Permanent Things

Homeschooling Makes Me a Better Parent

2012-05-16T17:00:00.001-05:00

“Aren’t you worried you are going to screw up?”

That question, or one like it, is often asked of homeschoolers. Some parents find the responsibility of educating their own children so great and so intimidating that they can’t even contemplate it.

My answer to the question is Yep! You bet I’m worried that I am going to blow it

But it’s not concerns over my children’s academics that keep me up at night. It’s that other awesome responsibility that I have. The one that God gave me the moment I became a mother. I’m a parent and that means that God has charged me to disciple my children and cultivate their souls. That’s the part that I’m worried I am going to blow. And that’s why I homeschool.

My children were 6 and 4 when we began homeschooling almost 10 years ago. They attended preschool and kindergarten at a classical school where I taught. I felt good about the education they were receiving. But I didn’t feel so good about our frenzied lifestyle, so we returned home.

I confess it was a shock. I went from seeing my children very little—a rushed breakfast and an equally frantic dinner time, homework, bath and bed routine—and learning about them by reading notes from teachers to being with them all day long every day. And I discovered something: they were little sinners. They had character flaws and bad patterns of behavior that I had never seen. It was overwhelming, not to mention exhausting. I had to correct, and disciple, and instruct.

That’s when I realized that coming home was God’s gift to me. Being with my children in such an intimate and prolonged way allowed me to see into their hearts in a way that I never did when they were in school. Educating my children at home provided me with many—many—opportunities for discipleship and cultivation. Opportunities that I would have missed if my children had been with some other teacher all day long.

Now, I am not saying that it is impossible to disciple your children if you don’t homeschool. Not at all. But I do think that the task is more difficult. A parent will have to work harder to find those teachable moments. And no doubt some parents do.

But if I am honest, I don’t think I would have been one of those parents. I was clueless when my kids were in school. They brought home good report cards. Their teachers liked them and praised them. And, frankly, that was good enough for me. I am grateful that it wasn’t good enough for God. He yanked me out of my complacency and put my children’s spiritual needs right in front of my face. Even I couldn’t miss it.

So, for me—and people like me—homeschooling makes us better parents by providing daily opportunities for discipleship. Does that scare me? Absolutely! Do I feel the weight of this awesome responsibility? All the time! Can I alleviate this responsibility by sending my kids to school? No!

A formal education is only one part of a child’s discipleship. Whether or not I put my son on a school bus in the morning does not change my duty as a mother. One day I will have to stand before God and give account. I doubt that He will be much interested in SAT scores. And, yeah, that scares me.

The Totally Epic Problem of Language Inflation

2012-04-27T18:37:00.001-05:00

Stan Carey of the Macmillan Dictionary recently wrote a short blog about language inflation, which ultimately creates a devaluation in meaning. Popular expressions like epic and brilliant are used to express a more modest meaning than their traditional uses. Brilliant means clever, and epic means surprising.

Carey explains, “Such is our need to imbue our words with force and significance, that we use hyperbole to entice people to pay attention – and the hyperbolic terms gradually normalise.”

The same tendency can be seen in numbers as well. Once giving 110% became cliché, people started insisting that they give 210%, 310%, and on and on. To create even more force behind the phrase, people will also throw in a literally. I literally gave 210%. That’s not numerically possible, of course. What the speaker really means is I worked very hard.

This is no new trend. My generation destroyed words like awesome and totally. My parents and grandparents robbed of meaning words like incredible, wonderful, and fantastic.

C.S. Lewis even warned against language inflation: "Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."

And this is precisely where we find ourselves right now. We have no words left when we want to say that something truly is awe-inspiring or full of wonder.

This language inflation causes problems not only for speakers and writers, but for readers as well. Robbing words of their true meaning and force makes it all the more difficult for modern readers to connect with older books.

Odysseus had an epic adventure, which means more than just out of the ordinary, and he encountered fantastic creatures, which were more than pretty cool.

Language inflation particularly cheapens our understanding of the Scriptures. Jesus Christ is called wonderful. He is truly full of wonder. The Lord God is awesome. These words have powerful meanings that a modern reader can’t instantly grasp.

As a child of the 80s I was always uncomfortable calling God awesome like my Christian friends did because I knew that they meant something much less by the use of that word than was fitting to God. If my sunglasses are totally awesome, I need some other word for God!

What’s even more disturbing to me is the trend to use negative words positively. In the 80s, bad was good. Two decades later sick was even better.

I suspect that this trend is more than just sloppiness with words. I suspect that this is really a worldview issue as our culture retreats more and more away from Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. We’ve long preferred ugliness to beauty culturally; it makes sense that our language would reflect that as well. That’s the only way that I can understand how calling something sick is a compliment.

Our souls starve and atrophy in the current culture. We neglect the spiritual aspects of our own being more and more. It makes sense that the language would reflect that as well. Caring primarily for our physical needs, we run across fewer and fewer moments that inspire us with true awe or fill us wonder. Those emotions would require an encounter with the sublime and the time to contemplate it.

Who’s got the time or the desire for that? We’ll settle for pretty good experiences and just label them totally awesome.

She's a Product of Her Generation

2012-04-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

Today my seven-year-old daughter was reading out loud to me and encountered an ellipses.
She paused and said, "Oh, it's loading."

Building Cathedrals: Lessons from the Middle Ages

2012-03-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

Here's one from the archives.

