Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
A good article
This topic is being discussed in my home a lot lately. I read this blog today and found it interesting. I thought I would share.
http://blog.ylcf.org/
Monday, November 17, 2008
I am a homeschooler
by Claire M.
"You were homeschooled, weren't you?" (Of course the question came on the heels of another demonstration of my woefully-deficient knowledge of pop culture.) "Through high school?"
Yes.
"That's the big debate in our house now, whether to homeschool through high school. Did you use videos and co-ops and that kind of thing?"
I didn't want to bore the whole group with the whole long answer, so for the rest of the Bible study, I was distracted by all the things unsaid. Things like that the biggest advantage of homeschooling, in my mind, is the opportunity to learn for the sake of learning, to step outside the academic game and study the things that fascinate you, to learn the way you learn best, to learn from rich life experience and not just memorize things for a test and a grade. I would have said that if you're just going to create a mini-school, you might as well send your kids to school, because school probably does the school thing better than you can.
Not to say that co-ops and core curriculum and all that doesn't have a place. And certainly, people might have very conventional ideas about education and still homeschool for other reasons. If you're going to educate conventionally, homeschooling at least lets you do it efficiently and leave the rest of the day open for exploring and creating and just being a kid. But feeling obligated to recreate school at home is such a sad waste of homeschooling's potential.
This is all fresh in my mind because I am, for the next month, doing in med school something that's very like homeschooling. It's a reading month, a free-form elective that requires merely a topic, an advisor, and whatever sort of work the two of you agree on. I had my first meeting with my advisor today, discussing a handful of journal articles we'd read, and came away thinking, This is what education is supposed to be like.
In a classroom setting, I would have been given a sheaf of articles in a coursepack, which I would have perused dutifully--if at all--the night before the class. Then I would have struggled to stay awake through a long small-group discussion of a topic about which nobody except the disheartened professor seemed to care.
But this month it's different. This is my topic, spinning along in whatever direction my interests and my advisor's guidance takes it. I read and thought and came to today's meeting with questions, eager to explore them with someone knowledgable and equally interested. I didn't have to ward of yawns, because the topics we were discussing were things I'd been mulling over all week.
I didn't find it hard, when I started college, to adjust to playing the academic game. (Actually, I quickly discovered that I didn't need to work as hard as I thought I did.) And I've been in this world for long enough that I'm used to it. But days like today, when I get to breathe again the free air of just learning, I realize that the dad at Bible study had it wrong.
It's not that I "was homeschooled." It's that I am a homeschooler.
http://blog.ylcf.org/
Monday, November 17, 2008
I am a homeschooler
by Claire M.
"You were homeschooled, weren't you?" (Of course the question came on the heels of another demonstration of my woefully-deficient knowledge of pop culture.) "Through high school?"
Yes.
"That's the big debate in our house now, whether to homeschool through high school. Did you use videos and co-ops and that kind of thing?"
I didn't want to bore the whole group with the whole long answer, so for the rest of the Bible study, I was distracted by all the things unsaid. Things like that the biggest advantage of homeschooling, in my mind, is the opportunity to learn for the sake of learning, to step outside the academic game and study the things that fascinate you, to learn the way you learn best, to learn from rich life experience and not just memorize things for a test and a grade. I would have said that if you're just going to create a mini-school, you might as well send your kids to school, because school probably does the school thing better than you can.
Not to say that co-ops and core curriculum and all that doesn't have a place. And certainly, people might have very conventional ideas about education and still homeschool for other reasons. If you're going to educate conventionally, homeschooling at least lets you do it efficiently and leave the rest of the day open for exploring and creating and just being a kid. But feeling obligated to recreate school at home is such a sad waste of homeschooling's potential.
This is all fresh in my mind because I am, for the next month, doing in med school something that's very like homeschooling. It's a reading month, a free-form elective that requires merely a topic, an advisor, and whatever sort of work the two of you agree on. I had my first meeting with my advisor today, discussing a handful of journal articles we'd read, and came away thinking, This is what education is supposed to be like.
In a classroom setting, I would have been given a sheaf of articles in a coursepack, which I would have perused dutifully--if at all--the night before the class. Then I would have struggled to stay awake through a long small-group discussion of a topic about which nobody except the disheartened professor seemed to care.
But this month it's different. This is my topic, spinning along in whatever direction my interests and my advisor's guidance takes it. I read and thought and came to today's meeting with questions, eager to explore them with someone knowledgable and equally interested. I didn't have to ward of yawns, because the topics we were discussing were things I'd been mulling over all week.
I didn't find it hard, when I started college, to adjust to playing the academic game. (Actually, I quickly discovered that I didn't need to work as hard as I thought I did.) And I've been in this world for long enough that I'm used to it. But days like today, when I get to breathe again the free air of just learning, I realize that the dad at Bible study had it wrong.
It's not that I "was homeschooled." It's that I am a homeschooler.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
What does God say?
John 17
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
I Corinthians 7
22 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.
23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
24 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; 31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
I John 2
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
To quote an old song; This world is not my home I am only passing through.
9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
I Corinthians 7
22 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant.
23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
24 Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; 31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
I John 2
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
To quote an old song; This world is not my home I am only passing through.
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