Posted in Homeschooling Research
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Over at Heart of the Matter, they're asking: what is appropriate sheltering when it comes to homeschooling? I think of this in two ways: 1. Sheltering from destructive behaviour. My 11-year-old niece was talking around the Christmas table this year about how kids in her class are debating whether or not she is an "emo" or a "goth". And Emo does not mean a cuddly red Muppet character. It means you're emotional. She says she's a Goth, but other people think she's Emo. But they're the ones who cut themselves, and they just want her to join their group. I found myself shaking my head at this. Then my 12-year-old nephew joined in and he knew all about this stuff, too. My daughters know this exists, but they don't need to spend their time worrying about it. Much better to devote their emotional energy to more productive things! The sheltering, I think, also is important in terms of how schools frame the world. Schools are very left-wing institutions by definition. To the school, the solution to life's problems is found in education. If there are bullies, we need more character classes. If kids are getting pregnant, we need to teach about birth control. There's no acknowledgement that maybe education doesn't work; that some people make bad moral choices and what we need to do is impose consequences for those moral choices. I don't want my kids growing up in a society where they are constantly bombarded with these sort of wishy-washy ethics that never deal with the heart of the matter. 2. The second kind of sheltering is more how I envision building a hedge of protection around our family. I want our family to be the primary social organization for the kids. Not their peers. Not their teachers. Us. Their parents and their grandparents and each other. When peers take on too important a role, the family can lose its influence and even good kids can go off the rails for a bit. We need to remember that these are kids, not adults. And we want to create an environment where they can grow, learn the right morals, and concentrate on the good in life, rather than the bad. This doesn't mean we hide the bad from them. They know it exists. But they don't need to be a part of it. Instead, they can learn to rise above it. Right now, my kids are constantly telling their peers how stupid it is to talk about having a boyfriend or a girlfriend at 12. They know it's not appropriate and not important. And they go around spreading that news. I don't think they could be so secure in their beliefs if they were not in a safe family environment. So that's why we shelter, and I think it's working out pretty well! Check out my parenting blog at To Love, Honor and Vacuum! |
Posted in Homeschooling Research
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I was reading a thread on a blog today and couldn't believe the anti-homeschooling bias that some people are venting, but was very encouraged by those knocking the arguments down. Click here and then scroll down the comments to check it out.
What's really weird, though, is that the first person to trash homeschooling supports other pro-family things:
We have a long way to go in educating the general population about homeschooling! But it was encouraging to see how many were actually doing this on this thread. |
Posted in Homeschooling Research
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Here's a question I've been pondering for a while:
Are homeschooled kids more likely to stay in the faith than other kids? Does anyone have the stats for Christian schools, private schools, public schools, and homeschools?
Well, I ran across an interesting tidbit today on Lifesite news, quoting a study that said:
That's awesome. And I pray, and trust, that it's true in my girls' cases, too. |