The consensus among historians is that the cathedrals of the Middle Ages are the single greatest artistic and technological achievement of the Medieval Era and perhaps the greatest architectural achievement ever known. But what is truly fascinating is that these wonders of beauty and engineering could only have been built at a time when Christianity flourished, for cathedrals are the outworking of a Christian worldview that we moderns can learn much from.

A cathedral was a monumental undertaking and took anywhere from 100 to 600 years to complete. Try to imagine this: men and women spent their whole lives working on a project that they would never see completed. Parents worked alongside their children, and when the older folks died, the younger ones carried on their labors, and so on for hundreds of years—each generation sacrificing and expending themselves for those they would never meet. This future orientation and patience is almost incomprehensible to those of us who feel like waiting two and a half minutes to microwave popcorn is interminable! Yet, these medievals labored faithfully on, content that their posterity would enjoy the fruits of their labors.

Additionally, the medievals thought of themselves in terms of the community, in terms of their relationship to others as opposed to the modern focus on the individual. And this sense of community led to a most remarkable thing. Many cathedrals were built by volunteer labor. In the evening, after work, people would volunteer to work for 2 or 3 hours (which helps to explain why it took so long to build a cathedral). Unlike the great monuments of antiquity, which were built using forced slave labor—usually for the self-glorification of some pagan ruler—the cathedrals of the Middle Ages were built by the hands of those who freely gave of themselves for the glory of God and the good of the community—a community which included those yet to be born.

The people of the Middle Ages were also greatly concerned with beauty. For the medieval, God is the God of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty; therefore, the place where He is worshiped must of necessity be beautiful. So they constructed cathedrals filled with the beauty of vaulted ceilings, domes, gothic arches, stained glass, paintings, and sculptures. But, their commitment to beauty extended beyond these obvious touches. The recognition that they were working for the glory of God caused them to be meticulous in ways that seem almost ridiculous to us moderns. Everything had to beautiful: the latches on windows, doorknobs, hinges, you name it. The medieval did not separate function and beauty. If the object was going into the house of God, then it was going to be beautiful. Furthermore, even the backs of statues which were placed in corners were beautifully and ornately sculpted. The sculptures were in a corner; no one would ever see it. But the medieval knew that God would see it, so he made it beautiful just for His pleasure.

Additionally, this concern for community is why individual artists did not sign their works. It was not about the individual’s glory; it was about the community and contributing to the community effort. It was not until the humanistic focus of the Renaissance that artists began signing their works and became focused on personal glory and fame.

Centuries later these cathedrals stand out as stunning object lessons to us moderns. The medievals continue to teach us, the future generations who benefit from their labors. First, they remind us of the importance of beauty. Our modern culture idolizes pragmatism and functionality; beauty is an afterthought, if that. Yet, our souls were made to respond to beauty, and we neglect it at our own peril.

Secondly, cathedrals highlight the significance of working to the glory of God. The focus for the medieval was on God’s glory, not on individual fame or honor. Cathedrals were built by anonymous craftsmen and artists, craftsmen who were more interested in the praise of God than the praise of men. This is an especially important encouragement for homeschoolers. The daily labors of homeschoolers will not likely result in the praise of the world and personal glory and fame. But we can rejoice knowing that the God who delights in the backs of statues in the corners of cathedrals, sees our efforts and takes pleasure in the beauty we are crafting in the lives of our children.

And thirdly, we are admonished by the existence of cathedrals to think beyond our own individual lives, to consider the lives of those who do not yet exist. Homeschoolers have done a great job resurrecting the past, refusing to buy into the vanity that deceives us into thinking that we have nothing to learn from those who came before us. Ancient history and ancient literature have found their champions in the homeschool movement. At the same time, however, we must turn our attention forward as well. In addition to mining the past for its treasures, we must also plant seeds for future generations to reap.

We should find great encouragement in the idea of sowing seeds for the future. We don’t have to build cathedrals by ourselves. All we have to do is make a start, and our children and grandchildren will carry on the work. John Milton wrote that education was a process of “repairing the ruins” of our first fathers. Take comfort. You don’t have to undo thousands of years of ruin, you just have to give your child a better education than you received. And if your child continues your labor with his own children, then in a few generations, you will have built a cathedral.

No Time for Beauty

2012-03-01T19:25:00.000-06:00

On a cold January morning world famous violinist Joshua Bell entered a metro station in Washington, D.C., during rush hour as part of a social experiment conducted by the Washington Post. The Post wondered if people would perceive beauty in an unexpected context or stop to appreciate it.

Armed with his 3.5 million dollar violin, Bell, who just two day earlier had played to a sold out theater in Boston where seats averaged $100, played six sophisticated and difficult pieces by Bach for 45 minutes. The Post calculated that 1,100 people traveled through the station during Bell’s performance. Most were on their way to work.

A full three minutes went by before anything happened. A middle-aged man turned his head but continued on his way without stopping. Thirty seconds later someone threw a dollar into Bell’s hat and hurried off. Finally, six minutes later, someone stopped, leaned against a wall, and listened. After checking his watch, he too continued on his way.

In the 45 minutes that Bell played, loudly and with great emotion, seven stopped at least for a minute to see the performance; twenty-seven donated money, mostly as they passed by—Bell collected a little over $32; $20 was donated at the end of the performance by someone who recognized him and felt embarrassed by his lack of attention.

