I received quite a bit of heat on and off blog for my recent comments about Susan Wise Bauer.  The comments I made about her humanism, feminism and relativism were conclusions our family had come to after reading her various writings.  Come to do a little research and I found that she is actually a self-professed feminist, though she would prefer to call herself an "egalitarian".  Gotta love how we have "politically correct" terms for everything.  I'm not a feminist, I'm egalitarian.  I'm not a sodomite, I'm a homosexual.  I'm not an adulterer, I had an affair.

The information can be found on her blog here.  The actual egalitarian confession is found in the comments section.  It's long and tedious reading.  For a nice summary I recommend reading the article posted by "The Biblical Council on Manhood and Womanhood" which can be found here.

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I started my blog as a place for me to formulate my thoughts on the various homeschooling movements, as well as other issues affecting today's Christian wife and mother. I see problems, big ones. They grieve and anger me. And I stumble to communicate these problems on the fly with my friends. I'm using my blog to force me to organize my thoughts and put them into coherent arguments.

But right now I'm in the research stage of my writing. I'm trying to read a chapter a day and post the highlights of my reading here.

This book by Christian Overman is fascinating. It compares and contrasts the Greek and Hebrew worldviews and how those worldviews affected both their cultures and OURS.

Yesterday's chapter was so disturbing that I had to revisit those who espouse the "classical education because it enobles" argument.

As a side note, I have to say that I was discouraged to find Memoria Press so involved with all these folks. Back when our family was weighing the decision to go with Ecclesiastical or Classical Latin, Memoria Press was instrumental in our decision to go with Ecclesiastical. After spending a few minutes on their site just now I'm actually surprised they sell Ecclesiastical rather than Classical. We chose Ecclesiastical because we wanted our children to learn Latin while studying prayers, hymns and Church Fathers rather than Cicero, Virgil and Roman mythology. To be honest, their choice of Latin emphasis seems inconsistent with the choices on the rest of their site. I would think they would want their little ones off reading Cicero and Virgil in the native tongue as soon as possible. Hmmmm....curious.

Anyhow, back on topic, I have to say that I'm baffled by the "ennobling" argument. If anyone can explain why our Christian children need the Greeks or Romans to "ennoble" or I would say "sanctify" them, please leave me a comment. I really want to know.

Memoria Press really pushes this new book, The Latin-Centered Curriculum. I bought it and read it and it was just more of the Tracy Lee Simmons "ennobling" business. I agree that there is great value in studying the Greek and Latin languages, though our arguments only slightly overlap. But I wanted to quote the author, Andrew Campbell about the value of Classical Education:

"Latin-centered classical education is… dedicated to enlightening the mind, refining the senses, and ennobling the spirit. It aims at a life beyond getting and spending. Its goals are the inculcation of virtue and the fostering of wisdom."

"Latin-centered classical education is… devoted to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful wherever they may be found. It assumes that a thoughtful student will see fit to entertain many ideas without feeling the least compulsion to adopt those that prove unworthy. Constant exposure to the best endows the student with the ability to recognize virtue and vice for what they are."

"Latin-centered classical education is… humanistic in the sense that the development of the mind and the refining of the aesthetic sense are worthy activities for creatures that bear the image of God:"

The full argument can be viewed here.

People are eating this stuff up. You ought to read the reviews by Christian homeschool moms on the Memoria Press site. It grieves me. You can read them here.

The author of this book is a Christian homeschool father, but he doesn't use the Bible to define what is good and true. He does recommend studying the Bible, but this is not his primary emphasis. His primary emphasis in character training is to read the classics of the Greek and Roman cultures and to imitate not only their schooling methods, but their worldview.

What happened to, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." (I Corinthians 11:1)

and

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your hates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

It's not that he doesn't make good points. He does. In fact, I changed writing programs after discovering a better one recommended in his book. You see, we use a lot of Classical resources, but we use them as teaching tools within our distinctively Christian homeschool.

It's not that the Greeks and Romans didn't discover Truth. It's that they didn't acknowledge the Creator of Truth. They discovered Truth in spite of their worldview. Van Til calls this "borrowed capital". When non-Christians adopt Truth into their worldview,it is not a result of their worldview, but rather in spite of their worldview. They are actually borrowing that Truth from the Christian worldview. Thus the term, "borrowed Capital". This is why they are "without excuse" as it says in Romans 1. Because their borrowed capital presupposes that they know their Creator, but they refuse to honor Him and give Him thanks.

I find it baffling that all these Christian homeschoolers are running to seek for wisdom from the Greeks and Romans who are currently burning in hell.

OK, I intended to write about Chapter 2 in the Overman book, but got distracted. Maybe I can find time later today to type up some quotes. They are VERY disturbing. I was reading some yesterday while my husband was in the hardware store and it brought me to tears. It was so disturbing I couldn't even bring myself to tell my husband the story when he came out. I didn't want to ruin his happy day.

