Child Centered not child friendly

Much of education today talks about following the child's lead, allowing the child to be themselves and similar seemingly appropriate phrases. In fact it is hard to find an early child care center that doesn't claim this approach and often elementary schools follow suit. For a long time I think I agreed with these sentiments but recently things have changed for me. Right now I am going to Bible Study Fellowship and we are studying Moses. This week we were talking about Pharaoh and that basically God had given him over to himself. In Romans 1 Paul discusses that if you want to go your own way - God will allow you to do so - often to your own destruction.

God is clear about his ways and he expects you to "train up" a child in the way they should go - they won't figure it out on their own. He also disciplines those he loves - because he wants them to have life and have it abundantly. I agree that sometimes "training" can turn into brainwashing and truly out of whack ideas, just like letting a child follow their own ways can.

I really think that Christian parenting is about finding that middle road between allowing the child to do whatever they think is right in their own eyes (which God normally doesn't think is a good idea - that's a judgement phrase in the Bible) and becoming so legalistic that your child never understands the grace of God either. It's not an easy balance to have. It is especially difficult when two polar opposites seem the only choice and both of them are pretty adamant that they are "the only way". I guess I encourage you to really consider what it means to train up a child in the way THEY should go (not necessarily exactly how you think they should be). I know that's my prayer for my little guy - that God would give me wisdom about how to train him to be the person God has created him to be and fulfill the plans God has for him.

Are there any standards anymore??

Well today at church we talked about "the Truth Project". The part that we discussed focused on the founding principles of our government. Basically it makes the case that all of our founding fathers (including Ben Franklin) believed that the Christian faith was foundational to their system of government working. From there morals were developed and then you had a people who were prepared to make good decisions. Interesting - and not what you learn in school.

Also, we learned that The New England Primer was the second most bought book in America after the Bible during the 17oo's and early 18oo's. Later in the century the McGuffey Readers became more popular and they replaced the Primer as the second most bought book in America. Basically, after the Bible, pretty much everyone used the same elementary textbook (at least in terms of introduction to literacy). These were focused on faith and morality as well as teaching reading. Today you can't even get people in the same district to use the same curriculum. Of course, the past was not perfect, but at least there was some real education going on.

One friend talks about the "group math" her granddaughter does. Basically this math allows students to determine if they think 2+2 = 4. If 8 of 10 students don't agree with this then you have to consider that maybe their answer - 2 +2= 5 is correct! WHAT?! This is craziness.

Somehow, we are allowing 1st graders to overturn centuries of mathematical understanding. We do this in other areas as well. Actually, we just don't teach them what our forefathers really thought and understood - because it doesn't fit an educational agenda that caters to personal exploration and denies absolute truth. Maybe this is why I couldn't find it in my heart to enter public school education. It's not really education!

Teaching Music

So as I consider homeschooling I am always looking for new ways to teach things. This October we have at least 6 birthdays we have been invited to. I don't think we can make it to all of them - but I was looking for new types of toys to give to kids. In my search for new and interesting things I came across Boomwhackers - even the name sounds like it is made for boys! It is basically a set of musical tubes that look like PVC pipes. When they are put together they can be played like a xylophone but you can also put them apart on a big musical scale and have kids play them. One child can play one note or one child can play the whole scale. They even have music books and a whole curriculum (K - 6th) to teach music with these. So, if I do homeschool we may have a musical curriculum based around these things - they just seem so useful and less likely to get destroyed by kids. We'll see. Just thought I'd put them out there.