In all 1,070 people that morning completely ignored one of the world’s finest violinists playing some of the most beautiful music that has ever been written. Many passersby were only three feet away. Few even turned their heads in Bell’s direction.

"It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah . . .ignoring me." Bell laughs. "At a music hall, I'll get upset if someone coughs or if someone's cell phone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.”

Interestingly, children noticed Bell and stopped to listen. Without exception, their parents pulled them away and forced them to rush off.

And just as interesting, yet far more disheartening, is that 100 feet away from Bell stood a line of folks, sometimes 6 people long, waiting to get lottery tickets. In 45 minutes, not one person turned around.

It’s easy as I sit here at my desk on a quiet evening at home to think well of myself. Surely, I would be different. Certainly, I would make time for such rare beauty. But, would I really?

Most of the people in the subway station that morning were rushing to work or to school. Would I be any different? Was it that the subway passengers truly did not recognize beauty or was it that the beauty was simply irrelevant to them? Far greater concerns pressed upon them that morning.

That’s the saddest part of this story to me. Our lives are so busy that we have no time for the very things that bring meaning and joy to our lives.

Click here to read the full story and to view the video footage.

Aesop Got It Wrong!

2012-02-24T09:59:00.000-06:00

In the fable “The Tortoise and the Hare” Aesop teaches us that steady, persistent hard work is better than natural talent, overconfidence, and a poor work ethic. That part is true. But the “slow and steady” moral of the fable has its limits.

Parents and teachers looking for slow, steady incremental improvement in their students will be frustrated and discouraged. Children—and adults for that matter—don’t learn “slow and steady.”

Try teaching a child to read. Faithfully, the teacher drills phonics flashcards every day. On Monday the student gets every flashcard correct. On Tuesday the student not only can’t remember the phoneme in question, but will often passionately argue that he has never seen it before in his life! By Wednesday, he is reading whole sentences flawlessly. But as soon as the teacher starts congratulating himself on little Johnny’s reading improvement Thursday rolls around and Johnny can’t remember half of his flashcards again. By Friday the teacher is convinced that either he is the worst reading teacher in the world or something is seriously wrong with little Johnny.

But nothing is wrong with Johnny or with the teaching. This is simply how kids learn. Little kids, big kids, it’s all the same.

Some days I wonder if my high school student is learning anything. He reads his books and I ask him questions and then torture myself that he just doesn’t seem to be “getting it.” A few days later he without prompting offers me his comparison of the current American political crisis and ancient Rome. I stare at him with my mouth open and wonder, Where has this kid been?

He’s been the hare. And he’s been asleep. And now he’s sprinting!

When it comes to learning, children are not tortoises. They are hares. They sprint and they nap and then they make mad dashes and leap ahead. In education, the teacher is the tortoise, slowly and steadily teaching his students, persevering even when his students seem mentally asleep. But in this scenario the tortoise and the hare aren’t racing, they are travelling companions heading toward that same finish line.

On those days when we can’t wake up our hares, we need to keep plodding along toward that finish line, confident that they will catch up. And unlike Aesop’s fable, our hares will ultimately pass us and we will consider that our victory.

Everything Old is New Again: Thoughts on the Constitution

2012-01-30T09:56:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I stumbled onto a conversation about politics and world affairs. It didn’t take long before someone made the oft-repeated remark that the world is such a different place from when the Constitution was written. The Founders could not have imagined the world we live in, she argued. She stopped short of saying it outright but the implication was that since the world is a different place than the 1780s, the Constitution is irrelevant.

The first problem with this attitude, of course, is that once we reject the law of the land—for whatever reason—anarchy quickly ensues. But leaving that problem aside, I’d like to examine the truth of her statement. Is the world really so different today?

We tend to romanticize the past, especially the time of the founding of our country. We underestimate the incredible difficulty of establishing a new form of government, as if the early Americans had peace and prosperity and very few worries and the idealism of the Constitution was forged in a simpler time and therefore has little relevance in the complex modern world. But a close look at the early days of the Republic provides a very different picture.

Economic Woes

At the end of the Revolutionary War, the fledgling country was faced with a serious economic depression caused by a massive war debt. The government tried to spur on the economy by printing more paper money, which resulted in skyrocketing inflation. The country was broke!

Additionally, banks were foreclosing on homes and property. Outraged citizens who believed that the government was conspiring with banks to abuse the populous did more than “occupy” Washington, D.C. They marched on the town with weapons and intended to overthrow the government.

Foreign Affairs

The early Republic also relied heavily on foreign trade for its economic survival. The truth is there has never been a time when the US was not involved in a global economy—a current popular catchphrase used to distinguish modern America from its allegedly simpler economic past.

To complicate matters, the perpetual European warfare constantly threatened American economic interests. There were some who, as is the case today, insisted that the young country go to war to protect its interests, but the majority preferred diplomacy. It’s nothing short of miraculous that the Founders crafted a foreign policy that was both concerned with avoiding war and with protecting our economy, livelihoods, and safety.

Terrorism

Furthermore, within a few years the fledgling country was faced with attacks from Islamic terrorists. Barbary pirates attacked Americans and the US was drawn into its first foreign military conflict.

Sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it? Of course I suspect that when people speak about how different the world is they are really talking about technology. The girl confirmed my suspicions when she said, “The fact that we are having this discussion on Facebook shows what a different ball game we are in.”

