In order to submerge the individual and develop ideal citizens, Sparta assembled the males at [age] seven into barracks and entrusted their subsequent education and training to official guardians. Although such measures have been deliberately approved by men of great genius their ideas touching the relation between individual and state were wholly different from those upon which our institutions rest; and it hardly will be affirmed that any Legislature could impose such restrictions upon the people of a state without doing violence to both letter and spirit of the Constitution.Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923) at 402
Detail of Preamble to Constitution of the United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
How about that.
What ARE we doing?
Anyone brave enough to hazard a guess?
Whenever we hold hands with the United Nations, that is what we get. They tell us it’s all about the rights of children and other “disabled” people, but we really know what it’s all about.
Let’s think about a bucket, some rocks, and some sand.
Let’s say the rocks illustrate our priorities, our bucket list, and the bucket represents our life. The sand represents all of the other things in life that we have to do.
What happens if we put the sand in the bucket first?
We cannot fit all the rocks in, can we?
Our priorities find themselves crowded out.
However, if we put the rocks in the bucket first, the sand sifts around the rocks. They fill in the cracks or the time we have left after our priorities are accomplished.
A woman in a traditional Icelandic costume teaches a child to read. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Let’s apply that to our “how-to” ideas about home schooling, shall we?
Our priority must be that each human being on this earth should learn to read. Why? Because of Habakkuk 2:2 “[…]the Lord replied: ‘Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that whoever reads it may run with it. […]’”
It is recorded forever in the Word of God, that He expects reading to happen. The very fact that He inspired men to write to us, logically leads to His expectations that we read.
Learning to read does not always happen in some educational settings. The child who is slow to read might never learn in some settings.
We, however, in our own homes, have the privilege of customizing the curriculum to fit the child who needs his schoolwork to come at him from a unique angle. We can drill one phonic concept for two days, if needed. We can read while pointing to allow “sight reading” to materialize. We can try glare management, page masking, and many other techniques, at will. No matter how good a teacher might be, she can hardly do this when she is dealing with 20 new readers at once, can she?
So we prioritize reading.
As the student ages, the obvious may surface, that the child is unable to learn to read. “Unable” is not the same as slow. After a couple of years, if reading is not happening at all, no matter what, then it is time to dump the bucket out and rearrange priorities. The new priority is to make sure literate content reaches this child’s mind through whatever means it takes.
Any writing can be found or created in the audio format.
It becomes the teacher’s duty, then, to provide this input. Although this is a big job, it is not too difficult for one mom with one child, but imagine a teacher of 20 handling it. It’s unfair to her, right?She wants a life, right? But you can do it. In fact, these helps become your priority: They are your life. So at this age, we insert any learning that is age-appropriate, especially Bible, math, and science, always in the audio format. Often, this is how our greatest minds have emerged to benefit mankind. Often, those not programmed to read well, find far more capacity in other disciplines than a good reader does. Although we never stop trying to impress reading skills upon our students, and although they may learn to read as adults, we insist they learn the essentials through whatever means necessary, always looking for that one thing that will be the spark for your own child’s chance at brilliance.
Make a list. Prioritize the big rocks to go into the bucket first.
Yes, you can make a child live happily ever after. That’s a good goal for a life, don’t you think?
I do not often just paste something for you to follow, but here is a real shocker:
“If a small group of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals have their way at a conference this week, pedophiles themselves could play a role in removing pedophilia from the American Psychiatric Association’s bible of mental illnesses — the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), set to undergo a significant revision by 2013. Critics warn that their success could lead to the decriminalization of pedophilia.
“The August 17 Baltimore conference is sponsored by B4U-ACT, a group of pro-pedophile mental health professionals and sympathetic activists. According to the conference brochure, the event will examine ‘ways in which minor-attracted persons [pedophiles] can be involved in the DSM 5 revision process’ and how the popular perceptions of pedophiles can be reframed to encourage tolerance.”
I think it is important to realize that if we normalize pedophilia, it will then be illegal for public schools to discriminate against it in their hiring. We need to wake up. If they meet their goal date of 2013, then we are nearly there . . .
Mind that Fence. As the sign says at Maltby sewage works, ‘Health and Safety is no accident’, perhaps the loose temporary fence panel could learn a lesson from this.
They say life out there is sink or swim.
They say we learn to socialize by socializing. You know — make enough social errors and you’ll learn, eventually.
What if our children are, instead, just learning to like the smell of sewage?
Or that it is good?
I never could get used to it.
People kept splashing sewage all over me.
Told me I was too sensitive.
Sighs.
I kinda wish more were. How about you?
Anyway, I found a Stream of Water that is Alive and cordoned off the section of sewer where it was entering, for my children to learn to swim.
Also gave them swimming lessons, instead of just throwing them in and hoping.
Home's Cool! 