Raising Leaders or Unschooling

Below is my response to unschooling and A Thomas Jefferson Education

Thanks for your response and yes, it does sound a bit like unschooling. I am definitely not a big proponent of unschooling. In fact, I quote the verse about children left to their own are a shame to their mothers when I give workshops at conventions about approaches to homeschooling. I wholeheartedly agree with you in this area.

The Biblical mandate is to train our dc and to TEACH them diligently.

Training dc in character is not an option nor is it w/ the Scripture.

Studying science is way to learn to take dominion and history is how we

learn about God's plan for the nations about our role in civic sphere. Of

course we all want to read the great books, here, too & develop great

communicators. And then there is math and if we study math we can learn

more about God while developing our brains to think more clearly. There are

none of these subjects that I want my dc to miss out on. I see them as all

important, college or no college intent.

Left to choose on their own, my dc would not choose wisely - at least at

this point. But we also have to learn to do things that we don't like.

What you have said is one of the reasons I developed a workshop on TJEd that I was privileged to give at a few conferences this summer. I have listened to all the cds and read all the lecture notes from TJEd. After taking in all the unschooling info, I still struggled with the idea that God gave parents to kids as their authority. My dh and I are accountable to God for our children’s upbringing.

In our own homeschool my kids are “required” to do certain activities and hopefully inspired to do other activities. One thing I am striving for is more inspiring than requiring. Yesterday I had a melt-down and felt like I was a complete failure in getting my kids to love learning. In the early years I “required” so much more than was necessary. Those young years should be years of imagination, investigation, discovery, etc. My dh quickly reminded me that my oldest is taking a college course (with loads of reading great books/classics) and is enjoying it. She thinks its cool to take this course. He also reminded me that my middle daughter loves to read and my son loves to investigate, experiment and be an entrepreneur. Okay, I was feeling a little better.

Personally, I am an eclectic homeschooler. Teaching the Trivium, by the Bluedorns has been a great model for me that I continue to follow. I even took my son off of math until he was 10. He breezed through math and caught up to “government educated children” by the time he was 12. When I visit with the Bluedorns’ kids at conferences I see how it didn’t hurt them to skip certain subject until they were old enough to understand. Those kids all have their own successful businesses.

I really believe that we are training followers when all we do is “require” our kids to study. I want to go beyond that and have my kids learn to lead by making choices (good or bad) in what they will study. I believe it is my responsibility to train them to make good decisions (like eating your vegetables) in their studies. You might be surprised at the decisions they make. Last year I told my girls they had to finish humanities & writing for the remainder of the year. After that they could choose what they wanted to study. Believe it or not, my math-hating daughter chose to finish her algebra book. I was soooo surprised. Making good decisions in any area of life takes training by parents. I want to train my kids to choose wisely in all areas of life – spiritual, emotional, character, academics, etc. It is better for them to make some foolish choices while they are still under our influence at home, than to let them wait until they are on their own.

For this year, my girls know that they are required to study humanities and great books. After that they will be making choices. Over the next week they will tell me what it is they want to study and we will come up with a plan. Believe me this is so far away from my personality that likes to plan the entire year in August. Hey, I was a schoolteacher and can whip out those lesson plans easily. But, I know that it will be much better for my kids if they have some choice in their studies. They certainly will learn the content better if they choose what to study.

I could go on, but I’ll quit for now.

Blessings,

Kerry