Really? The existence of Facebook negates the US Constitution? I don’t understand why people insist that technology changes enduring principles. Technology does not alter human nature. People are still people and throughout time people have always wanted the same things: personal peace, prosperity, the good life. Technology changes none of that.

If anything, the existence of technology that can destroy multitudes should make us cling even more to the guiding principles of the Constitution. We need more wisdom from the past, not less.

There is no issue confronting our country right now that was not at least in principle in the hearts and minds of those who crafted the Constitution. We may debate how to best apply those principles, but we disregard their wisdom at our own peril.

The Blessings of Adversity and Learning through Failure

2012-01-12T08:24:00.000-06:00

As I’ve been thinking through my educational goals for 2012, I find myself reflecting on my days as an athlete. I’ve been on several teams that were undefeated in conference play, and I was always perplexed when my coach would schedule games against superior teams that were not in our conference.

“But you are endangering our perfect record,” I’d complain. He always responded, “You don’t learn anything from playing teams that are weaker than you. You always learn more when you lose than when you win. Your weaknesses are exposed and then you can get better.” He’d conclude, “I’m much less interested in having a perfect record than I am in winning the championship. To do that, we have to know where our weaknesses are.”

To a culture that teaches that preserving a child’s self-esteem is paramount, intentionally creating opportunities for failure seems counter-intuitive. But it worked. One of two things always happened when we played teams much better than we. When we got beat, we discovered our vulnerabilities and could work to improve them, which we did. And other times (far more times than I would have thought) we played better than we knew we could. We dug deep and responded to the challenge, shocking both the other team and ourselves.

The same principle applies to education, and especially to homeschooling. One of the great strengths of homeschooling is the recognition that in education one size does not fit all. We learn who our children are and what their learning styles are and we teach them the way they learn.

But this benefit of homeschooling, if not balanced, can become its greatest flaw. If we exclusively cater to our children’s strengths, they will never learn to overcome their weaknesses. John Stuart Mill once said, “A pupil from whom nothing is ever demanded which he cannot do, never does all he can.”

The ancients, as David Hicks points out, understood that adversity is a virtue. Completely rejecting this idea, moderns avoid adversity at all costs. Success, they say, breeds success. But this isn’t always true. Parents everywhere know that the only way for a child to learn to walk is to first fall—many times.

As teachers and parents, we should be mindful of the Scriptural admonition not to discourage or frustrate our children. It’s good to know what our children’s abilities are. At the same time, a steady diet of age-appropriate assignments and learning-style specific tasks will ensure that your child never exceeds expectations—yours or his.

As a team we knew we didn’t stand a chance to win some of those games, but when we tapped into some unknown source of strength and ability, when we played beyond ourselves, those were the games that made us a championship team.

Mindful of that lesson, I’ve been giving my students more and more assignments that are a little out of their league. Sometimes they fail and we both learn what areas we need to work on. But sometimes, many times, they rise to the challenge and shock me—and themselves. Those are the moments when they grow and mature by great leaps; suddenly realizing that they are much more capable than they imagined.

We all want our children to succeed. But sometimes success comes from failure, and the greatest success always comes from overcoming adversity.

Creating Family Culture through Reading Aloud

2012-01-04T15:56:00.000-06:00

This is an article I wrote back in 2010 that appeared in Home Educating Family Magazine.

The modern family is fragmented and disconnected. This fact is so obvious that it hardly warrants being stated out loud. Children are isolated and disconnected from their siblings and alienated from their parents. Families find themselves pulled in a hundred different directions at once. And the age-segregated peer culture further divides family members from one another. Experts call it the Generation Gap; I call it sad and disheartening.

How did we get this way? The answer to that question is complex, but one thing is for sure. The Generation Gap is a modern phenomenon! The 1920s gave birth to the modern youth culture, and suddenly parents and children seemed alien and foreign to one another. Children had their own culture, completely different from that of their parents—their own clothes, their own hair styles, their own language, their own music, their own books, their own pastimes, their own pop icons … Sound familiar?

And yet, it doesn’t have to be this way. And for thousands of years, it wasn’t.

One of the reasons that parents and children struggle to connect is that they do not share a common culture. In other words, modern parents and children largely do not love the same things. The answer to the fragmented modern family and the Generation Gap is to create a unique family culture.

Sharing with our children the things that we love and teaching them to love those things as well. This is the path toward family unity. Obviously, the most fundamental shared love in a Christian family is a shared love of God. Families who daily worship God together and speak often of the stories of God’s people will find themselves bound to one another in the deepest and most significant way. Reading together the stories of the saints in the Scriptures is paramount, but don’t stop there.

When I began homeschooling my children eight years ago, I knew all about the academic superiority of home education, and I was well versed in the spiritual implications of training up my children myself. However, I was completely unprepared for what has become the greatest blessing of educating my children at home: we like each other—a lot! We are bound to one another and connected to each other in ways that I could not have imagined.

When I reflect on how we got here, how this connectedness developed, I keep coming back to one thing: all those hours and days and now years spent together reading out loud.

We have read countless books together: classic children’s literature, Shakespeare plays, stories of the martyrs and saints of the past, fairy tales, fables, classic novels, Bible stories, tales of historical heroes, poetry. And at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark commercial, we have literally laughed together and cried together over these books. We’ve been on the edge of our seats in intense suspense; we’ve been deeply saddened, and we’ve been deeply encouraged. We’ve seen evil and we’ve seen goodness. We learned about the world we live in, and we learned about each other too.

