are the board of education, the
principal, the classroom teacher, and the janitor . . . You are
expected to be experts on all subjects pertaining to life and
living . . . There are few schools to train you for your job, and
there is no general agreement on the curriculum. You have to make
it up yourself. Your school has no holidays, no vacations, no
unions, no automatic promotions or pay raises. You are on duty or
at least on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for at least 18
years for each child you have. Besides that, you have to contend
with an administration that has two leaders or bosses, whichever
the case may be--and you know the traps two bosses can get into
with each other. Within this context, you carry on your
people-making. I regard this as the hardest, most complicated,
anxiety-ridden, sweat and blood producing job in the world"
(p. 197).
ALL CHILDREN ARE HOME-SCHOOLED and here in is our problem. We
are not all using the same curriculum. There was a time when a
majority of the home-schools of Marshall were teaching the same
basic curriculum. Values of honesty, industry, responsibility,
patriotism, and respect for authority were woven into the
curriculum, with the lesson being delivered verbally by the home
teachers: mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents. And perhaps most
powerful of all were the lessons that were acted out with these
basic values being the themes.
Evidence continues to mount that children come to our public
schools with a set of values firmly in place which they have
learned in their "home school": big people beat up on
little people - don’t get caught - if you do get caught don’t
admit responsibility - get by with as little effort as possible -
learn to beat the system - no one has the right to tell you what
to do.
Public schools can be expected to reinforce the curriculum
taught in home schools if that curriculum includes the following:
honesty, industry, responsibility, patriotism, and respect for
authority. It is unrealistic, however, to expect our public
schools to eradicate lessons learned in our home schools,
especially when these lessons are reinforced over the years by
countless repetition.
There is one institution in our community that is designed for
reformation - THE CHURCH. The church is designed to put people in
touch with the power to create changes in their "home
schools." How long has it been since your family worshiped
together? Well, that is too long!
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