Well, before I go, I'll tell you the story.  The Greek culture was so wicked that they killed more babies than they kept. Yesterday's quote told how the Greeks gave the parents 10 days to decide if a baby was worth keeping. Chapter 2 tells the story of a couple in Sparta who had a baby boy with "deep brown eyes and wavy, coal-black hair (bearing) unmistakable resemblance to his parents... Yet he was considerably smaller than normal. The parents exchanged glances of concern. "We'll let the Council decide," the mother said." To make a long story short, the Council decided the child was "unfit for life". "Removing the baby from his parents (who willingly gave him up), the officials took him to a high cliff and tossed him over the edge. His helpless wail was abruptly cut off as his tiny body struck the rocks below."

And Christians are impressed with these folks and with the quality of literature they produce?

At some point, I'm going to discuss each so-called "classic" pointing out the moral bankruptcy in each.

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The following is taken from Christian Overman's Assumptions That Affect Our Lives: How Worldviews Determine Values that Influence Behavior and Shape Culture. 

Take this short history quiz. What time and place in history do the following statements describe? 

• People, especially educated ones, have rejected traditional religion.
• Cults from the East have been accepted.
• Astrology is practiced.
• Patriotism has declined.
• Men practice manners which have previously been considered effeminate.
• The upper class is consumed with the pursuit of pleasure.
• Education stresses knowledge more than character, and produces masses of half-educated people.
• Public athletic games have turned into professional contests.
• Homosexuality is popular.
• Men who want to watch dances by unclad women do not have to go far to find them.
• The dramas of the day are full of seduction and adultery.
• A women's liberation movement has brought women into active roles in a previously male-oriented culture.
• Motherhood is devalued, and the bearing of children is viewed as an inconvenience.
• Abortion is commonly practiced, as well as infanticide.

Choose the best answer from the following:

A. America, during the 1950s
B. Ancient Greece, during the later stages of its decline
C. America, today

If you selected B or C, you are correct.  Either one will do.

Some readers may question the inclusion of infanticide as a distinctive mark of American culture today. But in the year 2000, America's likeness to dying Greece was made complete when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Nebraska State law prohibiting so-called "partial birth abortion." This procedure is nothing less than blatant infanticide, in its cruelest and most painful form. It embraces the pagan assumption that the lives of certain children are better left unlived. Even as far back as 1973, Nobel Prize-winner Dr. James D. Watson urged, "If a child were not declared alive until three days after birth, then all parents could be allowed the choice that only a few are given under the present system. The doctor could allow the child to die if the parents so chose and save a lot of misery and suffering." Dr. Watson's suggestion is one up on the ancient Greeks. In Athens, parents were given ten days to decide whether or not to accept a newborn in the family."

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Victorious asked, "I've greatly enjoyed reading your blog so far. I haven't gone through and read the comments yet, so please forgive me if this has already been answered. I'd never thought about formal education being completed by age 13. I find that very interesting and appealing. How would that work though, when the mandatory age of cumpulsory education is 16 (in most states)? As much as I wish I was truly *free* to homeschool any way God leads us, we still have laws that bind us and I believe it's Biblical to follow those laws. This has been a very tough issue for me lately - reconciling freedom and legalities."

We live in Idaho, a "Green" or "No Contact" state as HSLDA categorizes it.  We have ZERO contact with the state.  We don't have to register or even write an "intent letter".  We are 100% FREE (at this point).

But regardless of what state you are in, can't "gifted" children finish early?  Even in public school?  Joyce Swann homeschooled 3 hours a day, 5 days a week and all her children just naturally finished around age 13.  At which point they began college studies.  You would think THAT would be legal, wouldn't it?  Can they really fault you for finishing early if you can pass all the state tests?  I mean what would they make you do, redo the work that they have already completed?

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After reading some of my recent comments, I wanted to clarify my opinion of the Bluedorns.  For the record, I have nothing bad to say about them, not a single word.  I think they have raised a wonderful family and are doing a great service for the Kingdom. 

I own many of their resources and am a member of their newsletter/mailing list.  I agree with the majority of what they say, but have found it difficult to implement many of their ideas because we differ on how to educate our young children. 

I know they quote various “studies” on math and young children, but I wonder (I don’t know, I just wonder) if it wasn’t the methodology that was flawed.  We have had great success with RightStart Math with our young ones (beginning with first grade as early as age 4).  They have actually thrived on this program.  It has been so fun to watch the lightbulbs turn on in their heads as the concepts come to life. 

It’s not just math either, it is their whole approach to young ones.  I would say that we differ in general on when and how to educate our young ones.  BUT. . . I believe that both our families are operating within our God-given freedom.

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