These books and our discussions of them have created innumerable threads the bind our hearts together and create a common framework in which to interpret the world. These stories that we’ve encountered have become our own little personal inside jokes. My thirteen-year-old son recently said to me, “When I talk to my friends, I always think of jokes that are Shakespeare references. I know none of my friends will get the jokes, so I save them for you.” He saves his jokes to share with me! How wonderful. These inside jokes connect us to one another. Rather than feeling like the typical teen who laments that his parents just don’t “get” him, my son knows that there are some aspects of himself that no one outside of his family “gets.”

The books we read together also provide us with our own unique family language. Every time we see someone who is very pessimistic, we look at each other and say, “Puddleglum.” And my son knows that when I ask him if he’s being an Achilles or an Odysseus, I am really asking him if he is being self-focused or considering the needs of others. And all of my children have labeled the action of tricking a friend into doing something as “pulling a Tom Sawyer.”

And yet, it’s not just that we have a common language. It’s that we have a common framework to interpret reality. Having discussed at length the pessimism of Puddleglum in the Chronicles of Narnia and the glory-seeking of Achilles in The Iliad, mentioning either of their names becomes much more than family slang, it becomes a shorthand reminder of a greater spiritual truth.

We live in a time when children barely even know their parents. Family homes function as hotels with children checking in for a bed and an occasional meal. There is hardly time for passing greetings between parents and children, much less opportunity for meaningful interaction. It’s hardly surprising that most children claim not to like their parents much; they don’t even know them.

Reading aloud together provides a wonderful antidote to this disturbing reality. When I share with my children a book I love, I am teaching them who I am. And when they learn to love what I love, they learn to love me too.

While it is certainly true that the family that prays together, stays together. It is also true that the family that reads together will find itself inextricably bound to one another. In learning to love the same books, we mysteriously learn to love each other as well.

Why Christmas Trees?

2011-12-07T13:00:00.001-06:00

Interested in knowing about the origins and meaning of the Christmas tree? Wondering if Christians should decorate trees for Christmas?

Hop over to the CiRCE blog and read my post "Why Christmas Trees?"

I Read Dead People

2011-11-30T20:36:00.001-06:00

Just a reminder that I have a post on the CiRCE blog every Wednesday.

Here's this week's post: I Read Dead People

To Whom Are We Giving Thanks?

2011-11-24T09:03:00.002-06:00

Politically correct historical revisionists have long targeted the Pilgrims and Puritans, downplaying their sincere religious devotion and accusing them of everything from moral hypocrisy to acts of atrocity.

Recently I’ve noticed a new line of attack. In a public school American history textbook, several chapters are devoted to the Native Indian tribes, but only a two-sentence paragraph even mentions the Pilgrims. That’s one way to disassociate yourself with a Christian past you’d rather forget, just pretend it never happened.

Of course pc historians can’t entirely eliminate the Pilgrims from history because of our national tradition of Thanksgiving Day, which is forever tied to the story of the Pilgrims. So they did the next best thing. They eliminated God from the equation.

That two-sentence paragraph about the Pilgrims explained that on the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians.

There are only 2 primary sources that describe the first thanksgiving. William Bradford in Of Plymouth Plantation makes no mention of the Indians at all. Here’s Edward Winslow’s description from Mourt’s Relation:

"our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruits of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as with a little help beside, served the Company almost a week, at which time amongst other Recreations, we exercised our Arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and amongst the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five Deer, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed on our Governor, and upon the Captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

The Pilgrims “entertained” the Indians, but there is no mention of bestowing thanks upon them. There is no question that the Pilgrims viewed good relations with the Indians as a tremendous blessing and I’m certain that they were thankful when the Indians killed 5 deer for the feast, but ultimately the Pilgrims attribute all that they have to the goodness of God.

Bradford’s journal is filled with praise and thanksgiving to God for every single trial and blessing that they experienced. And at that first feast of thanks the Pilgrims were especially grateful that God had preserved them throughout a harsh winter, illness and disease, and starvation caused by a failed attempt at communism. Over half of the Pilgrims died, and the survivors praised God.

This Thanksgiving Day let us all be mindful of the One to whom we give thanks. To God from whom all blessings flow.

Here's a Chance to Snag Some Great CiRCE Talks

2011-11-17T14:47:00.004-06:00

Right now CiRCE is having their end-of-the-year fundraiser.

The goal is to raise $50,000 by the end of the year. This will enable CiRCE to expand the number of free resources (like the ongoing FREE Lost Tools of Writing webinars!) they provide; to improve their instructional resources like workshops and retreats, and to enter the new year with a posture of strength and readiness.

So, not only do you have a great opportunity to support the work of the CiRCE Institute but you can also receive an awesome thank you gift.

