Saturday, July 22, 2006
I shall attempt here to stumble through an explanation of my method of education. I won't be writing up a formal essay on my philosophy of education, but you'll surely get the gist of it as we go along.
I think that "educating" individuals many hours per day for many days of the year beats the love of thinking and learning out of a lot of people. Not everybody, but a lot of people.
1. To give a child the chance to learn but not wear him out with it, I begin by teaching the very basics of reading, writing, and arithematic. This requires real effort with some children who would rather play than learn the secret code of how to decipher books, but this is good discipline for the mind of that kind of youngster, as well as giving him these first three skills. After this first phase comes:
2.a. The child is free to explore his own interests at his own pace for several years.
2.b. Not that he leads the life of a tree ape, there are several things that I insist the child do in these years because it is good for either his body, his brain, his character or his soul. I just don't load him down with studies. He learns or does things good for:
the soul-- bible reading, scripture memorization, ministry opportunities, good long discussions about God.
the character-- daily and weekly chores that teach perseverance and hard work. It's also good to have pets and younger siblings to responsible for. (And they should never be cast in the light of being a burden to anyone; if you act like any of these things are things to be shoved off on the child he'll only learn to avoid them as soon as he has the power to shove them off on someone else.)
the brain-- music lessons, brain games like chess, juggling.
the body-- exercise routines good for aerobic workout and strength training, which for us have been karate, gymnastics, aerobics videos, light free weights, running or walking... whatever we could come up with at different times. Also, learning hygiene just progresses through the years as a matter course.
One last thing we do during these years is learn to use the computer and type.
I'll cover Phase Three another day and also discuss some things I'm trying to do differently now that I've been at it a few years/children. Gotta go!
I think that "educating" individuals many hours per day for many days of the year beats the love of thinking and learning out of a lot of people. Not everybody, but a lot of people.
1. To give a child the chance to learn but not wear him out with it, I begin by teaching the very basics of reading, writing, and arithematic. This requires real effort with some children who would rather play than learn the secret code of how to decipher books, but this is good discipline for the mind of that kind of youngster, as well as giving him these first three skills. After this first phase comes:
2.a. The child is free to explore his own interests at his own pace for several years.
2.b. Not that he leads the life of a tree ape, there are several things that I insist the child do in these years because it is good for either his body, his brain, his character or his soul. I just don't load him down with studies. He learns or does things good for:
the soul-- bible reading, scripture memorization, ministry opportunities, good long discussions about God.
the character-- daily and weekly chores that teach perseverance and hard work. It's also good to have pets and younger siblings to responsible for. (And they should never be cast in the light of being a burden to anyone; if you act like any of these things are things to be shoved off on the child he'll only learn to avoid them as soon as he has the power to shove them off on someone else.)
the brain-- music lessons, brain games like chess, juggling.
the body-- exercise routines good for aerobic workout and strength training, which for us have been karate, gymnastics, aerobics videos, light free weights, running or walking... whatever we could come up with at different times. Also, learning hygiene just progresses through the years as a matter course.
One last thing we do during these years is learn to use the computer and type.
I'll cover Phase Three another day and also discuss some things I'm trying to do differently now that I've been at it a few years/children. Gotta go!
# posted by JEB @ 7:15 PM 
