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mooreboyz
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| Posted: June 27 2009 at 9:31am | IP Logged
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I've been thinking a lot lately about goals for our homeschooling and in doing that have been trying to envision the world the boys will be becoming adults in, as this will help immeasurably in determining a focus for learning. When I was in school it seemed it was all about learning and getting the grades so you could get into the college you wanted and then to get a good paying job. I don't think that this is the same world anymore. It seems more important to me now that the boys are able to do things for themselves...grow things, fix things, think outside the box so they can figure out problems for themselves. I've been reading and enjoying Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction lately and this is making me rethink some things as well. While I definitely want my kids to have a rich education that includes music, art, science, math, geography, lovely literature, etc...I want to make sure that they come out of this ready to handle the world they will enter.
So, I'm curious what you all see as a future world and how we can prepare our children for it.
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Jackie
7 boys - 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17 years
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: June 27 2009 at 1:59pm | IP Logged
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I can't remember who first mentioned reading "Weapons of Mass Instruction" but I get the feeling that every library across the country has had their copy checked out in the past two weeks. 
You ask a very complex question.
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| When I was in school it seemed it was all about learning and getting the grades so you could get into the college you wanted and then to get a good paying job. |
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I just finished the first chapter of Gatto's book last night and this quote reminded me of what he was saying. We (me and you) were being prepared for the industrial utopia that Carnegie and cohorts imagined. Obviously I want to prepare my kids to have a better life and worldview, but they will have to be able to interact in that world, too.
I started thinking about how even though I am less "programmed" than many of my peers (I can now see through the facade) I am still very "schooled" in my attitudes towards non-academic things. And like that other thread discussed, where is that fine line between allowing your children to enjoy being a child without keeping them suspended in childhood for too long?
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| able to do things for themselves...grow things, fix things, think outside the box so they can figure out problems for themselves |
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I think the "thinking outside the box" is the biggest thing. If you can think outside the box then you can figure how to grow things or fix things. I think my other big concern is consumerism...thinking you need a lot of "stuff" (toys, food, clothes) to make you happy. I think over-consumption is a huge problem that leads to lots of other ones: more work, less money, feeling cramped. And as Gatto explains, that is a major goal of compulsory schooling...to encourage over-consumption.
I don't really imagine how I think "the world" will be in twelve years when my oldest turns 18. All the members of this Forum live in very different worlds in some ways. And there is something to be said for those who say we shouldn't be preparing for "this world" at all. I just hope to teach them to rise above all of the illusions and temptations of this world so they can get by the best that they can.
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Barbara
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Willa
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| Posted: June 27 2009 at 6:12pm | IP Logged
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Barbara C. wrote:
| I think the "thinking outside the box" is the biggest thing. If you can think outside the box then you can figure how to grow things or fix things. |
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That's what I was thinking, too! Plus a sort of "can-do" attitude. I think that an education that teaches "how to think" is probably the best preparation for whatever turns out to happen.
The other thing I want to teach them, which is probably related to thinking outside the box, is to look past what people around them are doing. It seems so easy to get swept up in whatever currents are going on -- consumerism, the work world, popular ideas of what life "should" be like -- and not examine what is really best for the person's own situation.
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AMDG
Willa
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Mary G
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This goes back to Debra Bell's thought in Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling where she says we'll NEVER be able to teach them everything ... but if we teach them HOW to learn (and love the process of learning) they will be able to do anything .... that's my goal because God has something special planned for each one of them (something that may be different than what dh and I "thought") and we need to prep them to be able to do what God wants ....
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: June 28 2009 at 10:36pm | IP Logged
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I think that is so true, Mary G. I remember an interview on an episode of "Life on the Rock" where the woman was saying, "Don't ask your kids what they want to be when they grow up. Ask them what they think God is calling them to be." That really struck a chord with me.
Prepare them to listen and discern God's call and then make sure they have the basic tools so that they will be unafraid to follow that call no matter where it leads them. What are those tools? That is the question.
1. Seeing through the illusions:
From Willa-
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| -- consumerism, the work world, popular ideas of what life "should" be like |
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2. Being able to think outside the box.