For any size donation, you can download ALL of the following CiRCE talks:

1. A Contemplation of the Divine Image by Andrew Kern (2011)
2. Christian Humanism: A Faith For All Seasons by Gregory Wolfe (2011)
3. How the Trivium Prepares the Soul For College by E. Christian Kopf (2011)
4. What is Woman? A Re-examination of Feminism and the Church by Angelina Stanford (2011)
5. The Abolition of Man Applied by George Sanker (2010)
6. The Impact of Dewey, Darwin, and Descartes by Andrew Kern (2009)
7. Are Science and Religion Compatible by Martin Cothran (2009)
8. How Classical Humor Changed by Anthony Esolen (2008)
9. Is American Education a Bad Joke? by Andrew Kern (2008)
10. Reading Pagan Lit in a Christian School by Martin Cothran (2007)
11. The Business of Reading Great Literature by Vigen Guroian (2006)
12. Communication Technologies As Engines of Restlessness by Ken Myers (2007)
13. Jane Austen and Virtue Through Humor by Laura Berquist (2008)

This collection includes one of my all-time favorite CiRCE talks, Ken Myers' "Communication Technologies as Engines of Restlessness." That one was a life-changer for me.

And you can also download my talk from this summer's conference "What is Woman? A Re-examination of Feminism and the Church."

Please consider making a donation and picking up some great mp3s while you're at it.

Monday Musings

2011-11-14T16:32:00.003-06:00

Despite the fact that I have two pages of yellow legal pad filled with notes for blog posts, I haven't posted anything here in a while. Life is busy.

However, I have been posting a weekly blog on the CiRCE website, usually on Wednesdays or Thursdays. You can check out what I've been writing here.

I finished reading The Autobiography of Ben Franklin and have a least one more blog I'd like to post about that. I'm also reading David McCullough's biography of John Adams, which I am thoroughly enjoying and I've got lots of thoughts about what I'm reading. Hoping to post those soon as well.

In other news, about a week ago, Rush Limbaugh attacked and ridiculed Classical Education on his radio show. Martin Cothran of Memoria Press and Chris Perrin of Classical Academic Press both respond thoughtfully.

Martin Cothran: scroll down to November 2
Chris Perrin: click here.

Please pray for Ken Myers, of Mars Hill Audio and many of my favorite CiRCE lectures, who has had a heart attack. He appears to have had nothing short of a miraculous recovery, but do continue to pray for him. We all need much more of Ken's wisdom. (I know I do!)

Don't forget about the CiRCE Auction. Still lots of great items/events on the auction table. I even won something!

CiRCE Institute Auction

2011-10-24T20:47:00.003-05:00

It's time for the CiRCE Institute's end of the year fundraising, and this year CiRCE is kicking things off with a 10-week auction.

Not only are there some great items up for bid (I feel so Bob Barker typing that!), but CiRCE continues to provide wonderful resources and support for those of us involved in classical education. Consider contributing to the fine work they do by making a donation or by trying to snatch up one of the cool auction items which include:

- First Form Latin from Memoria Press
- 2 curricula from The Institute For Excellence in Writing
- A collection of books from Intercollegiate Studies Institute
- 2 curricula from Classical Academic Press
- 2 music-based curricula from Professor Carol Reynolds
- 4 hours of headmaster coaching from CiRCE consultant Dr. Peter Vandre Brake
- 10 spots in a special one-time-only web-based class with Andrew Kern on “Hamlet and Creation”
- 2 spots at the 2012 CiRCE Conferece in Louisville next summer
- and much more.

How the Auction Will Work:

Each week for the next ten weeks we will offer three items upon which you can bid, one of which will always be a spot in Andrew Kern’s “Hamlet and Creation” webinar (so at the end of ten weeks all ten spots in the webinar will be filled). See the schedule below for the weeks during which each item will be offered.

The auction will be hosted by 32auctions.com and you will be able to pay your winning bid via PayPal, any credit card, or check.

To bid on the week one items, click here.

Schedule & items offered:
Week Date Items

Week 1 10/18 – 10/24 1 2012 Conference Spot, First Form Latin from Memoria Press, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 2 10/25 – 10/31 1 Complete LTW set, Discovering Music curriculum, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 3 11/1 – 11/7 Ancient-History Based writing lessons from IEW, CiRCE Conference 10th Anniversary flash drive, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 4 11/8 – 11/14 4 1-hour sessions of headmaster coaching with Peter Vande Brake, Exploring America’s Musical Heritage Curriculum, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 5 11/15 – 11/21 Book package from ISI, Latin for Children: Primer A from Classical Academic Press, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 6 11/22 – 11/28 2011 Conference Complete Audio Collection, 1 2012 Conference Spot, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 7 11/29 – 12/5 The Art of Argument Curriculum from Classical Academic Press, CiRCE Conference 10th Anniversary flash drive, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 8 12/6 – 12/12 Teaching the Classics DVD and Workbook from IEW, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar, TBD

Week 9 12/13 – 12/19 TBD, 2011 Conference Complete Audio Collection, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

Week 10 12/20 – 12/24 TBD, TBD, 1 spot in Andrew Kern’s Hamlet Webinar

happy bidding!

The Emperor's Standardized Test

2011-10-20T19:47:00.002-05:00

Click here to read a blog post I wrote for the CiRCE Institute.

More Lessons from Ben: Vocabulary

2011-10-10T18:18:00.002-05:00

Young Benjamin Franklin tried his hand at poetry, but was discouraged from pursuing it as a profession by his father. His father advised him to gain skill in prose writing instead. And he did.

Later, Ben reflected that if he had continued writing poetry he would likely have a much better vocabulary because poets must come up with many synonyms of words to fit rhyme scheme or meter. Writing poetry, he suggest, would make him a better prose writer.

This is really interesting and I suspect quite true. Perhaps instead of teaching students vocabulary classes, we should have them all improving their vocabulary naturally by writing poetry.

Lessons from Ben Franklin

2011-10-06T20:07:00.003-05:00

I just finished Part One of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It's interesting reading and I'd like to record some thoughts about it.

The first thing that I noted was that as a child Ben received little formal education; he was mostly self-educated through reading. He laments that he wasn't exposed to a greater variety and quality of books as a child.

But he did have a copy of Plutarch's Lives, which he "read abundantly" and "still think[s] that time spent to great advantage."

This of course is particularly interesting because Charlotte Mason advocates reading Plutarch's Lives to children as well.

Here's an article by Dr. George Grant encouraging the same thing. "Why Read Plutarch?"

More thoughts later.

Education: Loving the Old Places

2011-10-05T10:49:00.001-05:00

I have a new post up at the CiRCE website.

Check it out here: Education: Loving the Old Places.

Free Audiobook by John Piper

2011-10-03T19:53:00.004-05:00

Suddenly this blog has turned into your one-stop shop for finding out about FREE stuff!

Each month Christianaudio.com offers a FREE book download. For real free. Not sign up for a trial membership get a free audiobook and then when you lose track of time a whopping ridiculous charge will show up on your credit card statement which you will then try to dispute but end up paying anyway and then swearing that you will NEVER be suckered into one of those again-free things. No, not like that at all.

Really free. No string attached. I promise.

This month's book download is Think:The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper. I haven't listened to it yet, but it is an intriguing topic, especially for those of us who enjoy an active life of the mind and would love to listen to a book that tells us just how right we are! The book also has good reviews on Amazon.

So, click here to download. I hope we all enjoy it.

Free Lost Tools of Writing Webinar

2011-09-28T15:20:00.004-05:00

Intrigued by the Lost Tools of Writing but intimidated/confused about how to teach it?

The CiRCE Institute continues to make a great product even better. In addition to the fantastic changes in the 4th edition making the program even more teacher-friendly and easy to use, CiRCE is now offering free monthly webinars.

The first webinar, scheduled for October 14, will cover Lesson One, especially Invention (The A.N.I.), and will be taught by Certified Master LTW Teacher Renee Mathis.

I, for one, will be tuning in.

Why I Love Teaching Textbooks: Or, Homeschool Math Confessions

2011-09-27T11:35:00.000-05:00

I am not a good math teacher. There I said it.

I’ve thought long and hard about why I’m not a good math teacher. I know how to work the problems. I understand that math is really just another language. I even find myself at times fascinated by math (gasp! Don’t tell the other English teachers.).

But my real problem is a character flaw: I lack patience.

I can at times teach a math lesson with some enthusiasm that borders on excitement. But I can only do it once.

I quickly degenerate from cheerful encouraging teacher to irritated mom snapping, “What do you mean, you can’t remember how to divide?”

And that’s where Teaching Textbooks has been a real blessing in my house.

When my oldest daughter was struggling terribly in math, and after I had tried far too many different math programs, in desperation I asked my daughter to work a sample math lesson on the Teaching Textbook’s website. I will never forget her response.

Me: What do you think?
Her: Oh, I really like it.
Me: What did you like? The clear explanations? The sample problems? The visuals?
Her (uncomfortably): yeah, those were good.
Me: Well, what did you like?
Her (hesitatingly): Well… the teacher had a happy, soothing voice. And no matter how many times I had him explain the lesson, he always had a happy, soothing voice.

Ouch! Consider me convicted!

My daughter is in her third year with the happy, soothing voice, and he has never lost his cool once.

And my daughter (and now my son who started using Teaching Textbooks last year) is actually excelling in math. The explanations are clear, the lessons are short and incremental, and there is lots and lots of practice. And did I mention that the teacher is supernaturally patient!

And from a technical standpoint, the interactive nature of the lessons is very cool. She works the lesson right on the computer, gets immediate feedback, and if the answer is wrong, she can try again or watch the problem worked out for her by the happy, soothing voice. Then the program generates a grade report for me, complete with the number correct, the number of tries, and whether or not she viewed the solution.

It really is amazing. It does all the work for me. It teaches the lesson, grades the work, reviews missed problems with my student, and records it in an automated grade book. What else could I want? It’s like enrolling my child in a math class for less than 200 bucks. (Less than that when I consider that younger siblings will be reusing the program.)

The money I’ve spent on Teaching Textbooks math has been some of the best money I’ve spent in my homeschool. My children are learning math and they are enjoying it. And I don’t have to grade any math work! That’s priceless.

Things Overheard: American History Version

2011-09-26T17:25:00.003-05:00

I was eavesdropping, I mean reading, at a local coffee shop this weekend when I heard a loud, confident voice proclaim, "Well, the truth about Columbus is..."

This comment would have caught my attention under any circumstances but since I am teaching American History right now and since I just finished George Grant's lecture "Columbus Myths" I was particularly interested.

Oh, which of the many Columbus falsehoods was this young swaggering college student about to utter.

He continued, "The truth is that Columbus discovered Canada, but thought that he had discovered the West Indies. He never knew that he had actually discovered North America."

Wow. Just wow.

This statement didn't even make it onto Dr. Grant's list of things people get wrong about Columbus.

I hope this guy wasn't a history major.