3. From Mary G.--
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| teach them HOW to learn (and love the process of learning) |
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4. Being able to articulate in speech and writing what they need/want to say and do. (per Gatto)
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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LeeAnn
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| Posted: June 29 2009 at 2:49pm | IP Logged
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This is an excellent question. If I were only preparing my children to get a good paying job, I would be teaching them much different things. First, I think it's important to keep the *really long* goal in mind: we are preparing our kids to enter heaven. As part of that, I feel it's important to teach my kids to think logically, to see truth--to see outside the box of our current cultural norms and instead see things as they really are in light of God's truth. Seeing materialism, consumerism, etc for what it really is (sin, greed) and so on.
Having just enrolled three of four children into their first class at CLAA, I particularly like this excerpt from their admissions page:
"Every child should grow up with the thought that his life may be spent serving God as a priest, brother or sister. This reality eliminates the question of the value of the loftier studies which have no material benefits to commend them to worldly minds."
source: http://www.classicalliberalarts.com/admissions/requirements. htm
My hope is that I am educating my children adequately to prepare them to know, serve and love God both here on earth and later in heaven.
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Stephanie_Q
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Funny - when I read the topic, I thought the discussion was gong to be whether we are preparing our kids for "this world" i.e. strictly academic success or "the next" i.e. their souls. I think that if we keep our focus on our ultimate goal, we can't go wrong. Of course, this involves equipping our kids to be able to do what God wants in order to build up His kingdom on earth - as it is in Heaven - as Mary G and Barbara pointed out.
Also, in regard to the statement: "While I definitely want my kids to have a rich education that includes music, art, science, math, geography, lovely literature, etc...I want to make sure that they come out of this ready to handle the world they will enter." We started watching "Witness to Hope" last night. In it, I learned that even after over 100 years of not existing because it was divided among Russia, Austria, and Prussia, Poland was able to form a 2nd Republic because they had preserved their culture. So, the Nazis realized that they had to destroy the Polish culture in order to conquer them. Karol Wojtyla was part of a strong resistance whose goal it was to preserve Polish literature, poetry, music, etc because they realized how important those things were!
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CrunchyMom
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I think that you can't go wrong in preparing them for heaven. (Obviously) The habits and virtues needed to survive as faithful Christians will serve them well whatever their career path: integrity, work ethic, empathy and respect for others.
Practical life skills are important, and dh and I grew up learning and experiencing some of that. However, we don't really rely on those skills so much. We have gardening books on whose methods we rely on more than what our parents did.
My husband was the baby of 12 and never got to do many of the hands on things his family did. He grew up knowing one could be handy, but he has purchased books and developed his own interest so that now he is so skilled that he has a regular side job doing handyman jobs and custom carpentry for others. We laugh (though, I think it does disappoint my dh a little) about how his family has NO IDEA what he can do. When he mentions his projects, they obviously envision things on a smaller scale like what his siblings do.
I can only imagine, though, that seeing his father and brothers do so much of the work on the house (and subsequently their houses) had an impact on his imagination. Others seem overwhelmed at the notion of doing anything handy. Dh knows it can be done and so figures out a way to do it.
Many of dh's colleagues are academics who publish articles about agrarian ideas, but my dh does not profess to be much of an academic himself. He jokes that they write about these ideas and we live them. Some of the smartest people I know are somewhat helpless when it comes to practical life.
So, that was the long-winded version to say that I agree with Willa. Thinking outside the box with a healthy work ethic along with confidence in one's abilities will build a person who can succeed whatever life throws at them. If books are your friends, you can teach yourself whatever you might need to know!
On a more somber note, I can't help but think that our children might need to be prepared spiritually to be martyrs in the more traditional sense. I try not to be morbid in thinking about it, and maybe things will change, but I'm not sure that our children won't need to work harder physically to survive and be more self-sufficient as well as face a more direct form of persecution than we've seen in the past couple of decades in the Western world. As Stephanie writes, the Polish people kept their culture alive in the face of persecution. I think that in may ways, today's homeschoolers are the cultural underground in this regard, and I do think it essential that we pass along the best of Western culture for them to safeguard and pass onto their children--much like the monasteries of the Middle Ages.
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Lindsay
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: What world are we prepping for?