And on the Seventh Day God Rested: Using the Principle of the Sabbath to Organize Your School Year

2011-09-15T16:05:00.003-05:00

It's almost time for my first Sabbath Week of the 2011-2012 school year. Many people have told me that incorporating Sabbath Weeks into their schedule has saved their sanity. So, since many of us are probably feeling our first twinges of burn out, I am reposting my article about Sabbath Schooling.

May you be as blessed as I have been.

This is an article I wrote that was recently published in Home Educating Family Magazine.

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3

"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter . . . . Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” Deuteronomy 5:12-15

When God rested from His labor of creating the universe, He wasn’t tired. He didn’t need a break. Rather, He was modeling for us a pattern of living—-a pattern that we ignore at our own peril. We work. We rest.

Despite what our modern culture insists, rest is not a luxury; it is a necessity. If we don’t rest, we soon won’t be able to work—-at least not very well. However hard we might try, we cannot push ourselves to unlimited productivity. Ignoring our need for regular periods of rest leads to burn-out.

Ah, burn-out. There’s a word that is all too familiar to anyone who has been homeschooling for a few years. We start off the school year full of zeal and excitement. This will be the year, we tell ourselves, that we get it all done! We mark out 36 weeks of lesson plans, with a Christmas break here and an Easter break there, and we charge full steam ahead. And then, somewhere around mid-October, our engines slow down . . . considerably. The zeal and excitement have long disappeared, and now not only are we having to drag the children reluctantly through their school lessons, but we are having to force ourselves through the motions as well. The joy is gone, the exhaustion has set in, and we find ourselves wondering if Christmas break will ever get here.

But I’ve got good news: it doesn’t have to be this way! Deuteronomy 5:15 reveals a beautiful truth: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” Because God has delivered His people from slavery, His people can rest. Because we are free, we can rest!

The homeschool provides a wonderful opportunity to live out this truth. Homeschoolers are free. We are not slaves of the public school system, and we can rest—-whenever we want to!

My homeschool was liberated the day I rejected the public school calendar. There is absolutely no educational benefit from following a nine-month school year with a 3-month summer break. None! In fact, to the contrary, a long summer break creates “brain drain.” Textbooks begin with review chapters because they assume that students have forgotten a large chunk of what they learned the previous year. We’ve all experienced this: trying to get school started up in the fall only to discover that our children can’t remember how to add or what a noun is.

Additionally, as much as we often crave the idea of a long break when the spring semester is dragging on, most families go slightly batty in the summer months. I can remember my mother saying every summer that she couldn’t wait for school to start back up. The truth is, usually I couldn’t wait either. Children and families thrive on a consistent daily routine.

So, if I don’t follow the public school year, what do I do? And what does this have to do with the Sabbath? I believe that the Sabbath teaches three important principles for the homeschool. 1) We are free; therefore we can rest. 2) We need regular, scheduled periods of rest. 3) My soul responds to the pattern of laboring for 6 and resting for 1.

Our God is good, and He knows what we need. We must recognize the need for rest and plan for it. Regular periods of deliberate rest keep us refreshed and joyful about our labors. It is much easier to work hard when we know that a break is coming up soon. Avoid the recipe for burn-out: pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion and then guiltily taking off a day or two. Spread scheduled breaks throughout the year.

I still homeschool for 36 weeks each year, but now I don’t try to cram those weeks into 9 1/2 months; I spread them throughout the whole year. I experimented with many different ways of organizing my school year and finally discovered a pattern that brought a rhythm of peace and joy into our lives: we homeschool for 6 weeks and then take a 1-week break that I call Sabbath Week.

I have learned the hard way that 6 weeks is my limit for productivity. I can work hard and well for 6 solid weeks, but every time I push myself beyond that number, I experience burn-out. Every time!

Sabbath Week not only keeps me from burning out, it also keeps me from stressing out. During Sabbath Week, we rest from our usual labors, and strike a balance between fun and taking care of all the things that pile up and stress us out: appointments, car repairs, house cleaning, paperwork, etc. I can avoid feeling overwhelmed by all of my responsibilities when I know that I can take care of things during Sabbath Week. I don’t have to try to squeeze more into my already full homeschool week.

This arrangement still leaves me 10 weeks of breaks to spread throughout the year however I wish. I take 4 full weeks off for Christmas break, reducing our stress and increasing our enjoyment of the holiday season. We bake cookies and make presents, sing Christmas carols at nursing homes, perform in a Christmas pageant, attend special church services, and get all the joy we can out celebrating the birth of Christ. Not having to worry about school during those weeks keeps the stress level low and the joy high.

That leaves 6 weeks for a summer break, or a shorter 4-week summer break with 2 additional vacation weeks to be used whenever we want them: family vacations during the off-season are always fun!

Enjoying the liberty of homeschooling and instituting regular Sabbath Weeks has transformed our lives. I went from feeling overwhelmed and burnt-out to truly enjoying my time with my children and my calling to educate them. God desires joy and peace for His people, and when we seek His wisdom and embrace His principles for living we increase our joy and peace—-even in our homeschools.

I'm on Sale. Act now!

2011-09-07T19:39:00.003-05:00

The good folks at the CiRCE Institute are offering a download of my talk "What is Woman? A Re-examination of Feminism and the Church" (from the 2011 CiRCE Conference) for the low low price of $1.

I don't know how long this sale will last.

Act now! Operators are standing by...